Gents Journey
Gents Journey
Nurturing Bonds for Personal and Professional Growth
Unlock the secrets to building authentic connections that can transform your personal and professional life. What if the key to your success lies not in what you know, but in who you know? On the Gentleman's Journey podcast, we delve into the power of meaningful relationships and networks, emphasizing the importance of quality over quantity. We explore how setting intentional relationship goals can provide clarity on the types of connections you truly need, ensuring that your network is both supportive and inspiring. By nurturing a robust support system, you can gain fresh perspectives, enhance your influence, and boost your overall well-being.
In this episode, we discuss practical strategies to elevate your growth, including the strategic use of LinkedIn and the hidden opportunities found in volunteering. Hear stories of unexpected opportunities, like a friend who landed a job through connections made at an animal shelter. We challenge you to take ownership of your future by strengthening existing relationships and forging new ones as we gear up for a breakthrough year in 2025. With consistent, small efforts, you can significantly enhance your network and set the stage for personal and professional advancement. Join us, and learn how to make your connections count.
"True mastery is found in the details. The way you handle the little things defines the way you handle everything."
Hello and welcome to the Gentleman's Journey podcast. My name is Anthony, your host, and today we're going to talk about something that really is always going to be paramount to your success, and it's really going to help you be not only better for yourself, but really help you make an impact on the world and the people around you. Now, what is this that I'm talking about today? What I'm talking about today? I'm talking about why relationships and networking matter, because it's something that a lot of people don't know how to do, so let's go ahead and let's talk about it Now. This is something I need you to understand as we're going into this thing. I need you to understand as we're going into this. Nobody nobody, not one person achieves success alone, and I'm talking about rather, you know, I'm talking about in your personal life or your career. Relationships and networks are at the heart of your growth, your fulfillment and your opportunities that are presented to you. We've all heard that saying it's not what you know, it's who you know. That's based on relationships and the network that you build. Because here's the thing building meaningful relationships isn't just like collecting contracts or showing up when you need something. It's honestly about creating genuine, lasting connections that benefits everyone involved. Okay, a lot of times you go to like these networking events and you're just collecting business cards, you're just getting people's names and numbers, but you're not really investing yourself, right? Even if it's a small network let's say this is a small network of, let's say, 10 or 15 people, that would be a small network. But if you have a genuine relationship with all of them and it's a mutual beneficial relationship, meaning that they benefit and you benefit those are the best relationships to have. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to talk about how to build and nurture relationships and networks that are going to really elevate you personally and professionally. By the end of this, okay, you're going to have practical strategies to help you create a network that not only supports you but inspires you and pushes you towards your goals. Because remember I know I say this on every podcast 2025 is whose year. That's right, it's your year. 2025 is your year. This is the year. It's your coming out party, right? And the best way to have a coming out party is to have a solid network and solid relationships.
Speaker 1:Now here's the thing you want to know why relationships matter, like good relationships. The first thing, they're a support system. Right. When you have a good support system, they help you emotionally and practically. Right. When you have people that are in your corner, that support you, I'm telling you right now you will feel invincible and the world will not feel so heavy and you will not feel so all alone, right. But here's the next thing about why relationships matter. When you have good people around you, they expose you to new ideas, opportunities, but more than anything else, perspectives, I'm going to tell you, we get so caught in our own perspective of things that we can't see outside of ourselves. When you have a good supporting cast or good network, they will help you see perspective of other people and that only benefits you. And here's another thing that is mutually beneficial really to you more than anything, honestly, is your influence.
Speaker 1:Relationships shape how other people perceive and trust. You have you ever noticed, like, if someone's holding court, let's say, five, six or ten people, more people just kind of come around Because they want to say, like, why is this person so important? Right, or social media, or you're on Facebook or Instagram or YouTube, right, you know, you have these people that have like 10, 15, 20, 30 million, you know followers or subscribers. You know that's a huge sphere of influence, right? Because here's the thing I'm going to tell you right now, and this is the truth. Because here's the thing I'm going to tell you right now, and this is the truth your network is your net worth.
Speaker 1:People that have a good network are never out of a job. They always have opportunities in front of them and they always have a supporting cast helping them. Because here's the thing I'm going to tell you about this. Here's, I guess you could call it like the ripple effect, right? When you have strong relationships, you know what it does. It improves your health, mentally and emotionally. Okay, yes, that's correct, it improves your mental and emotional health. In all honesty, when you have a solid network, especially a professional network, it accelerates your career growth and, honestly, the business opportunities that will be presented to you and, honestly, the business opportunities that will be presented to you, right? Because how many times do you know a friend or somebody that, just, they just fall backwards into a job? All the time it's like oh yeah, I know so-and-so and they just told me about this job and now I'm making $30,000 more than I was before. Just because they knew somebody, I'm telling you that's how this all works. It's not what you know, it's who you know. Go out there and network right. So, as we're talking about this, one of the biggest things you have to do and I'm going to give you like five or six steps you have to build and strengthen your relationships and network. That's what we're going to learn how to do. Okay, and step one and this is the step to anything, it's always this first step Start with intentionality.
Speaker 1:Right Intentions, literally outside of your thoughts and your actions, rule everything around you. Be intentional. Relationships start with clarity. What kind of connections do you need and what kind of connections do you value? Right? Here's what I'm going to tell you. This is something that will be beneficial for you. Here's an action you can take. I guess you could say Write down your relationship goals, write them down. Write down professional ones, write down your personal ones, write down any kind of career mentorship that you're looking for or new opportunities, and then go out there and identify three to five people you'd like to connect with or deepen a relationship with.
Speaker 1:You know, a lot of our relationships that we have, in all honesty, are very surface level. We don't even a lot of people we call friends are just acquaintances. We don't really get to know people. We know how to use people, but we don't really get to know people. If you can start to get to know the people around you, like get to know them, I'm telling you right now, that'll be a massive shift in your life. Okay, because here's the thing we're talking about. Surface level, you know what you have to start doing. In order to get deeper, you have to show genuine interest, genuine, genuine, genuine interest. Easy for me to say, right. So I'm going to tell you something People value authenticity. People value authenticity.
Speaker 1:When you're building connections, you've got to be genuinely curious about other people, right, like, ask questions like, hey, what is going on with you right now? Right, what are you inspired to do? What is something I could help you with? What are you most excited about in your life? What are some things that you're doing right now? Very simple questions, right, and here's the thing Practic active listening by repeating what you hear to show that you're understanding.
Speaker 1:Active listening is this. So someone's telling you, like, say, I'm a huge Chicago Bears fan, right? Well, hey, how long have you been a Chicago Bears fan for? Oh man, my whole life. Well, who got you started being a Bears fan. Do you see how I'm asking them genuine questions? What got you started being a Bears fan? Well, it was my dad. How long have you been a Bears fan? For my whole life. You know that right there you can build a connection from and you start asking questions.
Speaker 1:Other things open up. Have you ever been to a Bears game? Yes, I have Tell me about that. Have you ever been to a Bears game? Yes, I have Tell me about that. Right, these are things you have to understand. Once you start doing these things, what starts to happen is that people open up about things that they love. They really open up about the fact of loving what they do, about the fact that they have a goal or a dream. Just ask them about that kind of stuff and I'm telling you right now, it completely changes your life right Now.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing Offer value first. And here's the thing when you're offering value, right, you're leading with what you can give. So let's say, you know somebody that maybe is also a Bears fan, or maybe you know somebody in the Bears organization, right? Or maybe you know a place where they can get discounted jerseys, whatever in the Bears organization, right? Or maybe you know a place where they can get discounted jerseys, whatever. That's a connection, right, and I'm going to tell you, if you help out people, they will help you, because, I'm going to tell you this, the people that have a lot of value are the people that people want to surround themselves with.
Speaker 1:Okay, here's the next thing you have to be consistent. I know we talk about this all the time, but, in all honesty, building trust and maintaining strong connections involves consistency. Check in with these people monthly with an email or say hey, let me take you out for coffee. Right, take you out for coffee. That means you're going to spend about an hour with them and just ask them questions about themselves and see how they respond back to you. I'm telling you, you want to know why. Most people don't do this? Because they're so involved on their phone or anything else. If you can build genuine connections with people like really genuine connections, your financial situation will change, I promise you, and your happiness will change. This is the truth. And here's the thing when you're doing this, expand your circle strategically, okay. Attend industry events, right. Join a professional organization or participate in community groups. Get yourself out there, right, I'm going to tell you.
Speaker 1:Linkedin is probably one of the best things you could do for yourself. It allows you to connect, engage with people you never would have, and I'm telling you, if you have a strong LinkedIn profile, you're never out of work. I promise you that. Here's the next thing. As we're talking about this, quality matters over quantity. How many people do you know that you maybe even work with right now, that you know them, but the minute that you're outside of work, you could only talk about work. That's a surface-level relationship. Get to know the people around you. Ask them questions. What are they into? What do they go do? Ask them about their family, show genuine interest in people and if you start to do that, guess what they want to be around you and they will show genuine interest in you because it will be a mirror. It's the mirror effect.
Speaker 1:Okay, and here's something I need you to understand, because this is a big part that no one really talks about. As we're talking about this, one of the biggest barriers to building a relationship with somebody, or really anybody right, personal or professional, is the fear of rejection. Right? One of the things I tell people all the time, and it doesn't matter how you feel, this is just the truth. Rejection isn't personal, it's a part of the process. Okay, what I want you to start doing as you're doing this is I want you to reach out to people without an attachment to the outcome right, when you are just genuinely just trying to reach out to people, it makes you present in the moment and people will feel your sincerity and feel that, compared to somebody who's just trying to grow a list to that way they can email you stuff where they're trying to do some kind of business opportunity right, or some kind of MLM right and if you guys are not MLM, I'm sorry, but I know it's one of the things that they do Write down some people that you know, right, that's not a part of this process.
Speaker 1:Now, here's the thing I need you to understand too. A lot of people say to me like, oh gosh, if I'm doing this, this is going to take so long, I don't want to do this, I don't want to build relationships, I don't know how to do this, I don't know how to connect with people. That's rubbish, that's garbage. Because here's the thing I'm going to tell you Building relationships with people do not take hours. It's small, consistent efforts is what's going to take you all the way. Okay, just start with one intentional connection per week. Just one, just one week, just one, Just one. And I'm going to tell you, if you're in a really large group, focus on one-to-one interactions. I'm going to tell you, if you start to do that, that room will not be as big, it'll get smaller and more profitable. Okay, and here's what I'm going to tell you too. You want to know a big way to really expand your network Volunteer, because you know what that means, that everyone's there, they're not getting paid, they're volunteering, right, and I'm telling you, volunteering is a great way to meet people, a great way. Now, here's something I'm going to tell you you volunteering is a great way to meet people, a great way.
Speaker 1:Now here's something I'm going to tell you about. This is a oh God. I've known him for probably 10 years. So I have a friend of mine right who he works in IT, but he, again, is not a social butterfly by any means, right, but he does part-time work sometimes, right? So he's doing part-time work at this place, and it was like I don't know some kind of tech firm that did plastics or something like that, I'm not sure, but anyways. So he put his resume in, didn't hear anything. Well, he's a huge lover of animals, so he volunteers at the shelter right Now, lo and behold, one of the people also was volunteers at the shelter was the operations manager for this company that he wanted to work at.
Speaker 1:Right, and they got. They started talking. They realized, you know, he realized that, hey, this is this gentleman that I've been looking for, right, but he just built up, he just built a relationship with them. He gets to know him, they get to talk, they build a relationship, right. Then he doesn't even tell them what he does, right, they just talk about their love for animals, right. But because he had that love for animals, he started inviting him out to social gatherings with other organizations that he volunteered at right and I'm talking about the gentleman who's the manager. And by doing that, he realized like hey, I didn't know, you worked in IT, you know there's an opportunity coming up and I know that you'd be the guy for it. And guess what, as soon as he did that, right, he gets the job. He tripled his income just by volunteering at his shelter.
Speaker 1:Come on, this is what I'm talking about. You have to understand. The only thing that's holding back from. Your success is you. You got to get out there, you got to do the work right, you got to network, you got to be genuine, you got to be you right. And I'm telling you you do that. This all changes. So this is what we're going to talk about. This is what I'm going to tell you. This is your year. Remember that. But we can't do things we were doing last year and think things are going to change. We can't do that. This has to be your year, because 2025 is your year. You got to own it right. So this is what I'm going to tell you to do. This is my challenge to you this week Identify one relationship you want to change right or strengthen, I should say and then one new connection you want to build.
Speaker 1:Reach out this week, do an email or text message, a lunch invitation or simply just say hey, I was thinking about you. How are you doing you all right? Just that right there is huge. Because you have to remember this, because you have to remember this Relationships are built on authenticity, trust and consistency. I'm telling you this right now you do that, if you invest intentionally with your relationships right, by being authentic, by building trust and being consistent, your world will change so much for the better. And I'm going to tell you, financially, it'll change for the better, it just will. Financially, it'll change for the better, it just will. So I want to thank you so, so, so, very much for listening today.
Speaker 1:If you have any questions on this or anything that I talk about, please, please, please, never hesitate to reach out to me. There's three ways. First way is text messaging Just click on the text me portion, on the description. We could text back and forth right. Second way is going to be my email. My email is anthonyatgentsjourneycom. Please feel free to email me. I'm here to help you. And, last but not least, you can also reach out to me on my Instagram. You could DM me. My Instagram handle is MyGentsJourney. Please, please, please, never hesitate to reach out to me. Right? And if you could do me a favor I don't ask a lot, but if you could do me a favor, if you could give this a five-star review, I would absolutely appreciate it. Okay, again, thank you guys, so very much for listening today. And remember this you create your reality, take care.