The Best Business Networking Event You’ve Never Heard Of

Jeffrey Klubeck, CEO and Co-Owner of Secret Knock, brings the heart of the nation’s best business networking event to a city near you with Frequent Knock.

*This article was originally posted on Chicago Devotion in September 2019, and is being re-posted in our continued dedication to bring you the hard-to-find resources and information that are available to you every day.

The Meet Market. The Grip n’ Grin. The Pitch Party. Business networking events are full of opportunities for entrepreneurs, business owners, executives, and job seekers hoping to make professional connections, meet investors to finance their dreams, sign new clients, or find employment.

In my experience, you will find two different types of people at these gatherings: Collectors and Cultivators.

Collectors are there to pitch others and collect people because of what others can do for them. Cultivators show up to learn from others, lend their own experience, and build relationships; they build others up and nurture relationships that can help everyone.

Cultivators thrive because they care about integrity, they recognize the importance of helping others, and take the time to build quality relationships that are mutually beneficial for everyone involved.

Recently, I had an opportunity to attend a business networking event called Frequent Knock, where I met someone who understands and inhabits the spirit of being a Cultivator. Jeff Klubeck, the CEO and Co-Owner of Secret Knock, welcomed everyone personally and made an effort to get to know them. He often introduces new arrivals to other interesting people and nurtures quality connections.

No one person was placed above anyone else. Everyone is on an equal playing field at Frequent Knock; entrepreneurs, inventors, investors, and trailblazers spoke with new, ambitious up-and-comers as peers.

It was an opportunity to learn and to listen and to connect on the same level with professionals who have built legacies with their minds, their ambitions, and their own hands.

Frequent Knock is far from a Meet Market or a Grip n’ Grin or a Pitch Party. I found myself mingling with seasoned professionals who served up wisdom along with humor and inspiration. We were all there to learn from one another.

I was in a room full of Cultivators.

Secret Knock

Secret Knock is an annual event known as “The number one networking event in the world, hosted by Greg Reid & Jeff Klubeck, to bring together the best and brightest minds in the world to create the most valuable business networking event ever created.” The event itself is marketed as “The #1 business event you can’t attend – unless you’re invited.”

Yes, the event is invitation-only, but you can apply to attend this exclusive business networking event at www.secretknock.co.

If Secret Knock is the main course, Frequent Knock is the appetizer, a chance to experience a taste for yourself and network with some of the brightest minds in your city. Secret Knock Alumni have teamed with Secret Knock CEO Jeffrey Klubeck to host Frequent Knock events all over America.

Mr. Klubeck shared his time with us for the following interview so you can learn more about Secret Knock, Frequent Knock, and the upcoming Chicago event.

The next Frequent Knock business networking event is in Chicago on Thursday, September 19^th, hosted by Chicagoan, Michele Malo.

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Jeffrey Klubeck, CEO of Secret Knock

Jon-Michael Foshee: Jeff, tell us a little about your background and how your experiences led you to Secret Knock.

Jeffrey Klubeck: My background is rooted in academia. I was an Adjunct Professor of Public Speaking while getting my master’s degree. Someone referred me to San Diego City College to take on classes there. I took on one class, then another, and another. 

My most challenging time was when my wife and I had our first child. I became Mr. Mom during the day and a Professor teaching classes at night. Then the economy tanked during the recession, and I saw an opportunity to reinvent myself. I got my real estate license and applied my communications education and teaching experience to real estate sales.

Around that time, I began offering consulting services and offered my consultant business card to a title agent. He said, “You’re a coach?” And I immediately thought, “No, look at the card, I’m a Consultant.” But then I went home and researched coaching and how to become a coach, and it made perfect sense.

I booked myself into three coach boot camp training courses and learned everything I could. My family grew, and I ventured out into the coaching business by learning to brand myself. I created a logo and a website, and traveled the world speaking to people.

I created my own coaching program based on my own methodology. I used my academic background to create curriculum for other coaches to learn how to actually make money at coaching.

There are certain universal truths, and I created my own delivery for those truths in my own voice to help others.

JMF: What first attracted you to Secret Knock, and how were you inspired to step into a leadership role as Co-Owner?

JK: Greg Reid is the answer to both questions. I learned about Secret Knock after attending the Three Feet From Gold movie premier, one of Greg Reid’s projects through the Napoleon Hill Foundation. I was just building my career as a Speaker / Coach / Trainer, and looked up to Greg’s accomplishments as “The Modern-Day Napoleon Hill” and all the content he produced. I had not yet written a book or hosted my own events.

I got on Greg’s mailing list and would hear about Secret Knock a couple times a year. I always deleted the emails, saying to myself that “I wasn’t ready or successful enough, or I could not afford to attend.” So, I wasted 7 years of my entrepreneurial life by missing out on Secret Knock.

By the time I DID believe I was good enough and could afford it, I was traveling around the world Coaching, Speaking, and Training. I ran seminars on 4 continents and many major cities throughout 12 countries. I did miss a couple times because I was not stateside. Then, all the stars aligned last year and I was able to attend my first one.

It was life-changing to be in such a special community of believers and achievers, as Napoleon Hill might say. Inventors, Investors, Founders, C-Suite Professionals, and brilliant “up-and-comers” all learning with and from each other. Selfless, Curious, Connected, and Cool!

Having been to so many events in the professional growth space, it was easy to see immediately how Secret Knock was different. It felt like home to me.

I met good people and I didn’t have to speak. I was able to just enjoy the conference and wound up investing in Greg’s Power of Proximity program. It is a 12-month invitation to go wherever Greg was going. Any event he was attending or speaking at, I had a seat by his side. So, Greg got to know me really well in a short amount of time.

We agreed to co-author a parable about the power of Masterminding, and he invited me onstage at my second Secret Knock to promote it. Two weeks later, Greg called me to discuss a partnership to combine my Coaching / Consulting / Training services inside a Brand that would also hold Secret Knock, Prosperity Camp, and Mastermind Association.

Now, sideXside, LLC, is the holding company for all of the above, and I am the CEO. My job is to carry forth the legacy of Secret Knock by expanding the reach and strength of our Community.

JMF: How was Frequent Knock born?

JK: Greg had previously promoted Secret Knock when speaking at other people’s events, so I asked him why we weren’t creating our own smaller events to promote Secret Knock. The whole idea of Secret Knock is that it is exclusive, different, and yes, expensive, but WELL worth it.

Sometimes, speaking at other people’s events conflicted with that brand-promise. It is not the right message for an audience of mostly “broke people selling to broke people.” Which, by the way, is the great criticism of the Professional Growth industry.

The model was stuck within the seminar industry where the speakers had commission breath. Some speakers only cared about the sales and didn’t care what anyone did with what they learned.

So, I had this idea that we would create our own “preview events” where we generated our own audience and controlled everything else about the event based on our Brand’s values and standards.

Originally, we were just going to do them in San Diego, but once we started posting on Social Media, we saw some FOMO from other cities. People all over the world who missed the annual event wanted to know when it was coming to their town.

I generated a “bring the brand to town” model for members of our Community to co-host Frequent Knocks in their cities. Let people who have experienced Secret Knock bring the brand to their town and let them relate that experience to their local business networking event.

It’s the ULTIMATE win-win-win for so many reasons. The Community expands while the quality stays intact.

As Greg’s plan is to have me be the face of Secret Knock moving forward, it makes sense to get on the road to partner with members of our community. We can expand the brand while they host magical evenings of World Class Networking! Secret Knock now has a legacy, it lives and breathes without any one person.

JMF: I’m seeing a common thread running through your history: You had the courage to invest in yourself when the opportunities presented themselves.

JK: You have to have the courage to invest in yourself. There are two questions you need ALL the answers to so you can determine your competitive advantage. “What do I do better than anyone else who does the same thing?” and “What do we do that nobody else does?” You have to write down ALL your answers to those two questions. In my industry, being authentic is a competitive edge.

JMF: Which elements of your coaching expertise have perfect synergy with the mission of Frequent Knock?

JK: My Coaching / Leadership Methodology is: Motivation plus Accountability equals Results. Categorically, one of the ways I motivate people in coaching is to provide “Strategies, Resources, and Tactics.”

So, what is the plan? What do we need to execute the plan? What actions do we take to execute the plan? Secret Knock is the ultimate community to find the relationships and resources you need to advance your growth.

Secret Knock “gets people to the front of the line” because of the resources in the room. Because I have coached thousands of people and hundreds of businesses, I am an excellent interviewer that can bring out really valuable stories, content, and strategies of our Guest Speakers from event to event.

My experience as an Adjunct Professor of Public Speaking allows me to “hold / engage the room” from event to event. But the real secret sauce of my Coaching expertise is LOVE — that willingness to be vulnerable so that people GROW!

Frequent Knock is a new idea that has some risk and vulnerability to it. What you will feel at a Frequent Knock event is the love we have for the Secret Knock Community, and the experience that “what you seek is seeking you!”

Everyone who has ever attended a Secret Knock will tell you about meeting someone at Secret Knock that truly changed their life for the better. And most of them have been that person for others, too! Frequent Knock is a gateway to the Secret Knock Community that has all the resources and relationships anyone could possibly need to grow personally and professionally.

JMF: Frequent Knock’s atmosphere of successful businesspeople who are passionate about using their experience and knowledge to give back and help others is inspiring. What was the origin of the idea to create an atmosphere where everyone is equal, and how does that approach make Frequent Knock a different business networking experience?

JK: There are a couple of beliefs that support that “everyone is equal” origin. We wanted to be different than every other event out there. Most other events are at the mercy of someone’s ego or name. Greg is actualized enough to remove his name from it so it can live beyond him.

True power is selfless.

Most other events are pitch-fests that are dominated by the seminar industry revenue model. Our event is about the Community selling itself to each other, not any given “expert” selling their wiz-bang-whammo program or retreat. We are very much about “learning with and from each other,” which requires that we all treat each other as equals.

The hard truth is that the people who are REALLY successful are the ones who know how they got there and are LIVING to help others do the same. The ones that are just trying to make money are the ones that have VIP this and VIP that to create separation and more revenue levels and upsells. We don’t feel we need to do that. We are successful. We are loving. We are there to learn and grow as much as serve others. We will make money as a byproduct of those intentions.

There is nothing wrong with making money…but “access” can be just as lucrative as “exclusion,” and we believe that nobody in our Community should be excluded.

JMF: Many people may have a marketable skill and the ambition to start their own business, but may be intimidated or overwhelmed about how to get started. In your experience, how can people take strong first steps to becoming a confident business owner?

JK: Strong first steps are all in the mind. I highly recommend reading “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. It is so critical to embrace the mindset of belief in oneself and the universal laws of success and achievement.

Always be learning, reading, attending workshops, trainings, and honing your skill development. That will add to your confidence.

Beyond investing in your mind and skills, you must invest in your Network of Relationships. You have to surround yourself with growth-minded and successful people that can help you avoid mistakes, introduce you to trusted resources, and perhaps even partner with you to supplement any weaknesses in your plan.

When you become a more confident PERSON, you will be a more confident Business Owner. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t include the suggestion of hiring a World Class Coach for guidance.

The short answer: Focus on why you want to.

Why do you want to get out of your comfort zone? If you’re starting with the “how,” you’re starting with a doubt. You’re reinforcing a negative. The “How” is: “How do I avoid pain to gain pleasure?” Fall in love with mistakes. Just do it; learn and grow.

There’s no such thing as a mistake, just a lesson wrapped in a little discomfort. If you’re not clear on your why, you’re already hitting the brick wall of “How.”

JMF: In your travels helping people in different cultures around the world, do you see a universal challenge that all entrepreneurs face?

JK: Yes. Themselves. Their ego. Trying to control everything. The common thing I see from country to country, city to city, culture to culture, is the mirror that Entrepreneurs look into shows them both the best and worst of themselves. They either see the genius of their idea that blinds them to the help they will need from others, or they see their deficiencies and insecurities that blind them to the genius of their idea!

Entrepreneurs need to balance an ownership of their brilliance with the notion that nobody succeeds alone.

Even Steve Jobs got kicked out of his own company for violating this at one extreme. Marshall Goldsmith has a great book called, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” that describes the challenge of the successful person that is fooled into thinking they are always right and know best.

No matter what our track record or genius, we will always need others to truly help us get “the idea” to its potential.

JMF: How can Entrepreneurs best approach and exceed that challenge?

JK: Again, I recommend working with a great Coach that can ask the right questions; provide the right sound-boarding, introductions, strategies, and resources; plays devil’s advocate; and do all of that in a private, face-saving context that Coaching provides.

Find balance. Make time for self-care and relationships that matter at the end of the day. Be committed and dedicated, but find balance. Parents, Peers, Press, Politics, and Profit Motive are all external factors that entrepreneurs face. Have an awareness of those five Ps, but don’t forget to focus on your own self-care in the midst.

Chicago Hosts Frequent Knock

The Chicago Frequent Knock business networking event will be hosted by Michele Malo on Thursday, September 19^th, from 5 – 9pm at Hyatt Lodge at McDonald’s Campus, 2815 Jorie Blvd, Oak Brook, IL 60523.

Tickets are $30, and only 50 tickets are available. You can get yours today at https://www.frequentknock.com/events/chicago-hosted-by-michele-malo.

Jeffrey Klubeck will interview distinguished guest speaker, Dr. James Dently, at the Chicago Frequent Knock business networking event. Get your tickets today and reserve your spot to start cultivating quality relationships and invest in yourself.

You can learn more about Secret Knock at www.secretknock.co and Frequent Knock at www.frequentknock.com.

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