Every wonder what things to do on LinkedIn to Build Your Business Network? 2020 was a challenging year. Now as we pass the halfway point in Q1 of 2021 business is getting back to (more) normal, people are planning for growth, acceleration, and what comes next.   Part of that is building their networks. LinkedIn and Networking Expert Ron Sukenick shares with us 14 Things to do on LinkedIn to build your business network into a valuable asset for you and your business.

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Transcript From Things to Do On LinkedIn to Build Your Business Network

Tim Kubiak 0:05
Thanks for listening to bow ties in business. I’m your host Tim Kubiak. As always, you can find us on our socials at bow ties in business on Facebook and Instagram and bow ties and be on Twitter. You can find me at Tim Kubiak just about everywhere, including Twitter, LinkedIn, and of course, Tim kubiak.com.

Today,

we’re gonna have an amazing conversation going into 2021, we’ll have a month or so under our belt when you’re listening to this, we’re gonna talk about networking and building your network and building your business. So with that, I’ve got a very experienced guest, Ron’s mechanic, and we’re thrilled to have him with us today. He’s been identified as one of America’s leading authorities on the topics of LinkedIn, business, networking, and relationship strategies. And we all see this stuff, we all hear about it constantly. We’re gonna really try and bring that home for you. As a full time professional speaker, trainer and coach, Ron’s traveled all over the country helping make a difference in how people, corporations Association, and companies approach the world of LinkedIn, connection building and relationships with others. He’s a best selling author with four books published with his recent book 21 days to success with LinkedIn becoming an Amazon bestseller, no small feat. Ron is one of 25 National Speakers for the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the Yellow Ribbon Program and speaks to service members and their families before, during and after deployments. He’s a Vietnam veteran, Army Reserve retiree, he’s married and has two children. And Ron, thank you for your service.

Ron Sukenick 1:32
Well, it’s a privilege, Tim. And thank you so much for taking the time to be on here today.

Tim Kubiak 1:38
Thank you, you said you’re everywhere. You know, I looked up my back patio, and there you were with with your bow tie. So it’s you are everywhere.

You can’t escape the boat. I

Ron Sukenick 1:48
know that. By the way. great introduction. Thank you for reading what I gave you and I can hardly wait to hear what I’ve got to say, Tim.

Tim Kubiak 1:57
I’m excited to hear it be great. So

anything in the bio,

you know that I you know, anything else in the background? networking event? So you’re the right guy to talk to you about networking? Right?

Ron Sukenick 2:08
Well, I I’ve been around business networking for about 15 years, all the success I’ve ever had, has always been through the help of people. I’ve always felt like, the desire for success hasn’t changed, what changing is how we get there. And the more we know about each other, the more likely it is we can help one another. So, you know, I began the expansion of the biggest business referral network in the world. But again, it’s and if I look familiar to anybody, obviously, if anybody sees me, which I’m sure you’re looking, I did when the dating game on national television in May of 1980. I did most of that one. I was I was bachelor number two, Tim, I want to trip to Waikiki with a beautiful actress.

Tim Kubiak 2:50
That’s not a bad gig, man. I’ve never met anyone else who’s done that

Ron Sukenick 2:55
I know. And you know, my wife of 40 years, she looked at me when I was when I won. And she says, Honey, did you plan on going to Waikiki with that beautiful actress? And, and I’ll be honest with you, Tim, I, it seems like a nice idea at the time, but but I didn’t. And I’m still married to my wonderful bride of 40 years. And, you know, she went on even when you think about it, you know, my wife’s friend was the operations guy for the dating game. So he thought I was fast and funny. She was an aspiring actress. So she got paid by the Screen Actors Guild, but you got to think about it. The reason why she went on the dating game was not to get a date. She just wanted to be seen on national television. Bottom line for more success in business is you got to be visible, you got to be seen. You got to be heard. That was her motivation. And so we never ended up on a trip to Waikiki, but but we both had fun with it. So that was great.

Tim Kubiak 3:57
So I gotta ask, did she get more gigs, commercial work, acting work out of that exposure?

Ron Sukenick 4:02
I you know, I don’t know. I, I looked her up over the years. I was trying to remember, her name was Linda, that’s all I can remember. I don’t know if she’s ever made it. But, but, you know, she got paid. She was on TV. You know, she acted like an actress. You know, she was acting it out. But she, you know, Jim Lange said, Would it be passing number one back to number two, Bachelor number three. And I was matching number two. And she goes, you know, that’s, I think, you know, she she gets into this whole thing. And yeah, I think I’m gonna go with bachelor note number two, you know, you know, so she really played it out. And so I won some prizes. And that that was it. That’s my wife thinks nobody cares. But everybody that hears about it loves it. And they think, Wow, I’ve never met anybody that won the dating game, but yeah, but there’s a lot more in my resume. But, you know, for years, I want it to be somebody Tim I became somebody. Then I got to the point where I said, you know, Let me be a nobody. Let me help other people maybe become somebody. But you know, I’m at the point in my life where I don’t need to be anybody anymore. I just need to help people be somebody. And that’s really what what my goal is, as I move into 2021 Wow, what a year? Well, we got it for about a month now. How’s it feels good. so far?

Tim Kubiak 5:26
so far? So good, right? I mean, you know, a lot of people are coming in strong. So, nope.

Ron Sukenick 5:33
Yeah, as soon as you know, if you got the vaccine shot, but I’ll tell you that pandemic knocked a lot of people off their feet. In business, but but you know what I do, Tim, I, I, you know, I always take a look at the year ending. And I always say to myself, you know, 2020 was almost over. And I say to myself, you know, can I make the leap? But But what I want to do is, what can I do to build and strengthen my relationships? What can I do to build and strengthen my networking? And because I think that’s what business success is all about, isn’t it? Tim, I, you know, that I, yeah, you got to get stronger, to stay healthy and strong and growing, you got to get closer to people. So I put together a bunch of tips, you know, some ideas that I’ll share with your audience.

Tim Kubiak 6:25
So So I’m going to start with actually, you know, and I want you to go through tips. I’m going to ask you a ton of questions on them. But I want to talk about how we connected. So we met on a networking thing. It was my first time on right. And yeah, we just kind of clicked. But part of the beauty of what led us to you being here is the fact that you reached out and you made it personal. And we developed that connection, where I’m like, wow, this is gonna be really good for listeners. But selfishly, it’s also really fun and good for me, too.

Ron Sukenick 6:54
Yeah. Well, you know, I was impressed with your bow tie. Tim, not not, not you, but your bow tie. But But I got impressed with you when I started to learn about you. So. So you’re right, we met on the happy neighborhood project. What a fun little thing. We got got to be in a room with five, six people. We talked for two minutes, somehow we connected. And we followed up. And of course, I want to connect on LinkedIn, which is something that I’m passionate about. But But you’re right, we followed up. And I’m glad I’m thrilled to be with you. And then we talked about the podcast and and here we are.

Tim Kubiak 7:31
So one of the things you did there is you shared tips. And I know that’s one of the main things we’re going to cover today. So you want you want to kind of start down that path and talk about your tips for building your network and network.

Ron Sukenick 7:42

2021. Yeah, we could do that. Of course. Yeah. So I came up with 14 tips. And then I asked people to give me some other ideas, some tips they have. So tip number one, tip number one, invest more time in people, and the more you know about people, the more likely that you can help people and then get highly sociable, you know, with the pandemic, which obviously is still going on. You know, you got to get into virtual impact. So to me, it was a matter of just getting onto social media, you know, upping the ante it, you know, you know, to me, I spend all the time on LinkedIn, because it’s a business mindset, my god 710 million people, I can reach anybody anywhere in the world. 24 seven, as long as what I’m looking for is in their profile. But But you know, whether it’s Twitter, whether it’s Facebook, whether it’s instagram, to me, that the one tip that I came up with in no particular order was become highly social. get more into social media that the exchanging of information. And you think about it, I mean, think about what, what, what Microsoft did about three years ago, when they purchased LinkedIn. They understood it was a large digital, highly read, constantly updated digital platform. So to me, number one was this concept of becoming sociable, highly sociable, by the way, number two, was to become purpose driven. You know, everybody has an overlapping purpose. And I often said that if I want to build and strengthen relationships with people, I have to first build and strengthen relationship with myself. So I think it’s a matter of just digging deeper into who I am self reflection, you know, I’m a big Beatle fan. Tim, I’m sure you are listening audiences familiar with the Beatles? If you’re not, then you should go to another podcast because

Tim Kubiak 9:41
you’re in the wrong place.

Ron Sukenick 9:43
You’re in the wrong place. No, but the Beatles think about what the Beatles did that the Beatles ended up in Rishikesh in 1968. And they were very big at the time. But But why did they go to India? Well, they wanted to hang out with the Maharishi and they did and they learned meditation. And they were there because they wanted to understand the meaning of life, your reason for being, self reflection is such an important thing for us in business to do, we’ve got to self reflect, we got an understand our reason for being. So when I meet people, if I’m at a networking event of some sort, what’s my overlapping purpose? You know, what, what is it that Tim? Is it? What’s his purpose in life? What What’s he all about? What What’s he want to accomplish? And we’ve got an overlapping purpose. And if I can figure that out, we can get closer to helping one another. And, and really, in today’s business world, we’re better together. But at least that’s what I think that’s my take. What’s your take?

Tim Kubiak 10:46
You know, it’s

really interesting. If you look at all the things I’ve done in my career, and I look at all the people I know they’re successful, it is very much that a they know what their purpose is, right? They know what they want to do. They know where they’re driven. And I think that leads to a greater sense of happiness. But the other thing to your first point on being sociable, most of the time, when I have a problem, I don’t go to Google, or the phone book, or whatever error you want to look at. And go How do I fix this? Right? I had a problem yesterday, I called a friend of mine, who’s the CEO of a small company in the space that I was trying to figure out and said, Hey, Neil, how do I do this? This is what I’m thinking, right? If I had a networking problem, I know I could pick up the phone and call you. Absolutely. You know, being social and having a purpose. And knowing where you fit. Me, I do what I do. Because I saw salespeople struggle and business owners struggle, and, you know, get frustrated and leave because they weren’t getting the support they needed. Very

Ron Sukenick 11:42
simple idea. I hear you, thank you. No, no, that I I’m right there with you. And by the way, number three is creating unparalleled visibility. The bottom line for more business in 2021 is becoming more visible, getting look targeted face to face, and with social networks. And, and again, I often say that, you know, Facebook is like a cocktail party, but it’s good. It’s a good platform. And, but I’m always I’m always focused on LinkedIn, I there’s so many networks that are, there’s no shortage of places I can go to network, I can go for free. I can go for I can pay money, I can put you know, whatever. But you’ve got to be seen, you got to be heard. So how do I get seen? I post updates, I, wherever I want to post them, I do blogs, I’m on a podcast, I’m visible, your audience now sees me. What else do we notice? I write articles, I send articles I, I just want to be seen, I want to be heard. And, you know, I’ve got so many stories of people that you know, I want to be a resource for people. Tim, I think that’s another good concept. And visibility is it’s connecting with people being a resource for people giving them information. But wherever you are just up the ante, that’s that’s all I’m suggesting, with people up the ante become visa visible. And of course, that’s the whole concept of while why that lady was on the dating game, she just wanted to be seen on national television.

Tim Kubiak 13:16
So I gotta ask, right, if you’re the wherever you are in your business career, and you’re trying to build that visibility, how do you decide? Where’s the right place for you? Obviously, you and I do a ton on LinkedIn. Right? You know, how do you find your audience? Or how do you find where you should be visible? If you’re just starting out?

Ron Sukenick 13:35
with that? That’s a good question. Well, well, let me give you an idea. LinkedIn started in May of 2003. I got onto LinkedIn in May of 2004. All I did was I became one of the 101st 150,000 people on the platform. Now it is 710 million. No big deal. But why did I go to LinkedIn, I understood it was a business network. And I figured, hey, it’s free. Why not take advantage of a free network that’s business related. Right. Now, by the way, I want to point out to our listening audience, and viewing audience that if you ever served in the military, courtesy of the Department of Defense, you can get a free premium account on LinkedIn for one full year. It’s more like a career account. But you get more intelligence more in mail, or you get access to email. And your commercial limits go up for search. So the good news is you save about 360 bucks a year, just google free premium account for veterans, and they’ll tell you what to do. So that’s a good gig. But, you know, to me, it’s it’s it’s almost like, you know, how do you got to understand your target audience. So, you know, if my target audience happens to be human resource professionals, I might as well hang out, hang out with the Society for human resource professional You know, sure, you know, if I’m marketing to the American Medical Association, I might as well get involved in some group if I can get in. But when I get in, it’s, it’s not about selling. It’s about going after the relationship. You know? So I know that’s a tough question. But for most people, they should be able to identify that there’s a natural flow of business. You know, if I go to my primary care, health physician, Tim, and I’m having a problem with my shoulder, he or she would refer me to an orthopedic doctor, if I’m having a problem with, with my nervous system, carpal tunnel, or whatever, he or she would refer me to a neurologist. Find out, you know, what I tell people find out a natural flow of business for you. You know, if I owned a meeting hole, where people can have weddings, oh, my God, I’m gonna connect with a wedding planner, a caterer, a florist, a limousine service, somebody that owns a formal wear company. And if one of us get the wedding, maybe we all do. So where’s the natural flow of business? Where can I go to connect? But I’ll tell you what I really like and is one of my tips, business referral networks. You know, I began the expansion back in 1988. For the largest what is known today is B and I, for many people that know that I was a partner in that at the beginning, but I was a partner in the expansion into Indiana. In those days, we were known as the network. And we didn’t become DNI until the mid 90s.

Then I got approached. So that’s good, right? So business referral networks are great. Then I got approached in 2009 by two BSI directors that spun off and said, there was another way to do it. So they started up goldstar referral club network, I’ve been helping them grow that which I’m still involved in. And they limit you know, these referral clubs limit people into one business classification in the club. So you know, there’s there’s one sales trainer, there’s one LinkedIn coach, there’s one attorney that specializes in estate planning, one that maybe specializes in intellectual property. And it lends itself to be cooperative sharing, and non competitive so I, so I, I hope that it kind of answers your question. But, you know, you figure out, it’s like on LinkedIn, if you’re going to join groups, you might as well be in groups that are giving you best practice and what you do, right. And then you might as well be in groups that get targeted audience. But remember, you always want to go after the relationship, not the sale. You always want, you want to be a resource for people on these networks. You don’t want to just sell people sell, you know, to me, in between all the conversation Tim you and I can have, there’s always going to be people. People do business with people that they meet, they feel comfortable with. And they like and by the way, I want the viewing audience to know that if they go to my website, which is Ron succinic.com, you can see it over there on the says Raja kenick.com. I’ve got a lot of resources, I got what is known as a relationship, strategies blueprint. I’ve got a way that you can figure out how good you are with relationships. It’s free, it’s free resources. And it might be fun for people to look at and take advantage of and, and if it helps them, that’s great. And if they have any questions, they can always call me. So. So that was a great question. Yeah. How do you you know, people get confused about how they build relationships, Tim, they really do they, it I always tell people that if you can get up to six interactions with people, it’s likely you have a good beginning for a relationship that never ends, increases increased interaction, gives us increased cooperation, repetition, will build our reputation. Isn’t that kind of catchy? I thought that was kind of catchy. That’s

Tim Kubiak 19:05
really catchy. And frankly, I know of some other things out there in the world. That kind of ties back to that, right? If you look at some of the banking studies from years past, if you get them to have one product versus five or six products, they’re never going to leave. So it’s taken the same kind of logic, and that was proven out in a massive industry, and apply it to interactions. And there you have it.

Ron Sukenick 19:27
Yeah. And you know, you’ve been around sales for a long time, and you teach it and you understand it, but it’s just amazing. If I think about all the salespeople I know, I’ll bet you a large percentage of them. I’m not happy with the amount of sales they’re making. And but I can understand why some of them are missing the boat. You know, you connect on LinkedIn as an example and the first thing they’re doing is trying to sell you something Oh, my God. You don’t even know who I am. You don’t know what I’m about to do. have any sense of what my needs might even be? And do you think I’ve got time to jump on the phone call for you to learn about me, go to my website. That’s what I did with you. You know, you gotta win that the biggest investment we make, and I shared it, you got to invest time. You know, if I want to build relationships with my pets, with my wife, with my daughter, and with you, I got to invest time, Tim, that’s what I got to do. So. So yeah, that’s, yeah, that’s, that’s the whole world of selling. I love it. It’s people trying to sell a cell all the time, but they really missed the boat. Well, what’s, what’s your suggestion? When when you meet people, I mean, you’re into the whole thing of relationships.

Tim Kubiak 20:47
So I’ll give you an example. Right? Somebody came to me and said, We need somebody to do this. And it was a sales management function. I said, Okay, great. Let’s have a conversation. You know, and it’s, I’m not like calling a lawyer, right? I’m not gonna bill you by the minute. And literally six hours of conversations later, when I ended up saying, you know, here’s what I think I can do for you, here’s what I can’t do for you that you need. And if you want to talk more great, but I gave him six hours, right? To make sure that I understood what they needed. They understood what I was capable of, and not once and they kept trying to say, Well, what do you cost? I don’t know yet. Right?

Ron Sukenick 21:24
Yeah, I got it. That’s, I love that approach. Yeah, be a resource for people give them helpful tips, ideas, share with them. And, and by the way, I want to get into if I can jump into number five. Sure. lensless relentlessly follow up. And let me give you an example of this. I you know, again, I’ve been around the world of business networking for so long. And you know, people confuse activity for accomplishment. Everybody loves the joy of interaction, don’t they love it? So think about this, you would go, you seem like the kind of guy Tim that would go to a networking event, when when you were going to networking events, right? Maybe you’re not going to as many now, because of the pandemic. You go out and you look like a friendly guy, you got a bow tie, you get to get people’s attention, you’re branded? Well, you meet 10 or 15 people, you shake hands, you pass business cards, be honest with the group. Let’s tell the audience, how many of those 10 or 15 people that you met him, are going to follow up with you and say, Hey, nice meeting you, Tim, at the recent Chamber of Commerce meeting, and send you an email, or a phone call, or postcard, and how many of them are following up with you, Tim? And you’re gonna tell us how many 00

Tim Kubiak 22:38
if I get two and 100 at a major event, it would be amazing.

Ron Sukenick 22:42
Yeah, that’s so think about it, what are they going after they’re going after the sale, somehow they meet you. They make a quick determination. They don’t have a need for what you are about in the very little exchange that you’ve had. And I never do that. You know, when I go into an event, Tim, I am. I’m not trying to get people interested in me. I become the most interested person in the room. And you know, what happens? When you become interested in people? It makes it easier for people to become interested in you or me, right? Absolutely. They finally say to me something like, well, Ron, I feel like I’ve been doing all the talking. And tell me more about you, which is really where you want people because when you meet people, they’re always more interested in themselves. So I figured what a great strategy if they’re interested in themselves, I’m interested in themselves. Not me. I know that. But But I’ll tell you, I have a turnkey system. If people go to YouTube, and you search wants to connect toaster to a str, you’ll see on my website, you’ll see my video about my toaster. And it’s a funny little video. It’s a couple of minutes, maybe. But it’s predictable. So I have a system for when I follow I follow up with everybody. I don’t underestimate anybody. Because you know when somebody meets me, I mean think about it, Tim I can make almost anything happen anywhere in the world. Right now. Today, this week. Now, they don’t know that but they may meet me and I’m a speaker, I’m a trainer and you know, but but I understand people I understand contacts I’m a disk certified guy and you know, some people move at a faster pace than others some move into of task oriented people oriented and, you know, I so I adapt to people, but I love following up. I follow up with everybody. I don’t know where it’s gonna go. But it’s fine. It’s fine. It works well. So that following up I in fact, you know that, you know, the concept of and most of these salespeople they never do that they, they they come and they want to sell you something and they give up after the first or second or third exchange. But But I’ll tell you, I was listening to an interview with a Chris Kardashian the mother of the Kardashians. Are you familiar with her? Chris? I am. Okay. Are you frozen? Okay, did you? Okay, yeah, you were frozen a little bit? Yeah. Sounds like a movie by Disney. They were having an interview with Chris Kardashian. And the interviewer said to Chris, what’s the one thing you’ve taught your children that you always want them to remember? That was listening. And she looked at him and she says, if you’re ever talking to anybody, and they say, No, you’re probably talking to the wrong person. I loved it. I thought that was great.

Tim Kubiak 26:04
That is great. And,

Ron Sukenick 26:07
you know, and and, you know, I always used to tell the sales people, and it’s not a tip. But when I used to do sales training, I always used to say, Did you ever get to a point where somebody will you got the impression that they’re not going to buy? You know, how salespeople are in their head, they, they automatically think they’re not gonna buy? Why say do you know, that’s the very moment you stop selling? And the you know, witness selling really begins. And they don’t know, when does it begin? Well, it begins when the prospect said no. You know, up until that time, it’s a presentation, it’s developing rapport. It’s more about them, and the longer you can wait to talk about why you’re there, the easier it becomes for you to make a sale. But again, we’re not talking about selling. be in a hurry. Listen, for 2021 here’s my big tip, be in a hurry. The biggest driving force in the country is speed. Everybody wants what they want him. They want it now. So I’m telling everybody to be fast. Look, we saw that with FedEx, people couldn’t wait to 12 noon, no pay extra money to get it by 10 in the morning. Okay, we know that speed gift. So and I’m talking about building relationships, and building rapport, and networking with people go on a witch hunt for 2021 call people say, hey, Tim, we’ve been together for five years connecting. And you always tell me I do a good job, Tim, but but I want to know what I can do to help you in 2021. And one thing that I understood, at least in the short term, we know each other was that inviting interesting people that might be guest on your show would be a good idea. So you’ve given me my marching orders that I’m sending you people that are really more interesting than me.

Tim Kubiak 28:09
I don’t know about that. But you have sent me some good people I know

Ron Sukenick 28:13
embrace it. By the way, another tip, embrace the power of LinkedIn. You know, what do I know about LinkedIn? Just its largest professional database in the world. I can gain access to people. But But I want the audience to understand that you should understand why you’re on LinkedIn. Most people underestimate it and under utilize it. You know, it’s like collecting business cards and shaking hands and never following up. You know, why am I on LinkedIn, you got to have a connection strategy. A lot of people don’t they that they accept or ignore? Or they don’t know, they can talk to people before they accept or ignore. They don’t have any social selling strategies. They don’t know how to go from high tech to high touch, which means you and I, what did we do? We went from LinkedIn to a zoom call, or maybe go LinkedIn to a Starbucks or LinkedIn to a phone call. LinkedIn is just an unbeliever. You know, I had a guy a couple of months ago said to me, Ron, I understand you’re the guy to speak to about LinkedIn. I said, Well, Who told you that? And he told me, he told me I said, Well, I could be how can I help you? He says, I’ve been on LinkedIn for five years. I get nothing out of it. I said, Really? Wow. Can I take a look at your profile? said, Yeah, I looked at his profile. It looked like shit. Choose the expression. I shouldn’t even say that. You can probably edit that out.

Tim Kubiak 29:44
No, I’m not man. I’m real. It’s saying it.

Ron Sukenick 29:47
Like I said to him. This guy’s name was john. I say, john. You got to give people a reason to connect with you. Number one, you got a picture that’s fuzzy. So I can’t really see you very well. It’s Kind of Doc, you don’t have an About section. So I don’t even know what you’re about, then you have an experience section where you, you just reflect companies you work for, but you don’t reflect any experience. And then when I’m trying to see if you’re socially proved out, you have no endorsements and no recommendation. So you’re not giving anybody any reason to want to connect. But here’s the answer, john, you got to do something. Like all good things in life, you got to do things you don’t have to be do have theory. And you may be familiar with it. If everybody would write this down for a minute be do have, you can have anything you want in life, as long as you do things that successful people do to have what they want. But the struggle, Tim, as I’m sure you may know, is that you got to be before you can do you do to the extent of who you are, and who you are, is based predominantly on how you think. So when I coach people, you know, I’m trying to get him into a method of thinking, I challenge thinking because people, Tim, I mean, how many people do you meet him, that have self limiting beliefs, and self limiting assumptions about life? I mean, don’t you find them all over the place? Far more often than not, I it’s amazing. And but it’s okay. That’s how they think, you know, so I’m not trying to teach an old dog new tricks. But I, I think alongside people, and I challenge them. But you got to be, you know, he Cummings, you may be familiar with is an American poet. He said, you can teach almost anybody to think, believe or know. But it’s very difficult to teach them how to be you know, but I can’t be frustrated, I can’t be angry, I can’t be sloppy, I can’t be tired. I can’t be lazy. You know, so if I want anything I want in my life, I got to help enough other people get what they want. But I got to do what successful people do. And when I was in sales, which I’m in sales, still probably I and I joined the company, I would always go to the leaderboard. And I’d always look at the top of the leaderboard, I’d say who’s the most successful person in this company, and I develop a habit of doing what they did, then I take a look at who’s at the bottom of the list. And I develop the habit of not doing what they did. And that’s how I learned sales. You know, it’s a, it’s a. So look, you got to know why you got to get optimized, you got to take advantage of it. And by the way, for anybody on your listening audience, if Can I throw out something that might help us if they’re interested, if they’re interested in, I got a lot of resources that runs to clinic.com. But if they go, and they want to take advantage of individual coaching, they’ll say my price. If they mentioned bow ties in business, they can cut that price in half. And by the way, it’s 359. For two, life changing phone calls with me for 90 minutes each. If they mentioned bow ties, and in fact, if they’re if they even wear a bow tie, cut the price in half. And I’ll make a difference for them with LinkedIn. So keep that in mind. By the way. Another tip, I want to tell people to join ghost, a referral group. There’s so many of them. You know whether it’s gold star referral clubs, be at ariella tip. If you’re in Ohio am spirit, there’s so many of them all over the country. And you can go anywhere from paying nothing to paying money. But referral clubs give you access to people. And I always look at referral clubs as three systems in one, Tim. It’s a relationship building system, because you’re meeting with people. And it’s all about the frequency of interaction, I’ve already shared that get up to six interactions with anybody. And it’s likely you have a good beginning for the relationship that will never end. And we got to get there. We’re not there yet. But we’re getting there.

But I also know it’s it’s a business giving system because they meet weekly to build business and build relationships. And then referral networks are all about lead generation. There’s always interesting people that show up like on the happy network where I met you. And then it’s a lead generator for us to follow up with people and see what we can do to help people. So and that’s another thing and by the way, I have something which I wanted to mention on the when I talked about the frequency of interaction, I call it the magic of six. If they go to my website is a free resource. I’ve got an outline on what I call the magic of six. It works every time So please, everybody Listening and viewing this. Take advantage of it, download it, send it to people tell people about me. I love that. Am I making any sense yet, Tim,

Tim Kubiak 35:11
making a lot of sense. And for those of you listening, if you’re driving and can’t write it down, when you pause the show or stop the car, I’ve got the hyperlink to Ron site, right there in the show notes. So you can just click it, get there and find all the good stuff he’s talking about.

Ron Sukenick 35:25
Well, thank you. I appreciate that, Tim. You know, I throw out a lot of things. I talk about connecting the dots making the most fun, what I call the small world phenomenon. And let me tell you what I mean by that. It’s kind of an interesting concept. When was the last time Tim, you heard somebody say, it’s such a small world, isn’t it?

Tim Kubiak 35:50
I hear it at least twice a week, and probably far more often than that.

Ron Sukenick 35:54
Okay. So I got it. So now was set up nicely. I mean, most people hear it. Now, if you meet somebody, and you hear it, and they say, it’s such a small world, isn’t it? What do you say, Tim?

Tim Kubiak 36:08
It is, and then I actually start to explore what that connection is.

Ron Sukenick 36:12
Yeah. Okay, I got it. So you say it is? I’m telling your audience, that it really isn’t, unless you have the ability to recall information at the point of interaction. Now, let me let me give you an example of what I mean by that. I went to the Indianapolis I live in Indianapolis, Indiana, I grew up in New York, lived in LA, I lived in South Vietnam as a Vietnam vet. But I’ve traveled a little bit. But I went to the fairgrounds and they had the home and patio show and I meet this girl by the name of Brynn. Chapman probably means nothing to you. We think she was the current Miss Indiana. So whenever I meet people, I always have I try to listen three times as much as I speak. So I was with her for four minutes, four minutes, which means I’m listening for three minutes. And I’m only talking for one minute gives me a competitive advantage. Right when you win, because when I speak, I learn what I know when I listen, I know what they know. But so I’m listening. And so I basically say goodbye, good luck. She was trying out for the Gators. She was number 10 by the way in the Miss America contest. But nobody remembers number 10. Let alone who was number one last year, you know, that’s kind of hard to remember to. Six weeks later, I meet a guy by the name of Dan Chapman. Dan Chapman, who did I meet six weeks before I met his daughter, Brent Chapman. So I’m always the Colombo of networking. I love to be that. So he stands up, I say to everybody, tell me who you are, what you do. And what are you most proud of? He says My name is Dan Chapman. I’m the Marketing Director for you build it. And I’m most proud of my little girl who’s the current Miss Indiana. That’s what he said. So I could have said two things. Tim, I could have said again, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Tim. Go ahead and introduce yourself. Right, and you would have been next. But I don’t do that. I said, then I think I met your little girl. I didn’t say I did. I said I think I did. So what do you think he is doing? Now he’s thinking, and the first thing he wants to know is where did I meet your little girl? And I start to validate it. And then he says to me, so I validated. You know, she’s an IU student, if I now I’m proving it out. Then he looks at me and he says, Wow, it’s such a small world, isn’t it? I said no, Dan, it’s not. And you know what he does? He goes, What? What? What do you mean? It’s not a small world. Now everybody that’s viewing this, I want you to know, I got him thinking twice. The question is, when you’re meeting people, are you getting them to think the impact is so heavy, you get closer to people that much quicker. If we knew, you know, Tim, if you and I grew up in the same city, knowing some of the same people, and we just happened to meet and we knew some of the same people that we had a lot of respect for you and I get much closer, much quicker. So for me, I love the power is clearly in the connection. Always connecting dots. It’s always making a difference for people I hope that gives people an understanding. Another tip By the way, for 2021 and I are you familiar with this as a as a as a personality as a model of human behavior? disk?

Tim Kubiak 39:54
This

Ron Sukenick 39:55
is a

Tim Kubiak 39:56
no I’m not actually

Ron Sukenick 39:58
yeah, disc is a model of human behavior. And by the way, it was a, it was created by a guy by William Moulton, who invented the lie detector. And he created a wonder woman. But he came up with a model of human behavior. And what he’s basically said, was that there are some people that move at a faster pace than others, some at a slower pace than others. And then there are some people that are task oriented. Some people are people oriented. You know, and so, I have become a disc certified instructor to teach people how to adapt to people. No, I’m not trying to get people to adapt to me. No, it’s like my wife, my wife worked for a large corporation. And she had a boss that was very task oriented, fast paced. He wasn’t people oriented, he would never come up to you as the boss, and say, Hey, Yvonne, how would you weekend? By the way, happy holidays. How was your how’s your family? By the way? I know you were sick last week. Are you feeling much better? Thanks for coming back. No, he was never that way. He all he wanted to know was that you get the work done. Did you know so So, but people like to be warm and fuzzy. So if I can find somebody that moves at a slow pace, I’m going to move at a slow pace. You know, if I meet somebody that is task oriented, or, or they’re, you know, I, I’m going to, uh, you know, I’m not going to ask them to make a decision based on lack of information. You know, there are some people that are into quality information, and you got to get them that info. But develop personality insights, by the way, look all over the internet, learn about people, I think that’s going to help you, I made a comment, by the way, number 12, that we’re almost at the end is becoming the most interested person in the room. I love that. It’s like being a magnet, Tim, when you are the most interested person in the room, people because they get a talk. In fact, I had a guy come up to me one time and and all he wanted to do was talk to me about him and what he was about. And he was in multi level marketing, and he was pitching me and pitching me and pitching. And I was just listening, just listening, which is a good thing. And, and you know what he said to me after about five minutes, so I didn’t say anything. He knew nothing about me. I’m just listening. I know everything about him. And then he says, Wow, it’s what a treat to meet you. And he walks away. But he knows nothing. So So I want the audience to know that who had the competitive advantage, Tim, in that relationship? And you’ll probably agree it was me. It was clearly me. But But again, that’s what some people are at, they cream the top of an event, they go to an event, trying to cream it to figure out where can I get business? They don’t go there with the concept of how can I be a resource? How can I help people. And I find that by being the most interested person in the world. I just so much you get out of it by the by number 13. If I can move into that. don’t manage people manage the system. Now if I brought up I want you to picture a toaster, a toaster. You know what, you know what toasters are? You’ve probably used one. And you probably know you can take bread, you can put it in the top, you can push the lever down. You can go to the refrigerator, Tim and you can get juice, right. And when you come back up with pop up, and when it pops up, what do we have?

Tim Kubiak 43:55
You have toast.

Ron Sukenick 43:57
I have told very good. It’s a trick question to the podcast moderator here. She was that was smart. And I can tell. So now here’s my second question. Who’s making the toast?

Tim Kubiak 44:12
the toaster,

Ron Sukenick 44:14
man, Your Honor. No, you’re right. But but you know what a lot of people think they think they’re making the toast. I tell them, they’re not making the toast. It’s the toaster. And I said Do you know why the toaster is making the toast? And they change they think for a little bit? And I say look, you don’t have to think that hard. It’s a toaster. That’s what toasters do. And how many of you would agree that a toaster is predictable, and reliable? You can go to Walmart. Buy a toaster for $6 and it’s gonna be predictable and reliable.

Tim Kubiak 44:51
I did not know you snuck into my kitchen this morning because that’s my $6 toaster.

Ron Sukenick 44:55
Yeah, and guess what? I can toast for two pieces of bread. I can toast for four pieces of bread, I can put a hot dog on the side, if they got one of those. I got gravity flow toasters, I mean, I can really up the ante with my toaster. What I’m suggesting to everybody is my God, people are unmanageable. I have never been able to get people to do Tim, what I want them to do. And if I could, it would be through their own willingness to get it done. Yeah, I was always the boss, I walk in the room, they go to work, I leave the room, they do whatever they do. I’m just not a good manager. So I never was good at managing people, but I manage a system. So I’m telling everybody listening, get a system in place, get a selling system, things that Tim talks about, that tells you how to sell and get, you know, every organization has a system in place, get a system in place for how you get to leverage LinkedIn. And and do it. If you don’t have one, call me. I’ll help you. Member if you’re wearing a bow tie, or if you tell me you listen to this on both ties in business. You can cut my price in half. I know my wife says, honey, stop doing that. But it’s okay. It’s not about the money. It’s about helping people. And and by the way, number 14. Listen three times as much. People always say you got to listen twice as much as you speak. Think about that for a second. I got two ears, one mouth. Duh. That’s old hat. When you listen three times as much, Tim we can find joint rhythm and harmony. There’s so much more that I get. When I really focus on people. You know, I, I heard a quote one time, which I I don’t know who said this, but but I’m gonna take credit for it one day. If you’re not a great listener, you’re eventually surrounded by people that have nothing to say. I found that when I be so so what I’m what am I saying to the audience? Tim? Be a great listener. get better at it. Look, you can read books. You can talk to a listening coach, if you can find one. Any coach. You can talk to Tim about listening. Tim, tell me listening. How important is that in the in the sales channel?

Tim Kubiak 47:20
You know, if you’re not listening, and you’re not asking questions, you don’t really understand the need into points you’ve made throughout this. You’re simply telling them what they want to hear. And one of the things that we start with with our coaching clients, and it’s the hardest with the executives is having that where you stop mandating. You ask questions, you validate you revalidate,

Ron Sukenick 47:46
your challenge, you’re affirming the value of the relationship? Yeah, that’s that’s what you’re, you’re actually doing. You don’t have somebody not long, long ago, a couple of years ago, he said to me, says, Ron, you know, you’re asking a lot of questions. I’m not used to that. I get people that come in, and they want to sell me. And they know very little, but you seem to be asking a lot of questions. And I’m just curious, are you is that a tool that you use to better understand my needs? Even he sent me a perfect? And I said yes. You know, when I was with Metropolitan Life, and I was in the insurance business a little bit, and retired from MetLife. After only five years, we used to do risk assessments. And you know, you don’t know if you can help people until you, you ask questions. And not everybody’s open to answering questions. But people that have good questions, Tim, have great connection. people that ask good questions, have great connections. So I think when all is said and done, Tim, what am I saying to everybody? Look, challenge how you’re thinking, your assumptions, your beliefs, whatever you’ve done in 2020, I’m telling you now, it’s not going to be enough to build your network and to build your relationships in 2021. I want everybody to start jumping on the phone and start communicating with your audience, your target market and be a resource. Find out from them what you can do to make a difference for them to 2021 say to them say look, Tim, john, Debbie. We’ve been working together for years. I know it was a tough year for many. I want to I want to be more useful, more resourceful. What can I do to make a bigger difference for you in 2021? That’ll develop a torque factor, Tim. So that’s, that’s it. That’s what I’m saying. I don’t know if that’s I hope that’s a nice value for the audience.

Tim Kubiak 49:48
It’s huge value. It’s a fantastic conversation. And I’m going to pull you back actually, to one of the first things I ever heard you say. And that is your network isn’t just a network. It’s active and vibrant. Can you expand on that a little bit?

Ron Sukenick 50:02
Well, to me, building my network. And certainly LinkedIn is a big part of that, because it gives me access to people. It’s all about engagement and communication and relationships. So I communicate, you know, have I communicated to 11,000 people that I’m connected to on LinkedIn? The answer is yes. Am I in touch with everybody on LinkedIn? Every day, every week, every month? Yes, through updates. You know, when I do a post, do 11,000 people see it? No. Do I get a couple of 100 people that see it? Yes. But it’s To me, it’s about engagement. You know, if somebody’s getting back to connection strategy, I had a guy the other day, send me an email to connect on an invite on LinkedIn, his name is Larry. And he says to me, HP n worldwide event. That’s what it said, That was his message to me. Now, HP n was the happiness project, network. program, HMP network program, okay, whatever. So I say to myself, I always ask myself a question, Well, why do people want to connect with me? So I go to his profile to look at his profile. It looks like shit. I’m sorry, and said it again.

Tim Kubiak 51:28
It’s okay. I guess like I say, like, I

Ron Sukenick 51:30
know. So I send them back an email and I say, hey, Larry, thanks for, you know, I can talk to people. You know, I like connection connecting. So I don’t accept, I don’t reject, but I send them a message. I know how to send messages before I do all that. But I sent them a message, I say, hey, Larry, I can show it to you. If I share my screen, I can show you the whole conversation. But I said, Larry, thank you so much for the invite to get better connected on LinkedIn. I was curious, is there any particular reason why you would like to connect? Was there something in my profile that you found interesting, I looked at your profile, and I couldn’t find anything about you. I know nothing about you, it would normally be in a breakout room. So I didn’t get to hear you speak. He sends me back a message says I’m just networking. Apparently you’re not. You can just delete it. So I send them back a message. I say, Larry, it’s I like networking. But I think you’re just confused on how LinkedIn works. LinkedIn is about engagement, communication, and relationships. You got to give me a reason, Larry to want to connect with you. He sends me back a message. Tim says, Well, I’m not going to post my tax return. To show you how successful I am. So I say to him, I said, that’s a good idea. Don’t do it. Now, did I connect with him? No. Why? Because I don’t connect with everyone. And I’m talking to the listening audience right now. Don’t connect with everyone. Ask the question. Why did this person want to connect with me? And look at their profile? And if you’re still not sure, if you want to connect with them, for whatever reason, send them a message. Ask them and if they don’t communicate back to you, Larry, and Larry, I mean, Tim, if they don’t communicate back to you in a couple of weeks, ignore them. I want people that I’m connecting to. Yep. So I hope that kind of answers that question. I, again, I like I started at the beginning, if I think about all the success I’ve ever had, it’s always been through the help of people. I get approached by a lot of people to do a lot of things. I started to get smart. I you know, for years, I used to confuse activity for accomplishment. And I try to stay very focused right now and, and what a treat to be with you both times in business and, and again, you got my attention, what a treat to meet you. I appreciate the opportunity to be on your program. And I encourage anybody to share some insights and give me some feedback. Go to my website. If I can help you, I’ll help you. And wow, Tim, I think we’ve I think we’ve made it man to last. I we’re recording this at the end of 2020. And people get to hear that’s about a month into it like you said, Yeah, and but you know, some people they don’t do here and planning. They think that what they’re going to do in 2021 is exactly what they’re going to do in 2020 And I will tell you this, if you’re not happy with the amount of business and amount of sales you’re making, let’s make some change, laid new tracks, challenge your thinking. Take advantage of some of the tips.

Tim Kubiak 55:16
And so

that that’s a great clothes. The one thing I’m gonna say is, what did I ask you that I should have?

Ron Sukenick 55:24
What? Oh, you know, that’s a good question. I, I don’t know what you should have. I guess. You know, when did I realize that I became somebody? Maybe?

That’s a great one.

I made that comment. That I want it to be somebody in my life. Yeah. And but but think about it. What and it doesn’t take much to be a somebody. You know, I’ve had two children. I’ve got four books published. I want to 25 National Speakers for the, you know, what it takes to become a speaker for the Secretary of Defense in our country?

Tim Kubiak 56:03
I don’t and I can’t

Ron Sukenick 56:04
imagine, yeah, you better have a strong power base. Now, being a Vietnam veteran and being Army Reserve retiree. You know, I came from knowing, which is the absence of doubt, but I’ve had a lot of successful things happen in my life, you know, just the thing of having books published and radio talk show host and, and, you know, so I became somebody, but I got to the point where I said, you know, when when am I going to stop trying to be somebody anymore? And and let me just become a nobody. I want to be a nobody. And so I think it this out over the last couple of years only. I you know, and, and by the way, I don’t look that old, but I’m, I’m on Medicare, you know, was just fine. The good news for me as an army retiree is whatever Medicare doesn’t cover, cover TRICARE for life does. You put yourself in you spend 20 years in the military, serve your country, put yourself in harm’s way. And, and they take care of you later down the road. But I said, you know, maybe I can help people become somebody, because a lot of people want to be somebody. But but you got to accept sometimes where you are. And I think a lot of people are unhappy with what’s going on in their life. And I got to be happy. In fact that I don’t know if I ever told you this story that I ever tell you that you know, the phrase, don’t worry, be happy. I do. Did I ever tell you the story and how that originated?

Tim Kubiak 57:41
You have but the audience hasn’t heard it. So please tell it

Ron Sukenick 57:43
Oh, you, your show. Today I’m telling you that Bowtes really pumps you up with knowledge. You know, you had to get one of those where you squeeze it and it lights up. I’m sure you got one of those too. But yeah, let me tell the listening audience side. Don’t worry, be happy. Many of you have heard the phrase right. And many of you have heard it from Bobby McFerrin he kind of sang the song, don’t worry, be happy, right? But I was in a health food store in Berkeley, California. 1969 1970, somewhere in there. And I look up and I see a picture of a guy whose name is Mei Ababa, me h er, ba ba. And under his name, it said, Don’t worry, be happy. He was a girl. He was a man of wisdom. So I said, Wow, i i’d love it. What a great phrase. So I looked him up. Anybody go to Google, look him up, you can find them. And he had millions of people that followed him. And he had a he was great man of great wisdom. And one day, he told millions of people had something to say. So he calls them all together. A million people show up. He was popular here in the West. But he was in India when he did this. And he told everybody, he says my whole life. I’ve told you everything you need to know. So being that everything I’ve said is what you need to know. And you put it in practice. I’m going to stop talking. So he stopped talking to him. You got to imagine this, it blew everybody’s mind. They would listen to him and would love everything he said. And now he’s gonna stop talking. And he carry around a an alphabet bullet and would point to letters and his disciples would deliver a message. Then 20 years later, if they’re not talking, I mean, it takes a lot of guts to not talk. I get paid to talk. And I don’t have millions of people following me, Tim. But what was so interesting is he said to his disciples, tell everybody I got something to say a million people show up He walks out on the stage, he looks at everybody, and everybody’s going, Wow, what is he gonna say? And he looks at them and he says, Don’t worry, be happy. And he walks off the stage. That’s what he did. Don’t That’s what he said. Because he got to the point where everything that could have been said has been said, I got to the point where I became somebody. Now, what I’d love to do is help people that want to be somebody becomes somebody. Because I’m a nobody. Even though I know people think I’m a somebody, and that’s okay, they can think that. But I’m trying to leverage a path that I can take, that I can die with, and be happy. You know, whenever that day comes, so, so thanks for allowing me to share that story. I, you know, maybe we’ll come back maybe one time, if your audience is interested, we’ll, we’ll just talk about LinkedIn. And I’ll show the audience a whole lot of things and but I’m gonna keep sending you people that are best selling authors that are gonna really be thrilled about bow ties in business. You gotta like Joe peachy, by the way he is he’s he’s a powerhouse. Yeah, I’ve

Tim Kubiak 1:01:25
got him scheduled. We’re gonna record on Monday. And for those of you listening, you’ll hear Joe two weeks after Ron’s episode. So two weeks,

Ron Sukenick 1:01:33
I’m gonna send you some great people. And by the way, I worked with Michael Gerber, for about three years, wrote the E myth. I think I shared that with you. Yeah. And I’m gonna reach out to Michael, you know, Michael is your $50,000 speaker. You know, I’m not he is sold millions and millions and millions of books. But I’ve worked with Michael learned a lot from Michael, I’d be interested if he and he’s been on major podcasts. If you look him up, you’ll learn a lot about him. But, but I’m going to reach out to some great people that I think even Scott mccain is a major, he’s a $20,000. Speaker. But he talks about saying yes to success. He talks about distinction with companies, I mean, he’s probably the leading authority on that message, one of the most sought after speakers. So I’m going to just send out an email to a bunch of people tell them to call you directly, Tim, it’s one way I can serve you. And the one way you can serve me is just send money to me just send bags, I called my bank the money. Yeah, I called my bank, I asked if there was any room in my account. If I get more money, they said they had more room for me. So Edward Jones has more money they can take and so can Vanguard. But it’s been a treat to be with you. You’re a great listener. And thank you for interacting a little bit. And I’m gonna let you close it out with your branded because you got a brand that closing I’m sure I don’t Yeah,

Tim Kubiak 1:03:09
I do.

I do. So with that, everyone, thanks to Ron for being here. Again, his websites and show notes, he’s offered a lot of good free stuff here including discounts for wearing a bow tie, or saying bow ties on some of his services. Our theme for 2021 is planning follow up and follow through which he didn’t know going in and do this. So if you’re one of my coaching clients, this will resonate and it wasn’t a setup. And if you’re not in want to be come visit me at Tim Kubiak calm and learn what I’m doing to help people be more successful. Thanks for listening.

Ron Sukenick 1:03:42
Thanks so much Tim. Be good happy