Cosmos

Welcome back to the show, my fellow extraordinary Americans. Today’s guest is George Dubeck. George is widely regarded as one of the top business and social networking experts in America. He began his career as an engineer and rose to the executive staff at the Packard Electric division of General Motors in Ohio. He moved to Florida in 1985 and became an entrepreneur, launching several business ventures. In 1995, he became VP of Sales at Interax, a company that produced a TV set-top box that delivered Internet to the television. 

In 1997, he became VP of Sales and Marketing at Webstream Internet Solutions, one of the top web design and hosting firms in the Southeast. He hosted and produced the Internet Business Hour radio show broadcast in over 35 markets for 12 years. George became an independent consultant and entrepreneur in 2010 and has worked with top companies and organizations to connect people, places, and projects. 

He has been an outstanding judge for the Web Awards since 2006, reviewing the world’s top websites. Because of his years of experience and extensive network, he is considered a top connector in the business world, giving him access to the best resources on the latest cutting-edge technologies and up-to-date programs, systems, and software. A nationally recognized speaker on ultimate networking, he presents to groups of organizations and companies, as well as at trade shows. 

He’s now developing reality shows focused on business and social networking, and he also serves on the advisory board of America’s Real Deal Business Investment. He’s an extraordinary American, and I’m glad and honored to have him on the show. George, thank you so much for taking the time to be here.

George Dubeck:

Wow, you wore me out with all that stuff. Maybe. Sounds pretty good.

Cosmos

Yeah, for sure.

But George, can you tell me a little bit more about yourself, your background, your story, and how you got started?

George Dubeck: 

Well, yeah, I did start as an engineer at General Motors. Worked there, got up into the executive ranks. I worked there for 18 years in Warren, Ohio, a small town. We had 12,000 people in our plant. We manufactured all electromotive components, wiring harnesses, and electronics for General Motors trucks, buses, and other vehicles. 

It was the golden years, I call them, of the general car business, I guess, in America. And then, of course, foreign cars began entering our country in large numbers. And then they started outsourcing. Many of the plants and building materials were sourced from other countries. The automotive industry is now global. They make parts everywhere. Canada, Mexico, and China. You know, they have. Have assembly plants everywhere. Foreign countries have assembly plants in America, and we have assembly plants abroad. 

It’s kind of wild. I left that world and came down. I moved from Ohio to South Florida. I want it to be warm. I grew tired of the cold weather and decided to start a company called Webstream. We shifted Web Stream from hosting and website building to search engine optimization. Now we do it strictly. We changed the name from Web Stream to Cirrus Streaming. We’re the second-largest podcasting and radio streaming company in the United States. 

Right now. It’s called Cirrus Streaming. I retired from the company about 10 years ago and became a full-time entrepreneur and consultant. My wife and partner still run the company. So, that’s kind of up to speed. In between, I’ve done many other things, so I don’t want to spend much time on it. 

I’ve been in movies. I have my own radio show. I’ve been on TV. I had my own single service. I had a dating service for about six years in South Florida. I was a stained glass artist. I’m a professional flamenco dancer. I don’t know, I’ve been around. I’ll be 79 next month. Along the way, I have three kids, four grandkids, and two great-grandkids. So there’s my life in a thumbnail sketch.

Cosmos

Wow, George. I mean, you’ve been through a lot over all these years, and you’ve had so many experiences and everything. 

My question is: what motivates you? Like, what is your why? And which leads you to pursue all these different businesses and entrepreneurial endeavors?

George Dubeck: 

Well, initially it was just pretty much, you know, to make a living, make money, get exposure, become somewhat famous or whatever, become known. But at this point in my life, with family and all, I feel deeply concerned about where America is headed. It’s not like it was when I was growing up. We’re facing many problems. 

What I thought about is, you know, maybe I can do something to help make our country better. So I actually started, and I won’t go into details right now, but I started the Founders League, which is going to be a group of people, a brain trust of the best people in our country. To resolve all the issues we’re facing. We’ll start with the key performance indicators. What are all the problems we’re facing in this country? Not the ones shown on the news. I’m talking about real problems. 

Most people don’t realize that there are 400,000 kids in the foster care system in this country. 400,000. And they’re all being abused, and they’re not being tended to properly. And they’re going out into society, turning into drugs, alcohol. They don’t have any mentorship. They don’t have any formal education or training. They’re thrown from family to family. It’s terrible. There are also almost 400,000 veterans suffering in this country that nobody talks about on the news. Have you heard anyone discuss the plight of veterans in this country? 

No, nobody talks about that. These are the issues we need to resolve, and then the family’s breakdown. You and I spoke briefly before the show. Historically, for a country to sustain its population, you needed between 2.1 and 2.3 children per woman; we’re now down to 1.6 or less per woman in this country. Our families are shrinking, and the trend is headed in the wrong direction. 

So everybody in this country is focused on entertainment and money. That’s all anybody cares about. They’re paying baseball players $20 million a year and janitors at the school. I don’t know, barely able to make a living. 

So it doesn’t make sense. The people who are serving us, who are helping us, are at the low end of the totem pole. And the people that don’t really benefit us, except for entertaining us, are making all the money. And it’s just, it’s. It’s just not right. We need to straighten things out and readjust here. So I created what’s called the Founders League. The ultimate goal is to form a brain trust that will run for president in 2028 as a group. How about that one?

Cosmos

That would be pretty exciting.

George Dubeck: 

Yeah. Not as a person. One person cannot function properly. If you leave everything to one person, it will fail. 

So what we need to do is assemble a brain trust of the best people we can, train them to be competent, ethical, and moral, and make them our leaders. That’s what we need: strong leaders.

Cosmos

George, I have a question for you on a national level. So if there’s somebody in the audience that’s like a millennial or a Gen Z watching this, right? 

They are concerned about the nation, but they also understand they must start their own businesses and become financially independent before they can make a significant impact. They want advice on this matter. How would you advise them on addressing the nation’s issues, especially those related to wealth and income inequality?

George Dubeck: 

We talked briefly before the show. One important step for young people is to start building a support network, ideally during college. I spoke with my grandson, who’s in college. He’s getting his doctorate at Penn State. 

And I tell him that everybody that you meet in life, in college, your professors, anybody you’re involved with, get their name, number, and create a database of reliable people, good quality people, and start building your database, then get to know these people and befriend these people. 

And then down the road, when you want to start a business, or you have an idea or invention, use those people to be your mentors, coaches, trainers, possibly whatever, and bounce all your ideas off other people. Before you just go off on a tangent, it’s important to build that support group.

Cosmos

No, for sure. I believe today’s generation requires not just a support group and a community, but also mentorship. 

But it has to be mentorship from the right people, you know, because there are a lot of people taking you in different directions. But I feel the right type of mentorship, especially around business and investing, and also, just as moral guidance, is pretty.

George Dubeck:

Oh, definitely. I’m a strong advocate for training over education. Education is great, but if you don’t apply it, it isn’t very helpful. So, train yourself to be whatever it is, an entrepreneur or a financial wizard. My favorite analogy is, ” Who would you rather be in a foxhole with in a war? A graduate of Annapolis who got straight A’s or a Navy SEAL who flunked out of high school. Yeah. Who would you want to be in a foxhole with?

Cosmos

 I think like a Navy SEAL that,

George Dubeck: 

Yeah, because he’s trained. The student who earned straight A’s at Annapolis is not well-trained. He doesn’t; we don’t even know if he can apply what he learned. But the Navy SEAL was physically and mentally trained to do his job. 

So it’s the same thing in life. If you want to be a good husband, a good entrepreneur, or a good boss, the best thing to do is train yourself before you start. Don’t just start it, train yourself. Find the books, the education, the coaches, and the trainers to get you up to speed, then go ahead and attack.

Cosmos

George, I have one question regarding this matter. Our traditional schools offer a specific kind of education designed to prepare you for the workplace. Aside from STEM majors, most are in the liberal arts and related programs. 

From your perspective, for people watching this, where should they find the right mentors, training, education, and resources to get proper financial training?

George Dubeck: 

Well, you know, I’m not a real big advocate of college education. I earned a Bachelor of Science degree. That was way back in, I graduated in 1976, so that was a long time ago. My daughter recently graduated from FAU, and I reviewed her homework and coursework. And it hasn’t changed much, which is disappointing. 

So what they need to do is bring more information about, like you are, talking about finances, both personal finance and financing businesses. In fact, I found that most small business owners today lack Cosmos and probably shouldn’t be in business because they weren’t trained. They don’t really understand money and finances; they don’t understand marketing and advertising, and they’re running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I mean, just to, if you have, if you’re a private business owner, just to figure out how to advertise and market your business today is mind-boggling. There are so many ways to go. Artificial intelligence, social media, television, radio, advertising in magazines, and newspapers. Even if they still exist. I don’t know how one person can determine the best way to advertise and where to allocate their budget. It’s, it’s daunting. 

And these business owners are just swamped. Their heads are spinning with everything going on today. It isn’t easy. It’s not like the old days when you just advertised in the newspapers, on the radio, and on TV. 

Cosmos

Mean, things have certainly changed at a very rapid pace. Like, I remember when I was born in the early 1990s, there was no. There was no Internet. It was just radio and television, like the basic telephone, like the dial-in telephone. And now look. And now look, we’re living in a world of iPhones. And then you have, like, social media and all of that. Things have evolved so quickly. 

And let’s not even get started on AI. Like, I still don’t understand how AI works on a deeper level. Like, I’m still new to it and figuring it out. I’m trying to figure this out, you know.

George Dubeck: 

Well, I’ll tell you, you know, the first social media connection happened around 1964. And I think your audience would like this story. Back when I was a teenager in high school, everybody had what were called party lines. You know what a party line is?

Cosmos

Like if you lived in.

George Dubeck: 

In a neighborhood, if you had a phone, it was connected to four or five or six other phone lines at different houses. Only the wealthy had private lines. 

So everybody, the middle class and poor people, had party lines. If you’re a teenager and you want to talk to girls on the phone, the neighbors might pick up the line and listen in.

Cosmos

Wow.

George Dubeck: 

What we did was go to phone booths, put a nickel in, dial the number, and get a busy signal. Girls would be in other phone booths at other high schools, doing the same thing. And over the phone lines, you could actually hear voices. You could hear other people. I’m George from Boardman. And you’d hear a girl over the phone line say, ” Hey, I’m Sally from Struthers. 

So then we would. I would ask her for her phone number at the phone booth. We both hung up, and I put a nickel in and dialed her phone booth. Then we would meet and talk over the phone. We used to call it the busy buzz.

Cosmo

Wow. I was not aware of party lines like this. This is actually from an era long gone. But that is. That is wild.

George Dubeck: 

Yeah, that’s the way we live. That’s how we grew up. I started college at Cosmos with no computers, no calculators, and no computers. I had. I attended engineering school and brought a slide rule to perform calculations. You know what a slide rule is?

Cosmos

Not. Not really.

George Dubeck: 

It’s like a ruler designed to perform calculations. Like, it’s. I mean, that was like ancient history.

Cosmos

Wow. So, George, speaking of this. Right. So, you know, like, back in the 1950s and 1960s, like, they had job security, like when it came to manufacturing and everything, right? 

And then the outsourcing happened, and then, every. Many of the jobs went overseas. AI and automation are prevalent today. We’re living in a vastly different world where there’s no job security, and people can no longer rely on retirement funds for income. Social Security is also questionable at this point. From your perspective, for people living through such a time, how should they manage their money?

George Dubeck: 

Again, you need a solid financial education in investing and cryptocurrency. What is that all about? What you should do with your money. The problem today, though, is it’s. It’s so chaotic and volatile, and things change so fast that sometimes you get an education or learn about something, only to have it shift within six months or a year. Like the whole crypto world is like a monkey wrench. I know people who have made a lot of money, and I know people who have lost their souls in crypto. 

So, you know, I, I don’t. And, you know, in the old days, we used to be able to invest in blue-chip stocks, and they were consistently positive in dividends and earnings. Today, everything in the stock market is driven by emotion. Some news comes out, and all of a sudden, you know, some stocks take a nosedive, or the news goes the other direction, and they.

Everybody’s buying a certain stock. I mean, it’s not based on earnings or. I don’t even know what it’s based on. The stock market’s volatile. Crypto is really volatile. You know, it’s hard to make sense out of it. 

But probably the best thing to do is to start your own business, learn how to do it, get coached, trained, and mentored, develop a project or idea, and take action. Take charge of your life and finances.

Cosmos

I know you talk about networking a lot, right? And like, having a group and networking. Can you elaborate on that and explain how important it is to find a network of people who are aligned? On the same page as you?

George Dubeck: 

Yeah, well, that’s important to find like-minded people. There are many developments today in the mental and psychological aspects of dealing with people. I don’t know about you, Cosmos, but are you familiar with ghosting? You know what ghosting is?

Cosmos

You just leave a person hanging. Like, I know in terms of a date, you know, like you go on a date, and the person just ghosts you. Yeah.

George Dubeck: 

Ghosting occurs in dating, relationships, even in families, friendships, and professional networks. Like I can’t tell you how many times in the last, I’d say it started really pronounced in the last maybe four to five years, where you’re connected with somebody, you’re talking to them regularly, maybe you’re interacting with them for whatever reason, business or social, and then all of a sudden they don’t communicate with you. You email them, you call them, they don’t call you back, they don’t text you for no reason. 

You didn’t get mad; you weren’t in a fight. It’s like they disappear. And like you said in relationships, you meet a girl, you have a couple of really good dates, she sounds like she really likes you, and then all of a sudden you call, never calls back, doesn’t answer your text. No reason.

Cosmos

No, I’ve experienced that myself, and it’s frustrating because it’s like there are no morals in our society these days. 

You know, where you feel a duty to the other person; in ancient times, they at least had some level of empathy. But I feel like today, with all the social media and everything, there are just so many options, too many people. So even if one person goes, another person comes. 

So that family feeling, that connection is just gone. In today’s society and world,  people are isolated; there’s a reason why the suicide rates are up, you know.

George Dubeck: 

Well, you don’t have to tell me that you’re singing to the choir. You hit it right on the head, even though you’re a young guy. You, you’re realizing where we’re headed. And that’s why the breakdown of the family is mainly causing all that loneliness, an independent type of feeling that we’re all experiencing. When I was growing up in my neighborhood, everyone had three to five kids. 

Everybody, the whole neighborhood was full of kids. Today, most people have one child or no children. And they’re replacing kids with dogs and cats. I mean, it’s wild. Do you realize how many TV commercials are currently running about this premium dog food? Like, in the old days, when I grew up as a kid, you know, everybody. Now listen to this. This is wild. But when I was a kid, nobody kept their dog in a house. Remember the Snoopy cartoon series? The doghouse in the back? Everybody kept their dogs in doghouses outside. Yeah. Have dogs in the house. They didn’t feed it fancy dog food. They gave it leftovers.

Cosmos

No, I mean. I mean, totally. I mean, George, actually, speaking of, like, the breakdown of the family, I almost feel like it’s like a. It’s kind of like a thing like us. There’s, like, some hidden evil powers that are out to break, like, make the genders hate each other, and just like, basically, to, like, because to destroy a nation, you have to destroy the nuclear family. Because when you don’t have a connection with your own family members, how can you love your community or your nation? 

By default, it comes from the family unit. When you don’t do that, you effectively break a country from within. And it’s something that I think, because I’ve never seen this much hate between genders in, like, my generation. 

There’s just distrust and isolation, and a deep divide. But it’s not just that. It’s also about finances. It’s all interconnected, right? There’s also the currency’s devaluation, with trillions of dollars being printed. Until the 2007-2008 crisis, it was decently good, right? We had only billions in the economy, but now it’s increased to trillions. And when you do that, and you put it in the economy, it devalues each dollar.

George Dubeck: 

Well, for a young guy. You got it. You’re nailing it, man. I mean, you know, as I said, I feel bad for your younger generation because, unless we make some major shifts in the way we operate. What we’re discussing is a cultural problem. It’s not even necessarily anything in particular. It’s everything. It’s. Our whole culture has gone down the tube. 

Now, one of the groups I love to study. Have you ever? Are you familiar with the Amish?

Cosmos

Yeah, I am a little bit.

George Dubeck: 

Okay. They’re fascinating. Do some study. I don’t really. I think their religion is very strict, which might be one of the reasons they are the way they are. But they’re all about family. I call them the we society. And the United States, I call us a me society. It’s all about the individual.

Cosmos

Yeah, it’s basically narcissism, right? And something that I talked about in extraordinary America, where there’s like a me, me kind of thing. And it’s, it’s a pleasure principle. 

And then you avoid, like, it’s highly individualistic and materialistic. But the more materialistic you become as a nation, the more self-centered the individual, as the individual members of that society will be. And then that just translates into everything else.

George Dubeck: 

Well, see, I lived in both worlds. I lived in what you’re talking about. I lived in the me society. I had the fancy cars, I had the money, I had the positions, I had the notoriety, I had the women. I had fun. That’s all I look for, actually, still today. 

And I’m still 79 years old today. It’s in my head. When I wake up, I think about how I’ll have a productive day. What will I do today that I enjoy? Interestingly, most Amish people, when they wake up, ask, “What am I going to do today to help my friends, my family, my community?” That’s how they think. 

And, I tell people, if you want to have a better life, wake up every day and think about one thing that you’re going to do that’s very helpful or nice to your wife, your kids, your family, anybody, think about one good thing you’re going to perform today. And I’ll tell you what it’d be. It would change everybody’s life immediately. It would change the way you think if you could do that.

Cosmos

Well, I mean, George, it’s, that’s, that’s pretty profound. But ultimately, it’s coming down to everybody’s version of the American dream. Right.

But that’s a question I wanted to ask you because, like, everybody has their own idea of the American dream, whether it’s a fancy car, women, and everything, or the white picket fence. But like for you, what does the American dream mean to you?

George Dubeck:

It used to be about being famous, making a lot of money, having people notice you and like you, self-image, and self-importance. Now that I’m older, I realize that was fool’s gold. I call it: I got wrapped up in our culture, followed suit, and enjoyed all the evils, I guess you’d call it. I actually view my lifestyle as somewhat harmful. It really wasn’t. I did have a good side. I did have a family. I. I created a family on the side, but I wasn’t. 

My family happened, you know what I’m saying? Rather than develop it, I.learned I needed a strong family. I needed a legacy; I needed to help my kids and grandkids be successful. That wasn’t on my mind. It just kind of happened on the side. And that’s sad. So it should have been reversed. I should have spent more time thinking about how I can build a better family than I have.

Cosmos

No, I mean, what you’re saying is like, what you’re saying is pretty profound. But it’s interesting because right now, for my generation at least, we’re looking for ways to preserve American culture and to get the nuclear family back together. 

But I feel like there’s almost like a spiritual battle in this nation. It’s not about, like, right versus left conservatives or liberals. It’s more like spiritual values versus materialistic values. Family values stem from spirituality because it’s about empathy, and you begin to care for someone other than yourself. 

But, speaking about that, George, like, if you had to advise our generation on what to do to save America. Regarding America’s culture and family values, what would you advise someone listening to this?

George Dubeck: 

Well, you know, you and I talked a little bit earlier, before we got on the show, about having. I recommend to all young people nowadays that they have at least three kids, however they do it. I don’t know. Today, marriage no longer seems to suit many people. Or they’re not doing it. However, you can figure it out, have at least three kids somehow, or more. And the only reason is that they’re very difficult to raise today. They’re expensive. We all know that. They disrupt your routine, which is hard for people to accept. In fact, a lot of young girls today don’t want to have children. 

Here are the reasons I learned. Number one, they don’t want to go through childbirth. They don’t want to mess up their bodies. Okay? Because it’s very hard to get your body back in shape after you have so many kids. They don’t want to bring kids into this world. I hear that a lot. 

A lot of girls are actually saying that they don’t want to bring kids into this world, which is sad. And, the money part, just the fact that it’s expensive. In most people’s minds, having a child isn’t expensive, but they think it is because they have to buy them everything under the sun, and toys. I got to take them to classes. 

The other major problem is that women today, regardless of whom they marry, are unsure about their marriages. They worry that if they have a couple of kids, this guy will leave them, and then they’re stuck raising one, two, or three kids on their own. And in the back of most women’s minds today, they think about that. Where in the old days, when I grew up, in Cosmos, there was no such thing as divorce. It didn’t even exist.

Cosmos

You know that the divorce rate is now like 50 to 70% at this rate, right? One in two marriages in the Western world ends in divorce. It’s all right.

George Dubeck: 

So, think about this. Like, I even think to myself, if I were a young guy today, if I were 20 years old and coming into this world, I can’t even imagine the ca. The. The. The volatility of the job market and careers, and think to yourself that you’re going to marry some woman and have three kids. 

You’ve got to worry about whether you’re going to be able to handle all that. It’s not like you said in the old days, you worked at a job for 30 years. You had security, you could plan. And nowadays you don’t know whether you’ll be working at one company one day and at another the next.

Cosmos

No, I mean, totally. And I would like to add, with regards to the relationship, I think social media and dating apps have played a very important role in the destruction of the nuclear family, in my opinion, because think about it. If you have relationships, take work; marriages take work, right? 

And if you have, like, a dating app where you can get 100 matches just by putting this app from 100 different men, why would you want to keep the relationship going?

George Dubeck: 

Well, you know, you. You also hit that one right on the head, too. Cosmos. I told my wife, ” Okay, I’ve been married 46 years, and I met my wife in 1979. And that was back in the Era before the Internet, before dating apps and all that. 

And I told my wife, you know, she was perfect at that time in my life. She was physically and mentally perfect. We were soulmates; we had a great relationship and got along tremendously. But I told her, I said, you know what, if I had met you today, if I’d have been 32 years old today and you were 22 and we had the Internet and the phones and stuff like that, I said, I don’t think I’d have lasted three years with her. I wouldn’t have. 

Because of that phone, every time I turn it on, I see all these beautiful women on the phone constantly, not even on dating apps, just on social media. They’re all over, I mean, you would keep comparing your wife or girlfriend to all these other girls, and you’d keep saying, well, geez, man, I want that. I want this instead of what I got. I mean, it’s mind-boggling. I can’t imagine how young guys today can stay committed.

Cosmos

No, I mean you just mentioned the grass is all, it’s greener on the other side. So let’s say you have. In marriages, you’re always going to have fights, right? In relationships, you’re going to have arguments. 

Let’s say you have that, and then you have this temptation where you have this hot Chad, or as you have an attractive woman. It will take strong spiritual values to keep that relationship going and build a family that lasts. And ultimately, you need a family for civilization to survive.

George Dubeck:

Well, that’s it. Confucius said, ” Family, the strength of a family is the integrity of the nation itself. 

You’re right about that. Well, here’s the other thing: the problem is that the older generation is already doomed. We’re already toxic. People that are what the gen Gen Z generation or Gen X I don’t know what they call them but what we really need to do, not only like you mentioned, maybe some kind of a spiritual nature, but we also need to train people and educate people on what families are for, what relationships are for, what is sex for, why do we do all this stuff not just for pleasure. The problem is that today, everyone views those aspects of life as sources of pleasure. Sex is a pleasure entertainment. 

We have another problem in society with cell phones and the Internet, which is pornography. I mean, when I was a kid, when we used to look at women. We used to look at the Sears catalog. Have you ever heard that story? When I was a teenager and young boys were just reaching puberty, we didn’t have anything to look at. No pornography. There were no magazines. We would look at my mom’s Sears catalog for the women in the lingerie section.

Cosmos

Wow.

George Dubeck: 

We didn’t have Playboy. We didn’t have anything. We didn’t have videos. There was nothing.

Cosmos

George, for somebody who’s been on both sides of the aisle, right. You have been in the entertainment industry. You’ve had all this success. You had the women, the cars, the fame, and all of that. And you’ve also seen the importance of family values. 

If somebody is looking at this who is attracted to the American dream version of being a celebrity, the celebrity culture versus the other side of the American dream, which is having a family, the white picket fence. But they’re, like, tempted. How would you go? What would you tell such a person?

George Dubeck:

I’ll tell you what the hardest thing, especially for a male, is. I always call the sex drive the monkey wrench. You probably read Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.

Cosmos

Yeah, I have.

George Dubeck:

He had a whole chapter on. It’s called sexual transmutation. He said that the most productive men in society have always had high sex drives, but they were somehow able to transfer that sexual energy into productivity. How do you do that, every man? 

I don’t know. Every man’s different. I don’t know if it’s a spiritual thing again. You need to develop a mindset. You have to focus on the family, on your children, and on your wife. I don’t know how. I can’t tell anybody individually how to do that. I couldn’t complete it. As I said, I was kind of in the middle. I was on the side I wanted to be on. I had a big ego, but I was able to create a family. 

I think what? I think the key is to focus on creating the family first, then pursue wealth and fame, and use that to help make your family successful.

Cosmos

I guess it comes down to priorities now. What is your value system? Unfortunately, for most people today, the value system is shallow. It is the celebrity cult, the name, the fame, and all of that.

George Dubeck: 

Well, that. That’s like. I mean, what does it cost to go here, Taylor Swift, $3,000 a ticket. I mean, you know, to be honest with you, that’s sick. How much do they pay some of these football and baseball players? $20 million a year to throw a football? Yeah. 

Put it this way: until that changes, nothing will go back in the right direction. Until that changes. Until they stop that, I don’t know how they’ll stop it; until we stop it, it will continue and get worse.

Cosmos

George, on the financial aspect of this, right, so you know, like how, $20 could buy you a lot of groceries back in the 1950s and 1960s versus $20 now, can barely get you anything. With the currency devaluation and rising prices, it’s very hard for people to support a family.

 It’s like you need two incomes in the house, so it’s no longer a one-income house. How should the current generation address inflation and debt, both at the personal and national levels, given that national debt now stands at over 35 trillion?

George Dubeck: 

Well, the thing that’s happening today, because of the volatility of the job market, the fact that maybe people even have a job, can’t make enough money, is that so many people are doing side hustles. I would just recommend that most people, whether you’re married or single or whatever, have some other things going on aside from whatever job or career you have, not only for tax deductions. A side hustle can offer you tax deductions, like a stay-at-home business or a home business. You can write off many expenses on your taxes to help you financially. 

And also, you can make a lot of money with it. For example, I just started a side hustle about two years ago. It was called the Employee Retention Tax Credit Program. And I did it amongst all my other businesses. I earned over $250,000 in one year helping business owners obtain government stimulus checks. 

Then we had the MasterCard Visa refund program last year. I earned over a million dollars in one year by helping business owners secure tax refunds from overcharges by Mastercard and Visa. There are many opportunities on the side that people can pursue while they have a job, or a wife at home can work on these businesses. Even if the wife doesn’t have a job, she can start earning income from these side hustles.

Cosmos

No, for sure. I mean, you have to start thinking in terms of like siding, like creating a business on the side that you’re passionate about, and then you find a way to monetize it. 

I discuss this with other guests on the show because times have changed, and you have to adapt accordingly.

But George, on a different level, I know you, I know you’re working on this reality show, America’s Real Deal, which is like a business investment show. Can you tell me a little bit more about this in the audience?

George Dubeck: 

Yeah, this is kind of an offshoot of Shark Tank. Shark Tank features four or five celebrity investors who evaluate startups. Most of these individuals have the opportunity to invest in the startup and take a stake in the company. 

Well, we’re doing kind of a twist on that. I call it Shark Tank on Steroids. We bring in revenue-producing companies. They must have at least $1 million in gross sales in the last year. If they qualify further, they can appear on the show, stand up and promote their business, and explain why they need additional funding. It might be for new software; they might need more outlets; they might want to go international; and they need funding. 

So, then we have what are called sharks or icons; we call them icons. And they’re four to five high-net-worth. Individuals with a net worth of $40 to $50 million can invest in companies. We also have a studio audience of 8 to 10 accredited investors who can invest. 

We then set up every company on a crowdfunding platform so the viewing audience can invest starting at $100. Finally, we list all these companies on a private stock exchange where people can buy and sell their shares regularly. That’s what makes us quite different.

Cosmos

That’s amazing. I recommend that anyone in my audience review this, as it offers valuable insights into business and investing.

And George, I also know you are the author of this book, The Ultimate Networking. Can you tell us a little bit more about this book?

George Dubeck: 

Yes, I wrote that book about five years ago because I found I was going to a lot of networking business events, expos, seminars, and similar events. And I find out most people don’t know how to connect. I wrote a book and used a process for networking that most people don’t. Most people no longer have business cards. Do you notice that? Yeah, everybody has something on their phone. They have a ZAP card. They have a QR code. You have to, yeah, you have to hit the QR code. Or they give you a digital text. It isn’t very clear. When you get home, you may delete it, forget it, or be unable to find it. It isn’t very clear. 

So you know what I do when I go to a networking event? People can’t believe this, but I take a little box with me, and inside the transparent box is an old-fashioned clipboard. 

And on the clipboard, I have a sheet. When I meet someone of note or value, I pull out the clipboard with the sheet and have them sign their information. When I go home that night, I usually stay at an event for an hour or more.

I go home, and everybody that I’m going to follow up with is on my clipboard. I have their name, website, and phone number, and I take notes on what I plan to do for them. And I’ll be honest with you, I never saw anybody else do that. I’m the only person who does that.

Cosmos

Wow.

George Dubeck: 

And it works. It’s highly effective. It’s like when I go to network, I go to work. I’m not going there to eat the shrimp, drink the cocktails, and sit there and talk to my friends. I’m going there to make contacts, do business, and meet the right people.

Cosmos

That’s amazing, George. And George, if there’s somebody from our audience who wants to connect with you and get to know more about you and your work, or just like reach out

Then how would they proceed?

George Dubeck: 

I have a bunch of websites, but the main one is theultimatenetworker.com, and as I said, I have six books I wrote on networking, both family networking, social networking, and business networking. I have strong material, and if anyone’s interested, they could reach out to me. I’ll be happy to speak with anyone or answer any questions.

Cosmos

No, George, thank you. Thank you for taking the time to join this podcast. This was a really fun interview, and it just puts the question of where our values are as a nation into focus. We must uphold spiritual and family values to make a difference in this world. I hope you can come back to the show at a later date.

George Dubeck: 

Okay. Yeah. We could discuss more specific topics and related items. Whatever. Whatever you want. Yeah, I’ve got. As I said, the main thing I gained is years of experience.

Cosmos

No, for sure, George. And we value that so much. And I want to conclude this episode by letting my fellow extraordinary Americans know that, hey, there’s an extraordinary within each of us. And it’s our duty to awaken it and unleash it. Until next time. Bye for now.