Welcome to Making It! This weekly show explores the lives and stories of entrepreneurs as they share their unique perspectives on their success and the path to making it. 

Episode summary: Virginia Muzquiz, The Referral Diva® made mistakes repeatedly before she found her business acumen. She is the founder of Master Connector Inc., where she teaches entrepreneurs and small business owners the art and science of filling their sales funnels with high-quality referrals.

     However, that hasn’t always been the case. Before becoming The Referral Diva and Master Connector, she tried to make her living in a way that wasn’t aligned with her vision, and the resulting financial stress hurt her family and marriage. But Virginia took heed of what was going on around her and learned these three keys, which turned things around: 

1. You don’t have to market to everyone; find those most profitable to your company. 
2. Serve your clients/customers in a way the other providers don’t do and become a trusted advisor. 
3. Develop referral consortiums, connect and share resources. 

   Her advice is to never take shortcuts in business; instead, develop resilience by doing the hard thing and build your business muscles. In this episode, Virginia shares her to-the-point and reassuring story about what making it means to her, and how to get there. 

“If I could go back and talk to my younger self, as I began the entrepreneurial journey, I would tell myself no shortcuts, no shortcuts.” 

 “Biggest lesson I have learned on the way to making it is to run a business like a business, not like a hobby — and to chase results, not fame.”

– Virginia Muzquiz

Guest bio: Virginia Muzquiz is The Referral Diva®, Founder and Chief Connection Officer at Master Connectors, Inc., has more than two decades of experience generating business by referral. She has been teaching entrepreneurs and small business owners the art and science of filling their sales funnels with high quality, on-demand referrals.  

She calls her process Referral Alchemy and when fully implemented, it can quite literally infuse tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars into your business without a single dollar in ad spend. You see, most of the business owners in your network are running unconscious referral algorithms. They don’t really think about you until someone asks for a recommendation, and then they drop your name. If you are lucky, you’ve met a couple of referral archeologists who keep you top of mind and are willing to DIG in their network to see what opportunities they can find hidden in their “Rolodex.” And then, there are the elusive referral alchemists who can seemingly make referrals appear out of thin air! 

Jim Rohn said we are the average of the 5 people we spend the most time with… so if you want to hang out with the alchemists, you need to learn to BE an alchemist… and that is what working with Virginia can help you do!

She’s also the hostess of the Business by Referral and Bad Girls on Business podcasts.

Resources or websites mentioned in this episode:

1. Mirasee
2. Master Connectors website
3. Virginia’s  LinkedIn
4. Virginia’s  Twitter
5. Virginia’s new upcoming book: Referral Alchemy
6. Master Connectors’ Facebook  
7. Bad Girl on Business podcast
8. Business by Referral podcast

Credits:

• Guest – Virginia Muzquiz
• Associate producer: Danny Bermant
• Producer: Cynthia Lamb
• Assembled by: Geoff Govertsen
• Executive producer: Danny Iny 
• Audio Post Supervisor: Evan Miles, Christopher Martin 
• Audio Post Production by Post Office Sound
• Music soundscape: Chad Darnyelle Snavely 

 If you don't want to miss future episodes of Making It, please subscribe to Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you're listening right now. And if you liked the show, please leave us a starred review. It's the best way to help us get these ideas to more people.

If you have a question for Making It, put the show title in the subject line and send it to [email protected]

Music and SFX credits: 

• Track Title: Sweet Loving Waltz

Artist Name(s): Sounds Like Sander

Writer Name: S.L.J. Kalmeijer

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

• Track Title: The Sunniest Kids

Artist Name(s): Rhythm Scott

Writer Name: Scott Roush

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

• Track Title: Sky

Artist Name(s): OBOY

Writer Name: Martin Hampton

Writer Name: Matej Djajkovski

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

• Track Title: Lush

Artist Name(s): Aaron Sprinkle

Writer Name: Aaron Sprinkle

Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

• Track Title: Join The Parade

Artist Name(s): Sounds Like Sander

Writer Name: S.L.J. Kalmeijer

Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

Episode transcript:

     I'm Virginia Muzquiz and you're listening to Making It! I run a business called Master Connectors Incorporated and we help six figure solo entrepreneurs build businesses that make a difference.

     For me making it is being able to have a vision, a very clear vision, of what you want to create in your life, what you want to feel, what you want to experience, what you want to achieve, what you want to contribute... having a very clear picture of why you're here and what you're human experience is going to look like. And then creating a busine...