Networking Strategies with Virginia Muzquiz

I'm so excited is because I have my dear friend and partner. I know Virginia is going to talk more about what it means to be a networking partner here today on LinkedIn Live, Facebook Live, YouTube Live, and we're even on Virginia's channel as well.

Yay!

So in the chat, in the chat, let us know where you're dialing in from and let us know where you're seeing this. Are you seeing this on YouTube? Are you seeing this on Facebook? Are you seeing this on LinkedIn, on Joe's LinkedIn or on Virginia's LinkedIn? Are you not sure where you're seeing it, but you're live? Say hello. And let us know you're live. So, Virginia, welcome to this LinkedIn Live.

Hi. Thanks, Joe. This is exciting. I think I've been on one other person's LinkedIn Live in the history of ever. So, and this is the first time I'm streaming live to my own channel. So that's pretty cool.

Yeah, it's really, really exciting to be on LinkedIn Live. I remember the first time I was on LinkedIn Live and it was, it was really interesting. I didn't know that anybody watched LinkedIn Live. Now we have over a dozen people watching us live and probably over 1,000 people that are going to see this over the next 24 hours.

So fun.

But you know, when it comes to networking strategies, and we're going to be talking a lot about networking strategies, you are a master connector and a master networker, and you teach people how to network. What does it really mean to network? Because people throw that word around and they don't really understand what networking is. What does networking mean to you?

Networking is the art and science of connecting to get shit done.

Okay, connecting to get stuff done, to get shit done. What does that mean to you? What do you mean get shit done?

I really— so we all have goals. We all have dreams. We all have desires. We have things that we want to learn. We have things that we want to contribute. We have things that we want to experience in life. So when we are making decisions about how we want to live our lives, building a business that supports the things that we want to learn, the ways that we want to grow, the ways that we want to contribute to the world and the person that we want to become. Then we can't do that alone. So the myth of the solo entrepreneur is, um, is it really— I'd love to kill it. I want to— I just— I want to stab it to death like it was a big hairy monster because no one ever did anything great by themselves. And what happens when you live the solopreneur myth, which is I got to do it all on my own, um, for whatever reason there, whether it's because like that's the American way or because I don't have enough money to pay people to help me or whatever it is, when we live that way, we live less of a life than we could. And so for me, networking is all about connecting with people and building deep, profound, abiding relationships with people who can help us experience the things in life that we want to experience, learn the things that we want to learn, and contribute in the massive way that we want to contribute in the world and leave a legacy. So for me, networking is all about amplification of our human potential.

That's really powerful. And that's why you're so passionate about it, because it's not just about transactional business. It's not just about giving business to each other. It's about really connecting and getting to know each other. And LinkedIn is the world's largest professional social network. I know we have many people watching us live right now. And if you guys are watching us live, be like Larissa and leave a comment.

Larissa, thank you.

She's watching live from the Bay Area. So thank you so much for commenting, guys. Give this a like, give us a little heart if you're watching us live right now, or if you're watching the replay, give us a little heart. Let us know that you're here, that you're watching us. Also let us know what you do for a living in the chat. We're always curious to know whether you're watching the live or the replay, what you guys are doing for the, uh, for a living. And if you can hit that repost button as well so more people can see it. So on your profile, when you're looking at LinkedIn Live, there's a repost button on the bottom right corner. Just click on that and more people will be invited to have this conversation. This is a group conversation, so feel free to chime in anytime. So Virginia, you made it your mission to teach people how to get referrals, and you have a very unique process to do that with your master connector, teaching people how to become a master connector. You call it Business by Referral Blueprint. Can you talk more about what made you decide to build this and what are you doing right now? What is this thing that you're, you're doing? you're building?

So I've always, I've always been a salesperson. I've always loved connecting with people. Uh, my dad was an entrepreneur, and, you know, he was like, um, you know, Cliff in Cheers, right? Like, he would walk into the bar and everyone would be like, John! So he was, he was somebody who built his whole business by relationship, and that was back in the early '70s. So It was at a time when social media didn't exist, fax machines didn't exist. We were still using rotary phones with the big long twisty cords. And the way that you did business was you met people, you gained their trust, spit in a handshake, you did a deal. That was how Dad did business. Fast forward to about 2005, I get hired by a guy who owns 7 Sylvan Learning Center locales. So, he's a franchise owner. And he wants to get into the No Child Left Behind space because there were literally 8 figures worth of opportunity for his business. But he could not make headway, mostly because he was mostly like a marketing guy and he had no education background. And so he didn't really speak the language of the educators that he was trying to pitch the Sylvan services to. And he was quite baffled why it was that the gold standard in outside tutoring services was not popular with these schools that were deemed failing, as defined by the US Congress. So I have a strong educator's background. And so I went in and I started creating relationships. And what I did was I found out from the decision makers, like, who are you? What matters to you? What are you proud of? And obviously, I am not an urban person. You know, I don't fit the profile. In fact, I fit the profile of we should mistrust you. And so, what I found out was that the vast majority of the people that were the decision-makers in those school systems might be like first-generation college graduates. And certainly, the administrators, superintendents were first-generation master's degree, doctoral degree. And I'm a first-generation college graduate. from my family because my grandfather was an immigrant from the Ukraine. And so, when I was able to bond with them over that similarity, they started to trust me. But I also had to borrow other people's influence because I didn't know anybody in the urban environment. And so, what I found out was that if I could just find the people who had influence with the families that I wanted to help, and they could say, you can trust her. She'll do right by you. They would believe those people and then come and work with me over, you know, other, other groups. And so I created a system for myself that would allow me to expand that. And here's what I did. I figured out what was my best opportunity because we don't want to be— we don't want to be networking for either clients or partners with people that aren't going to provide us with the optimum return on investment of our effort and time. And so, what I realized was that 3rd graders through 5th graders came to all their sessions and we got paid the full contract price because we only got paid for who the kid, which kids attended, right? So, if I were going to go after high school students, which is my background is teaching high school students, but we only had a 17% show-up rate. So, if we only have a 17% show-up rate, that means we were going to only capture 17% of the potential contract value. That's a bad deal. So I figured out what is my, my rich target market. It was 3rd through 5th graders, and there were a lot of benefits to that. So I just started buying, like, like getting influence, building influence with people who could influence 3rd through 5th graders to say yes to my tutoring program. And we took all the other ones that wanted to come, the sisters and the siblings and the cousins and whatever of those 3rd through 5th graders. But we focused on a rich target market. And so I called that, like, build your tribe, define your tribe. Who is it that you want to market to that you'll get the best results with and the optimum payout for? So they can afford to pay you. You're going to get all— you're going to get a full contract. They'll pay out the entire contract and they'll get a result. So our 3rd to 5th graders consistently met target. Because they weren't that far behind. So, we were able to catch them up. The second thing that I realized was I needed to become a trusted authority. So, I needed to have messaging that allowed my referral partners to speak about me to other people. So, I had to give my new partners, the people that wanted to help me, the message. Then, I needed to define the team. I needed to design it in a way that I was networking and spending most of my time with the people that had the most influence with the families that had 3rd through 5th graders. So, I had to design that team. And then, I went around building influence with them by finding out who they were, what mattered most to them, and what they needed in order to accomplish their mission. And providing them with the support they needed to do what they wanted to do in return for introductions to the families that we wanted to serve. And, uh, by the 5th year— the first year we had like zero. The first year I did it, we closed close to $200,000, just me. By the 5th year, I had 10, uh, regional managers working for me, each managing a $250,000 to $300,000 business unit, and we closed over $2.5 million and served over 2,500 students. in our 5th year. So we went basically from $0 to $2.5 million in annual revenue in just under 5 years. The total revenue I generated across those 5 years was about $6 million. And so, uh, I realized— a friend of mine came to me and said, man, can you teach entrepreneurs how to do that? Because I got an entire network of entrepreneurs who would love to learn how to build their business to a quarter million dollars just on referral marketing alone. And that's really where the Business by Referral process came from. And I really call it the referrals on demand process because you can decide when you need referrals, when you don't need referrals, when you need knowledge, when you need help, and when you, when you just, you know, need to deliver. So you kind of get off that revenue roller coaster because you always know that your pipeline is full of prospects that are waiting to do business with you.

That's very powerful to be able to utilize other people's influence. Like you said earlier, this is the thing that you figured out that helped you generate $6 million. across all those business units. Guys, pay attention. If you're tuning in right now, be like, uh, Sabrina, be like Evan, be like Larissa. Leave a comment, let us know where you're dialing in from. Give it a little heart if you're here watching live. Um, I'm really excited about what you're talking about, Virginia, because this is something that a lot of people have no idea how to do— borrowing other people's influence, using a system the way that you created a system. So you have this incredible system that you built And now you're teaching the system to other people. Can you give us an overview of what the system consists of?

Yeah. So, there's basically 5 steps. The first one is the clarity phase. And that's what, what's in the Business by Referral Blueprint helps you really design that clarity phase. It's really all about getting clear on your people, the people that you want to serve, really getting clear on your process. So what, what are the milestones that your customers and clients go through in order to get to success? Much like your pathway, you know, from lurker to influencer, Joe, it's, it's really what is the pathway that they follow? So what's your process? How do you package that? How are you pricing it? And can you create a good, a good message for people to take to their networks on your behalf? The second part is what I call curation. And curating your network means taking a real look at all of the people that you're connected to and deciding how are they functioning. So your network, not everybody in your network is meant to bring you referrals. Some people are going to bring you information. Some people are going to bring you chicken soup when you're sick. Some people are going to give you advice. Some people are just really good to go out and have a good time with, go bowling and have a beer. And, and some people are good for promoting, connecting, and referring you. And those Those folks are the ones you want to be able to spend the most time with. Once you know who the people are that are connecting, promoting, and referring you, then you want to go through and decide, well, what kind of a relationship do I have with them? Do I have an acquaintance kind of relationship? Which means basically, you know, I have their business card, I have their information, and if somebody handed me their business card, I consider that permission to contact. So, once I have that information, I want to have some sort of a coffee meeting with people and get to know them. I want to know about their background, their family, their likes, their dislikes, their values, their vision, their mission, their passion, their purpose. I want to know who they are as human beings. And I want to see, can I be of benefit to them? And can they be of benefit to me? And I call that relationship the associate relationship. About 1/3 of your relationships will move from acquaintance to associate, and you'll want to keep them because you vibe. Once I'm talking with an associate, I want to see, hmm, will they promote me? Will they become advocates for my business? And again, that's about a 30% ratio. So about 30% of your associates will become advocates, and you'll have— well, no, maybe a little more, maybe about half, half, 50%, uh, will become advocates for you. They'll be willing to repost things on social media, do a LinkedIn Live with you. Maybe they're willing to email with you, take you networking, create a webinar swap, invite you on their podcast, something that kind of makes you visible to their audience. The next level, about half of those advocates might also become what I call ambassadors. Those are the people that are finding other promoters for you. They're like, oh, hey, this person has the same audience as you. This person has influence with your tribe. Maybe you could— maybe you guys should meet and see if there's synergy between you. So they're consistently connecting you. to the people that you need to know. Much like, Joe, what I was talking with you about yesterday, my friend Charlene, who has a program with LinkedIn and does a lot with AI and is really interested in learning about the AI that you use, the AI platform that you've developed for LinkedIn. So I'm able to connect you to her because she has a similar audience. They're business owners who are using LinkedIn to grow their business. Right. So The next group, about a third of your ambassadors, will also be allies. And an ally is doing all the things. They're bringing you clients. They're connecting you to other connectors. They're promoting you and advocating for you. And, and they also tend to turn out to be people that share their knowledge and are friends. They're great to have a beer with and go bowling. So they kind of do all the things. And my original thought when I started this was like, People like that would be great. Uh, you know, after all, Jesus had 12 disciples, right? And what I found out was 12 was a recipe for burnout. And so I found like if you have like 5, 5 solid allies that you're connecting with on a regular basis, that you're sharing knowledge, resources, and networks on a regular basis, that you're regularly promoting each other, that you're really up in each other's business and you're running buddies, that's enough to create a quarter million dollar business by referral without a lot of headache or hassle. And then the really interesting piece of that is once you have all of that dialed in, it's super easy to move to scale because you've got enough money coming in. Your pipeline is consistently full. You're not riding the revenue roller coaster where you're like, we— I made a bunch of money and now I'm delivering. Oh my God, now I have nobody and I have to go find a new client. So When you're constantly in that, like, I gotta find a client. Yay, I found a client. Gotta find a client. Yeah, you can't scale on that. You just because it's exhausting. So once you build out this referral nexus and you've got everybody in their proper place and everybody's doing what they need to do and you've got the cadence moving along, you can pretty consistently depend on a quarter million dollar revenue stream. And then you can take all that messaging and all that sales process and all of those things that you're. Training your referral allies on, and you can hire a new salesperson, or you can hire a VA to handle your social media management, or whatever it is. You just, you have a little extra income to begin the process of scale. Up until then, most entrepreneurs are just like, they can't, they can't scale because they don't have processes in place and they don't have the money to pay anybody. And so I get, I really, this system really gets people through that. The next thing to understand is that nobody ever built their business without this. So if you think Sir Richard Branson is a multi-multi-multi-billionaire, right, or Elon Musk is a billionaire, or Gary Vee is, is, you know, multi-multi-millionaire alone, you're deluding yourself. They have relied on strategic alliances and partnerships to get them where— to get them where they are and to scale. It's how they find their employees. It's how they find their managers. It's how they find their best clients. It's how they It's how they find their private jet. It's how they find everything. So really and truly, everybody that is anybody has developed these skills, many of them organically without a defined process. But I've studied it enough and I've watched it enough that I've been able to codify how people do it. What is the algorithm, the internal algorithm that naturals use to build their business this way so that anybody can learn it?

I love that. And guys, if you're paying attention now and you listen to the 5 A's that Virginia dropped, the acquaintance, the associate, the advocates, the ambassador, the ally, go ahead and write value in the chat so I know that you're getting value from this. I know that when I hear this and I think, oh my gosh, there's actually a process to networking because I've gotten some really, really big accounts from networking. And it's often, you don't often think about, you think it's just kind of like you just got lucky. You know, if you network, you'll get lucky. But the truth is there's actually a process to this. Hope is a great thing. It's just not a great strategy. Luck is a great thing, but you can't rely on it. Right. You can rely on something that you can do, which is taking action and knowing that 30% of your acquaintances will become associates if you have the right conversation, you have the right training, knowing that 50% of those associates will become advocates. Knowing that 30% of those will become ambassadors. Now, if you need, let's say, 20 ambassadors and 5 allies, now you know exactly how you're going to get to your goal, and you've built a system around this called the Master Connector, the Business by Referral Blueprint. So if you guys want to grab the Business by Referral Blueprint for free, you can actually go to masterconnectors.com right now. I just downloaded it myself, and it's pretty impressive, the PDF that she has over there. So go ahead and download it. Let me know that you're going to download it by, I'm going to do it. Just write, I'm going to do it in the chat. Whether you're watching the live or the replay, let me know that you're going to do it. I'm trying to get some feedback from people. Just make sure that you're alive, that you're actually there. And it looks like people are responding in the comments. So thank you so much, everyone that has been responding. Adam, thank you for tuning in from Arizona. I was just in Arizona. I just gave a speech there. Evan, thank you for tuning in from Connecticut. Larissa, thanks for saying value. Adam, thanks for saying value. Evan, thanks for saying value. And guys, remember, it's all about building those relationships. Networking doesn't just happen by itself. The word work is within the word network or within the word networking. Some people think they just show up and do it, but you have to have those conversations. And Virginia definitely has the system to do this. And I think you told me that next year you're taking on a few new clients for your Master Connectors. Can you talk about that process? If somebody wants to work with you, somebody's watching this and they're like, you know what? I really like what she's saying. She's running multiple networking groups at the same time. Very successful ones in in Minnesota. Is in Minnesota?

Is that where? No, St. Louis. St. Oh, Jenny B is on. Hi, Jenny. Um, yeah.

Missouri.

Okay. Yeah, in Missouri. Yeah. Um, so um yeah. Oh God! Now I forgot the question. I'm in the St. Louis area.

Yeah.

So you're Jenny signed on and I got so excited. I got to shiny object.

No, so she, she left a comment. She wrote Jenny from St. Louis in the comments over there. So you can actually see all the people that are leaving the comments on your profile. So there are people that are leaving comments on my profile, and there are people leaving comments on your profile because we're going live on both profiles.

So cool.

Yeah, so Jenny, thank you so much for, for tuning in, uh, from Virginia's profile. But what I want to say is that you're already running a few successful groups, and you want to teach people how to network. You want to give them this process. And not only that, you also have You told me that you have something where you actually download everyone's contacts from all the different places and you organize it all for them. You have a whole system for this where it's like almost done for you. You hold their hand through the process, which I know a lot of CEOs know the value of networking, or entrepreneurs know the value of networking, but going through that process, it's a little tedious for them and they end up just not doing it. And so they have a million email addresses for each person and everything's unorganized, right? You kind of give them a system, help them organize it, and make sure that they're successful. So can you Talk more about the program for people that might be interested in getting your program?

Yeah. So you had asked me kind of what are the steps, right? So what I do with folks, and my program is called the Referral Accelerator Program. So we do the clarity phase, which I already talked about. We do this curation phase that I already talked about. So in the curation phase, that's really when we grab all of your contacts from everywhere, from LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, your phone, your Infusionsoft Ontraport, your emails, everywhere you have it. We put them in one big spreadsheet. And then, I walk you through and I show you how to curate it. Once we've got your curation done, we take a look at like, okay, so who are the people right now that are your associates? How do we move your— which 1/3 of those people do you want to move into the advocate place? And what's the possibility for that? How do we do that? How do we move advocates to ambassadors? How do we move ambassadors to allies, right? And that's the cultivation process. So we have a cultivation process that I teach that we use after we curate. And then we create collaboration, right? So I have an entire strategy around creating that. So Joe, I'm just gonna highlight the conversation we had yesterday, right? I really reached out to you just to say, hey, it was a, it was a, hey, how you doing? Checking in, part of my process that I do. And then you and I started talking and I said, Joe, I just, I really want to do something for you. What can I do for you? I want to, I know you've got this new AI tool. Hey, you know what? My community, my paid, one of my paid communities is meeting on the 18th. Why don't you come in and, and demo your AI? And you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to open it up to my whole, my whole audience and I'm going to invite them in. And hey, maybe we'll livestream it. We'll figure out how to livestream it on LinkedIn while we're at it, right? Like, I was like, let me do that. And then you said to me, well, hey, why don't I have you on LinkedIn? We'll do a LinkedIn Live. And so what happened was, because we are really advocate ambassadors for one another at this point, and we really like each other, we create a collaborative agreement pretty much every— almost every time we talk, there's some sort of collaborative agreement. And it's I'll go and you go. And then we do that and then we get together and we evaluate how did it go? What was the result? What did you get? What did I get? And we continually work that process. And so that process is the collaboration process. And one of the things that I find that most entrepreneurs struggle with when they're out there networking is that they understand that successful networking is a game of giving. It's a game of offering my resources, my network, my, my knowledge to other people. And they give and give and give and give, but they rarely receive because they're not aware of how to create collaborative networking contracts with one another. And so, um, they often overgive and underreceive. And so this collaboration piece really resolves that challenge of I'm out there giving everybody referrals, I'm out there connecting everybody, I'm out there giving people the shirt off my back, But I'm not— my network isn't giving me what I need. And quite often, it's because we don't know what we need. We're not clear about what we need. And we don't create those contracts of reciprocity. And so, people don't know that we need help because we just don't ask. And I have a series of what kind of collaborative contract can you create with an associate? What kind of collaborative contract do you create with an advocate? What kind of contract do you create with an ambassador? And what kind of contract do you create with an ally? And so, once those collaborative contracts are, are, are in place, that's when things really start rocking and rolling because you're giving and receiving and you're creating that reciprocity intentionally through meaningful, honest conversations that involve the ability to take feedback, to receive feedback. So if I bring you a referral and it doesn't work, I want to know why. I want to know what about that person? What about their program? What about their audience? What about them that I thought they were a great fit? Why did they not turn out to be such a great fit so that I can go back. And as I'm looking for referrals and connections for you, I can be more intentional about how I curate those to save you time so that when I'm bringing you a connection, it's a connection that resonates and that you can begin to rock and roll and you can be an advocate, ambassador, or an ally right away. I can, I can, I can, I can accelerate that process. If I bring you a client, I want them ready to buy. So if I bring you a client and they don't buy, I want to know why so that I can make sure that the next person that I bring you that I think is a great client, I've asked all the questions and I'm bringing you buyers, not just tire kickers.

Wow, I love that. I love that you want to be very, very helpful to the people that are allies and ambassadors of yours and get people that will actually invest. And, you know, one thing that you said before was like really, really resonated with me is like When someone— when you're just giving, giving, giving and you're not getting, Yeah. it's usually because, A, you're not clear about what you can get, but more importantly, it's you're not communicating that to your network properly and effectively. And because of that, it's really on you to make sure that you're doing that. And if you guys are not sure how to do that, Virginia has a process to help you be able to do that in all the different areas, uh, for advocates, for ambassadors, for allies, and even for acquaintances. Those contracts are really important. And contract sounds like a very like boxed-in word, but it doesn't have to be. At the end of the day, we all have an agreement. When we get on a phone, we're in agreement that we're going to be paying attention. We have an agreement that we're here, that we're present. And so guys, if you're getting value from this, hit that repost button so more people see it and also so you get reminded to watch this again because I know that I'm getting so much value right now and I want to watch this again. Um, and Virginia briefly mentioned, um, the AI tool. Thank you so much for mentioning that. And yes, um, we— I did come up with an AI tool which I'm very, very happy with together with my team. And, um, by the way, if you guys didn't get the Business by Referral Blueprint, you can download it for free right here on masterconnectors.com. So grab it. But I just quickly want to show you what I'm talking about. And as you're talking about that, I'm like, oh my God, Virginia, I need to add those 5 categories to the list within Evie AI. So if I, if I go to my little Evie AI tool over here, because I have the Chrome extensions, uh, there, and I clicked on Save Profiles, I have the ability to now create those lists that you mentioned. So I have over here on the right, I have a button that says Manage Lists. So if I click on Manage Lists, I have lists of clients and potentials and, and members of Entrepreneurs Organization, and I have, you know, Evie AI premium clients and all this stuff. I can add a new list now. And because of what you just taught us, I can take action and I can say ally, you know. So I just, I just add an ally right there. Boom. And now I'm gonna go find your profile on LinkedIn, which is right over here. Check this out. I'm gonna find your profile on LinkedIn. I'm gonna add you as an ally. I'm gonna hit the dropdown button over here. I'm gonna press add to list and I'm gonna click ally. And now I have you saved as an ally. So I'm going to go find my 5 allies and save them to that particular list. And then, you know, I get a whole summary, an AI-written summary with your profile. Yeah, you're a seasoned professional with a focus on referral marketing and business development. You have an ABD in Spanish from Washington University in St. Louis. You're the founder and CEO of Master Connectors since 2017. You were teaching entrepreneurs and small businesses the art of science of generating high-quality referrals. A process that you call Referral Alchemy. And concurrently, you're the director of marketing and business development for BNI St. Louis, established in 2013, and you support entrepreneurial growth in St. Louis Metro East region. And your expertise lies in networking, business development, and creating effective referral systems. This was all written for me using Evvy AI's artificial intelligence. So it's, it's really cool that I can now use what you just taught on this LinkedIn Live Together with my AI. That's—

I love it.

Fascinating. So if you guys, uh, want Virginia's email address, you can go to masterconnectors.com. There's a ticker on the bottom that's kind of showing you the URL. And also you can download this blueprint for free, which is very, very helpful for me. I downloaded over here, I'm going through and I'm like, oh my God, this is really, really good. So I highly recommend getting that PDF. This way you'll get on her list and she'll know who you are, and also she'll be able to offer you her Master Connectors program. What did you say your program is called, the one that you're—

It's called the Referral Accelerator. It's not on my website, so my website's under construction.

So, okay, okay, but this— but you can actually still get that copy of that, and you know, you can still grab that copy. So I highly recommend you guys do that. But if you want the Referral Accelerator program, just write accelerator in the chat and Virginia will go ahead and send you that after. I want to know from the live or the replay, whoever's watching this Um, let us know that you're interested in that by just writing accelerator in the chat. And again, there's a very limited amount of people that Virginia takes onto these programs. So if you're interested in that, make sure that you write accelerator and she'll send you more information about that. Now, if you guys have questions about business networking, feel free to put them below because Virginia is the queen of business networking. Um, looks like Evan wrote accelerator. He's very interested in that program. By the way, Evan Goldenberg and I were both part of Entrepreneurs Organization. I don't know if you remember Evan, but I'm going to feature Evan right here because he's being so active. Thank you. He's an architect that designs wine cellars. Okay, have you ever met a wine cellar architect? They're so referable. They're so referable because, you know, a lot of wealthy people, Virginia, and they all have a wine cellar.

Dude, I do, and I have like the perfect connection for you.

Oh my God. So I'm gonna— I'm gonna save Evan right over here. You see, I'm gonna save Evan into Evie AI so I can stay on top of his, his posts. Then I'm going to click here and I'm going to add him to my EO list because he's, uh, I met him through Entrepreneurs Organization. So that's the relevancy that I have with him. And then what I'm going to do is I'm going to take his LinkedIn URL and then I'm going to give it to Virginia so she has it in her message over here. I'm going to press that. So now she has his URL so she can be in touch with him and build that relationship. But what I want to say about Evan is that Evan is so friendly, so nice, And if you're a construction manager or a GC, a general contractor, or someone who owns a home that wants to have an exquisite wine cellar, he puts together incredible programs. And you, Evan, you can use Evvy AI to start posting more often. So maybe I'll help you with creating some posts. But check this out, I'm gonna drop a comment on Evan's And Evan's recent post. I'm going to select my persona and I want to show this to you. I'm going to be showing this to you anyway, but I just want to show this to you over here. So I'm going to build rapport with him. I'll press generate and within 3 seconds I have a comment. I know a few people who might be interested in this opportunity. I'll definitely pass along the information.

Boom.

So the AI wrote this and I was able to leave that comment in just 3 seconds. So that's what Virginia was talking about in terms of us building a relationship together. I was telling her about my AI tool. She was telling me about her program. And it just makes sense when you have an ambassador and you build a relationship like that, it just makes sense to be in touch and to educate them. But if you don't have a proper system, if networking is important to your business, write networking in the chat. I'm curious to know how many people rely on networking to get clients. I'm going to go to the chat right now. The best way to go to the chat is to see all my recent activity, click on all posts, and then scroll here where it says comments. Drop a comment right there and then click on more recent, and that shows you all the most recent comments. Love to help. Evan said sweet, and he wrote lol, and he wrote accelerator. Awesome. If anybody else is watching this live right now, let us know what you do for a living. Put in the chat what you do for a living. I'd love to see you right now. So Virginia, I do have a question for you about networking. You've been networking for a really long time. What do you say to somebody that says networking doesn't work?

Um, networking doesn't work, just like LinkedIn doesn't work, just like Facebook ads don't work, just like TV ads won't work, um, just like all kinds of things don't work. The reason things don't work is because the secret lies below the waterline. So just because you see something and it looks successful, and then you go try to emulate it without a mentor, without someone who can peel back the curtain and show you what's beneath the system, you're not gonna be successful. Because you can like the outcome, but the work that goes into it is often invisible until you get a mentor and follow a process. And so, uh, I agree that going from event to event to event to event and handing out your business card doesn't work. I remember one time, it's probably one of the funniest networking stories ever. I am, um, going to an event. I'm going to be the speaker at a networking event that Brandon Dempsey, uh, who I know you know, Joe, um, he owns, um, a marketing firm here in the St. Louis area, and he invited me to speak at a network— at one of his networking, uh, events. And so I'm in my little black pumps and my little Brooks Brothers suit, and I'm like walking down the street and go into this brownstone. And as I open the door to go into the brownstone, a business card attached to a hand attached to a man that I can no longer remember even what he looked like. But I do remember what he did. He sold like Spectrum Internet. He was like internet kind of person, and and the hand came out. I fell backwards down the steps, landed on somebody behind me. You know, feet up in the air, my skirts over my head. Really, really great time for me. I'm all bloody and I'm bruised and everything, and and so I I just recover and I go inside and I go to the restroom to kind of clean up, and I look in the trash can and. All of his business cards were in the trash can because networking doesn't work if all you're doing is throwing your business card at people and pushing them downstairs, right? And so I've often heard it said like, oh, those business cards don't do anything for you on your desk. They do even less for you in the trash can in the women's restroom.

Wow.

So the bottom line is networking doesn't work. If it's not working, it's because you're missing crucial elements. It's like if your Facebook ads aren't working, it's because you're missing crucial elements. If your TikTok strategy isn't working, it's because you're missing crucial— if your LinkedIn strategy isn't working, it's because you're not following Joe's 9-step program. He's isolated it down to, oh, that's because you're still a lurker. Like you're doing lurker things.

Yeah.

You're not doing influencer things, you're doing lurker So if you do lurker things and you want influencer results, that's not gonna happen. And the same thing is true with networking. If you're eventing, you're not networking. You're just going places and handing out business cards, and that strategy doesn't get you far.

I love that. If you're eventing, you're not networking, you're just venting, right?

You're just—

yeah, you're just gonna be venting because you're gonna be pushing people down the stairs. That's a crazy story, how you fell down the stairs from a guy shoving a business card in your face. Um, I, I often go to networking events and people give me their business cards and I say, I don't take cards. I don't give cards. I take cards. So thank you for giving me your card. Because they asked me, give me your card. What I do instead, I say, let's connect on LinkedIn. Let's set up a call. What's your cell phone number? I send them a text message. I take a selfie. I send them the selfie on the text message. And then I keep that conversation going on the way home. And I ask them questions about themselves until we have an actual phone conversation. And, you know, until you have a real conversation with someone, a one-on-one, and build that relationship, you don't really know the person. Just because you saw somebody at an event, it doesn't mean you know anything about them. You have to be able to create that connectivity because the fortune is in the follow-up. Most people like to show up and throw up. I always say show up and follow up. So I love what you shared about someone that said networking doesn't work. Yeah, it doesn't work because you're not working, because it's just not working because Facebook doesn't work and LinkedIn doesn't work, or if you don't have a strategy, you don't have a mentor to teach you. So I highly recommend that people hire Virginia to be their mentor. If you feel like networking is important to your business, definitely hire Virginia because she has a great program. And, you know, I do have a question, Virginia, for everyone watching this right now. Yeah, my question is, who would you like to meet?

Oh, you know what? I always ask people that question. This is hilarious. I ask people that question at the end of my podcast, and you're the first person to ever ask me, and I'm totally unprepared. Okay, so I will tell you, there are some people that I would like to meet that have very little to do with business. I'm just fascinated by them. Okay, so one, Dolly Parton.

Wow.

And I want to meet Dolly Parton for this reason: I think that she is the classiest person with some— with the most integrity in the entertainment industry. Uh, she often says, you know, I'm in a woman's body but I think like a man. I heard her, um, do an interview the other day and, uh, I got— who was— oh, it was Howard Stern. He was like, well, I'm sure men have like hit on you and been totally inappropriate. And she's like, well, no, really, because I just tell them, oh, you must have me mistaken for a lady of the evening or whatever. Like she just has a comeback for that, and she never got under the collar about it. But she also never did couch auditions, right? Like so, she's always been in integrity. She's incredibly generous. She um she is really committed to literacy and donates books to to kids. And and I just I think she's super super classy. And when she um when they wanted to inter they wanted to induct her into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Did you hear this story about Dolly Parton?

No, I didn't.

So they, they tried to induct her into the, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and she said, well, I would love to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame if only I'd ever released a rock album, so you all give me a year. And she turned around and wrote a rock album and produced Dolly Parton Rock and Roll, and then, and then accepted the nomination to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. So she had so much integrity in inside her, even as a, as a world-class Grammy-winning— anyone, like, an amazing artist and woman at 70-something years old. She turned around and said, well, I would love to earn that accolade, but I haven't done the work for that accolade. So let me go do the work, and then you can give me the accolade. And I'm like all on Dolly Parton for that. So she's on my list of people. And, um, And the other one Jenny Bellinger will appreciate—it's Neil deGrasse Tyson, the the scientist astronomer.

Why do you want to meet Neil deGrasse Tyson?

I'm fascinated with that guy's brain, and he makes so much sense to me. He was on a. He was on an interview the other day talking about free will, arguing, like debating the concept of free will. And it was just— he's super interesting. And he just makes science so accessible. And I love how he thinks. And he's just this personable, smart guy who does science in a way that really impresses me.

Awesome, awesome. Guys in the chat, let us know who you want to meet. Who's a person that you want to meet to help you be able to do what it is that you need to do to grow your business, to improve, to take your life to the next level? Who do you want to meet? Go ahead in the chat, let us know. Um, is it real estate agents? Is it— who's the center of influence for you? A center of influence is somebody who is in the position to refer business to you. And a lot of the times people don't even know who their center of influence is. So they just say people, you just want to meet people. Well, there's plenty of people on the street. So who do you want to meet? Let us know. We'd love to hear. Um, do you have a center of influence that you want to meet?

Um, yeah, I really— marketing, marketing agency owners. So, um, particularly I'm— I love working with coaches and consultants that are serving the 6-figure consultant market. So, you know, folks that have AI platforms, uh, accountants, marketing agencies, um, I know you've got, you know, a lot of EOS, um, EOS trainers. EOS trainers, those are great for me. Um, they, they just know a lot of people who need to grow and scale their business. So those are really, really good for me. And I am really excited because coming up here, I'm going to be launching um, my, my season 5 of the Business by Referral podcast, and I'm going to be featuring entrepreneurs that are growing their business through networking on that podcast. So I'm steering away this season from doing a lot of expert interviews and really getting down to Main Street. So people that are out there networking, rolling up their sleeves, building their network, leveraging their network really working to build their network by referral. And I would love, love, love to interview those folks. So if you're listening right now and you would like to be one of the first guests on season 5, I'll be starting interviews the week between Christmas and New Year's. I would be more than happy to have you apply. Truly, if you think about it, you know, I only have so many spots available, so I won't be accepting everybody. But if you're an entrepreneur that's earning $5,000 to $7,000 or more per month and you are out networking and would love the exposure of being on a major brand podcast, I would love to know that too. So you could just put podcast in the, in the chat and I would be more than happy to do that as well. So yeah.

Thank you so much for that offer. That's so generous. By the way, I just booked a meeting through LinkedIn. So excited for tomorrow, 8:45 AM EST. So I, I got a new, uh, potential client here that's, uh, on my calendar now while we're talking.

Yeah, I want to know how you did that, Joe. Uh, yeah, so, and I want to say something, Evan. I can't wait to talk to you because, um, because I love what you're saying about like not handing out a business card unless someone asks for it. Great, that's a great practice. Unless somebody asks for your business card, you were just not that interesting.

Yeah.

Like, plain and simple. So that's really great. That's really, really great.

Look how many amazing people are having conversations with us right here in the chat live. We, you know, what I love about LinkedIn Live is that you come to LinkedIn and you start having a conversation with someone, and then everybody else kind of chimes in. So guys, go ahead in the chat, let us know what you do for a living, who you want to meet, Um, put that in whether you're watching the live or the replay. I know a lot of people are going to be watching the replay of this, so go ahead, let us know what you do for a living. We're going to be reviewing the comments later as well. Um, you just go in here to my recent activity, you click on most recent, you'll be able to see what people are writing. It looks like Adam, uh, utilities, solar developers, and large solar asset owners. He's the CEO of We Recycle. And me and Adam met, I think we met in Phoenix, Arizona for the first time. Yeah, me and Adam met in Phoenix, Arizona. We had such a good time connecting. It was an EO event. I'm just gonna put him in the EO category. And the crazy thing about it, he had one of his employees from Brooklyn, from Bushwick, come.

Yep.

And we had a mutual contact that we knew, like we kind of knew each other. And it was just crazy how it was like this guy from Brooklyn meets me in Arizona, and this guy Adam and I connect. And it was just so So interesting, so interesting how that happened. So one of the things that I like to do from a networking standpoint is when I get to know someone, is to read their posts, and then to leave comments on their posts. So if you're not organizing your acquaintances, your associates, your advocates, your ambassadors, and your allies, and you're not leaving these really well thought out comments, I highly recommend you consider doing that as part of your networking effort. But most importantly, go to masterconnectors.com and download this Business by Referral Blueprint over here, which will give you some really great insights into networking. And of course, write that you're interested in the Accelerator. Write Accelerator in the chat so that Virginia can send you information about the Accelerator program. Write Podcast if you want to be interviewed for her podcast. I know some people watching this might be— might want to be interviewed on her podcast. I know that I'm going to go ahead and write Podcast for sure.

And Joe, if people are interested in the accelerator, like just to have a quick conversation about what it is and if it's right for them, they can actually go to thedivaisin.com, T-H-E-D-I-V-A-I-S-I-N, like Lucy, right? The doctor is in. That's where I got that from because I love Peanuts cartoons. So thedivaisin.com will take you to my, to my calendar and just book a 30-minute Zoom call. And we can hop on and, and have a conversation. And if it's a good fit for you, awesome. If it's not a good fit for you, I'm down. Like, I really— I want to work with people that I really can help make that next 6 figures. So if I can't help somebody make that next 6 figures, then I will find somebody who can if I'm not the right fit. So I often talk about, and I train my clients about this, we have a 100% conversion rate on all referrals.

Wow.

And okay, so it's a little misleading when it really comes down to it. But what the 100% conversion rate is, is this. If you talk to me and you're looking for a solution and I'm not the solution, I will refer you to the right solution. So when you say, look, I've got this pot of money, I'm gonna hire a mentor, I'm gonna hire a business coach, I need a platform, I need AI, I need a thing. Right? And we determine that's what you need, then I'm just going to refer you to the person that you should spend your money with. And so in that regard, I have 100% close ratio because I always get people to the place that they need to be for their next most successful step. And that might be me right now, it might be me 3 decisions away, but I want to make sure that people are getting to the right, the right next step. And all of my clients are doing the same thing for the people in their network. And it It really makes a difference when people know that they can call you and they can have an appointment with you. And they're not gonna take you on as a client if they can't mentor you, number one. If they, if they don't believe that success is something that you can create with them or that they can create with you, and they want you to be successful, so they're going to send you to the person that, or the people that they know that can create the most success for you. Well, that's ideal, right? So for me, I think that's the, the one of the real values of creating a referral nexus where you've got those, you know, 50 advocates, ambassadors, and allies that you know that they do a great job, that they get great results for their people, and that you can refer people that you meet that aren't going to take your program to the next logical step. I love that.

You could only have 100% referral rate, 100% success rate, because if you can't help them, you're going to find someone that can help them and help them get to the next stage. I always say in my seminars that when you give somebody advice, or you give them value, or you give them an introduction, or you give them an invitation to an event, or you give them information, or you tell them about a book, the value That they get from that referral or the value that they get from that information or from that invitation, they attribute to you for the rest of the time that they're getting value from that. So I've, I've introduced people to books and every time I meet them, they're like, thank you so much for introducing me to that book. You changed my life. I introduced people to other people and they said, oh my gosh, thank you so much. Every time I talk to them, I think about you because you introduced me to that person. And, and for me, it's the same way. I know who introduced me to Entrepreneurs Organization. I know who introduced me to Vistage. I know who introduced me to JVMM. I know who introduced me to these networks. And I think about those people every time I get value from those networks. And so what you're saying is, I resonate with that very much. I wrote about that in my book, High Energy Networking. So I totally resonate with what you're saying, Virginia. Virginia is the expert at networking. She's analyzed it, she's done it successfully, and she's trained many, many people on how to do it and had a lot of success. in training people on how to network, and she's running her own successful networking groups in the St. Louis area. So definitely hit her up, get on her calendar. I put a link to her calendar inside the chat. And guys, what was your big takeaway from this? We're about to wrap this up, so I want to know what was your big takeaway from this call. I'm curious to know what your big takeaway was. Put it in the chat, let me know. For me, my big takeaway is Networking is about borrowing other people's influence. I heard that before, but the way that you said it really struck a chord for me because, you know, the truth is getting in the door with someone, they're going to say, do I trust you?

Yep.

But if the trust is already there and I could borrow their influence, wow, that's really, really powerful. So that really resonates with me, guys. What resonates with you in the chat? Let me know. I'd love to to see you guys chatting with us right now. Um, as, as a final hurrah, don't forget to hit that repost button if you got value from this. Other people will see it if you hit the repost button, and they will get value from it as well. And remember, the value that they get from what you give, even if you're not the one that gave them the information, it's very, very valuable. So highly recommend reposting. Um, so guys, what did you get out of this? Let me know in the chat. If you got value from it, write value in the chat. If you want to network, write network with me in the chat so people can network with you and connect with you. I'm curious to know what you guys got from this. So any final words, Virginia, that you want to leave people with about networking, about relationships, about Master Connectors, about the Referral Accelerator? Anything else you want to leave people with?

Yeah. So if you haven't downloaded the blueprint, download the blueprint because it comes with one bonus that Joe doesn't know about. And that is I run a monthly Networking meeting called Get Connected, Stay Connected. And the whole reason I started I started this networking group was this: Everyone that opts onto my list wants to do business by referral. And I have a list of about seven or eight thousand people on my list. And what I started thinking of, I heard a Bill that Billy Ocean song came on the radio, Joe, like out of my dreams and into my car, right? And I thought. you know, get off of my list and jump into my life. Because the reality is, is your entire network that you need to do 6 additional figures is in my list, and I'm willing to share my list with you. All you have to do is show up. So as someone who opts into my list— and yes, you'll get some emails and whatever— you'll also get an invitation to the Get Connected, Stay Connected networking. Happens the final Thursday of every month, the 4th or 5th if there's a 5th Thursday of every month at 3:30 Central Time, which is 1:30 Pacific or 4:30 Eastern Time, 2:30 Mountain Time, something like that. I'm— my math on time zones is not that great. But, um, so you'll get that invitation and you can sign up and you can show up. But here's the real, the real challenge of networking. If you don't show up on the regular, people don't trust you. The very first thing— this is, this is the law of proximity that comes out of Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point. The law of proximity tells us that we trust that which is familiar. So if you show up once or twice to a networking event and don't get anything out of it and be like, oh, this is a crappy group, I didn't get anything, well, that's because you're not showing up enough. You're not making yourself useful. You're not making yourself stand out. You're not contributing to the group, and you're not Showing up often enough to be able to be a trustworthy person inside that group. So come to get connected, stay connected, get connected with the group. You'll be able to. You'll be getting connected to me. You'll be getting connected to Jenny Bellinger, who's the who's also a super connector in my network. In fact, Jenny Bellinger inherits my company if I die. Like if I die, Jenny Jenny is the person that will will inherit the will inherit the whole kingdom because she's the one person that knows how to do what I do. She's done. Referral Accelerator program for over 7 years now, doubled her revenue every single year. And here's something that Jenny does using the Referral Accelerator program that no one else can really do. Everyone wants to go viral, right?

Yeah.

I want to go viral. I want to go viral. Jenny doesn't go viral. Jenny makes viral. So Jenny, when Jenny launched her book, Jenny went viral because she activated her network, and then she activated her network to activate their network to activate their network. And that's why she ended up as a number one bestselling author. When she wanted her podcast to go to number one as the number one podcast in the world for network marketing, she activated the network and said, this is my goal and I want you all to do this one action. This is the call to action. Everybody do this call to action. And boom, she's number one. She doesn't wait for virality to happen. She makes it happen by activating the network. And that is something she's been able to do by using this 5A process and using the cultivate mechanisms to be able to expand her influence. She has interviewed Jack Canfield. She has interviewed Bob Burg. She has interviewed Jordan Adler. I don't know, Tom Chenault. I mean, this woman from like, hi, I sell Park Lane jewelry to 7 years later, interviewing the biggest names in network marketing on her podcast. It's, it's freaking incredible. And she's poised to do 7 figures coaching network marketing people in 2024, and all because she knows how to do that. And I would love to generate another dozen, another dozen Jenny Bellingers out in the world. I'd love to help another dozen, 2 dozen, 3 dozen people accomplish what she's accomplished because she's Superstar.

So guys, if you heard that and you're interested in the Accelerator program, write Accelerator in the chat so Virginia can send you some information about it. And I'm going to give everybody one tip to kind of end this off on the top of the hour over here. If you haven't sent a message to all of your LinkedIn connections, letting them know what your project is, what your goal is, and asking them what their goal is, this is a great time at the end of the year to message every one of your LinkedIn connections wishing them a holiday. A happy holidays and letting them know about what you're up to and also letting them know that if they need anything, that you're here. Make an ask from people. I want all of my connections to know about my new program or about my new initiatives, about my new project, and let people know. I have a message that I drafted for all of my connections, and I can read it to you if you want to hear it. It's not a very long message, but it's just a message letting them know about my new AI that I created for LinkedIn. And so if you guys are not sending this message to your connections because you're afraid they might think you're spamming them or whatever, asking for help is not spamming. You're allowed to ask people for help and build that relationship. And if you don't ask for help, then what's the point of being connected? A lot of people are hoarding connections on LinkedIn. Yeah, worst case scenario, people could just say no, I'm not willing to give you feedback on your new business, I'm busy. And that's okay. It was a guy that was based in Israel, and I said, how are you doing with— because I sent him a message, you know, telling him, hey, there's a war going on, and I'm messaging all my connections on LinkedIn just to kind of check in on them, see how they're doing. He's like, I don't know you. I'm not going to tell you how I'm doing. And I kind of initially thought, oh my God, that's so rude. And then I thought to myself, he must be really hurt. You know, there must be really something going on that he can't open up to me. And I didn't do a great job of building a relationship with him. So I asked him, I said, are you willing to build a relationship with me? And he said no. And he disconnected with me. And I was okay with that because now there's room for somebody else to be connected to me. There's a billion people on LinkedIn. Don't be afraid of people disconnecting from you because like Virginia said, only 30% of them are really going to be able to move down your funnel.

Yeah.

So if somebody can't move down your funnel from what Virginia calls an acquaintance that you're connected to on LinkedIn, to an associate relationship, someone that you actually had a call with and identified where the opportunity is, to an advocate, to an ambassador, and eventually to an ally, then you're wasting space on your LinkedIn because you're limited to 30,000 connections. So I highly recommend you create that space and you start reaching out to people today. And if you need help with that, definitely hit me up. But if you need help with networking, please reach out to Virginia. Virginia is amazing. I highly recommend her services. And I love that you're in my life. And thank you for coming here and sharing yourself with the world.

Oh my God, this was so much fun. I gotta learn how to do this because I just had an idea, Joe. I, I don't like writing at all. Like, I'm not a big fan. So I think I'm gonna start doing a video newsletter. And I'm just gonna do it as a LinkedIn Live. And so all the stuff I'm promoting, like if I'm promoting your AI, I'm gonna come in, you come in for 10 minutes, and you— we talk about it. And then I'm gonna let ChatGPT do like all the summary and create the LinkedIn newsletter. But I'm gonna do a video newsletter because this was really fun and I feel like this could be a really, um, a really powerful, powerful venue. And I gotta also show you— conversation.

Yeah, conversation is amazing. There, there is a— there is an AI tool now, um, that we teach people how to use inside our AI course that you can take your LinkedIn Live Yeah, the link to your LinkedIn Live, throw it into the AI tool. Yeah. And then it'll turn it into little clips for you for Instagram and TikTok. Love. Amazing. And it picks the best parts of the video. So if we just spoke for an hour, I'm going to take this 1-hour video, throw it into that tool, and it'll automatically chop it up for me in a way that allows me to be able to use those little snippets later and repurpose them. So I love tools like that that save me a ton of time. So if you guys want to learn about AI, just write AI in the chat. Happy to share that information about any of the tools that we're learning. But Virginia, I'm definitely going to show you how to use this platform that allows us to stream. And you know, the crazy thing is, well, you're not just leveraging my network, we're leveraging your network too, because I taught you how to connect your channel to this as well. So we're streaming live on Facebook, on YouTube, on my LinkedIn, but also on your LinkedIn. Stream to many other channels as well, but I'm going to show you. I'm committed to showing you. You made that ask. I'm committed to showing you how to use this tool. So, uh, we'll get together on Zoom.

Yes.

I, we can, I can share my screen and show you how to do that. If anybody else wants to learn how to go on LinkedIn Live, just write teach me LinkedIn Live in the chat, and maybe we'll ask you to join us when me and, uh, Virginia do this together. Maybe you'll join in on us, you'll join in with us, and you'll learn together with us.

Anyway, thank you very much. thedivaisin.com. Grab 30 minutes on Zoom with me. Let's talk.

thedivaisin.com. And also go to masterconnectors.com. It's on the ticker on the bottom. So check that out, guys, where you can download that blueprint. Once again, thank you so much for being here, and we'll see you on the next one.