From setbacks to success: entrepreneurial lessons with Jasmine Star, CEO of Social Curator

Akua: Now, there’s only one word to describe today’s episode on the independent business podcast. And that is powerful. Now, if you don’t know who Jasmine Starr is, I guarantee you are going to love her after you listen to this episode. She is a business strategist and CEO of Social Curator, social media marketing company.

And we sat down for an honest and real conversation about entrepreneurship. Jasmine shares with us her business journey from where she started to the major lessons she’s learned and how she deals with imposter syndrome. As business owners, we all experience fear and self doubt and Jasmine reminds us that no matter what obstacle you are facing to keep showing up, do the work and move forward.

This episode was such a gift for me and I know it will be for you too. So let’s get into it. Hey everyone, this is your host Akua Kanadu and you’re listening to the Independent Business Podcast. More people than ever are working for themselves and building profitable businesses in the process. So on this show, I get to sit down with some of the most influential authors, entrepreneurs, and creators to break down the science of self made success so that you can achieve it too.

Hello, Jasmine. How are we doing today? 

Jasmine: I’m doing fantastic. I am very excited for this conversation. 

Akua: Oh, I’m so, so excited to have you here. As I mentioned earlier, I am part of your YBLE course, which has been just so phenomenal. And honestly, just learning more about you through that whole process. I’m like, you really do champion Independent business owners.

So I was like, who better to come on the show and have a real honest conversation about entrepreneurship. And we’re just like, we don’t know where this conversation is going to go. I mean, I want to definitely know like the path that you’ve been on, the lessons that you’ve learned, but I’m excited for you to be here.

So thank you. 

Jasmine: Thank you. You know, when we, when we launched your biggest launch ever, we knew we were attracting a different type of person that’s been in my orbit. Now I am, I’ve the privilege of having a business and speaking and doing podcasts, but the type of person that I get a front row to work with.

We knew when we created this offer was going to be different. And so being able to meet and talk with you, it feels like such an immense moment of gratitude because it’s proof that when you get to work with people who you’re inspired by, you’re like, Oh, it worked. Like the messaging is working and the offer is working.

So us having this conversation, yes, we’re going to serve well, but I just wanted to take a minute and start with an immense moment of gratitude for saying, thank you for allowing me to be part of your journey. And thank you for giving me a front row seat to, as you just build like a massive business. So thank you.

Akua: Well, thank you because I mean, the content is packed. It’s just so helpful. And just seeing the communities that’s being built in it is truly, truly amazing. And so, you know, you have launched, you have launched so many amazing offers, but I want to go back to that. I really want to know who Jasmine Star is, like, where you started, To where you are now.

Jasmine: Yeah, absolutely. And one of the things like right before you push record, you had said that one of the things that you’re good at or interested in is like when you get people to spill the tea. And so it’s like getting people comfortable talking about things that are uncomfortable. I’m like, great, let’s do that in this conversation.

Like, yes, we could start with my origin story. I’m going to give it a little bit short so that we can get into other things that you want to impact this or people. Well, but yes, starting with the foundation is very helpful so that people can understand why I’m so passionate. Or as my mom likes to say, like lovingly stubborn about my point of view.

Um, you know, I dropped out of law school when my mom had a relapse with brain cancer and it really forced me to reconcile what I wanted to do with my life. And so I had a dream of becoming a photographer and I didn’t own a camera. And so I was gifted a camera from my husband. We had just gotten married and I said, I dropped out of law school.

I’ll go back to law school if this thing doesn’t work out. I started my business within the first year and made 100, 000. And I think that some people could hear that and be like, okay, wow, that’s cool. But I think it was a lot cooler for me because I actually wasn’t all that talented. And the fact that I knew that I would be able to create relationships and tell stories and offer a level of service that would allow me to compete in a very competitive space, I realized like, Oh, this is the new way of doing business.

It’s no longer the person with the most talent or the most money. Or the most education who wins? It is the person because right around this time of me starting a business, this is like the onset of the internet. This is the onset of social media. This is the way that people started learning how to sell and consume differently.

And so I was in a position to be at the front edge of that. And I was like, I have nothing to lose. I also have no money. So I’m gonna use this free thing. That’s. You know, call social media and let me see how it works. And so I was able to storytell, I was able to build relationships with clients and then they ended up advocating on my behalf.

And instead of me trying to do the traditional route of building a business, I just turned to my clients and they were the people who started promoting me. And so other people in my space, creative, specifically photographers, videographers, you know, wedding coordinators, they’re like, how are you, how are you doing this?

And I just started teaching people like what I was doing. I was teaching how I was marketing my business. And. That slowly led into me creating digital resources. And so I had this shop and I was selling things for like 2 and 99 cents. And I was like, Oh my God, I’m rich. Like the fact that people wouldn’t spend like five 99.

And then you wake up in the morning and you see notifications. And I’m like, I, I am quite literally making money when I sleep. It was like for, you know, this Brown girl, daughter of an immigrant. It was like, my life had. Totally changed. And so then I started creating additional resources like courses. I then realized that people wanted ongoing community and ongoing education.

And so I created a membership. And then on the back of the membership, I realized that there was like a lot of friction between learning marketing information to applying marketing information. So in 2021, launched a tech stack for social curator where we became a A bonafide SAS offering. So we now integrate with the largest social platforms.

And so, you know, there’s a story of a girl who got a camera from Best Buy and is now a CEO of a tech company. And I get to create podcasts. I get to have conversations. I get to teach other business owners, the art of growing a business. And that brings us here today. 

Akua: Oh my gosh, that is just absolutely amazing just to hear so many pieces of your journey.

And even as I hear yours, I can absolutely relate to certain things as well. Like I am first generation immigrant. My family immigrated from Ghana as well. And you already know where you feel that pressure that you either have to be a doctor, a lawyer, or an engineer like 

Jasmine: that. I will tell you, like folks that come from Nigeria and Ghana, like their kids have, they have, okay.

They have, they have these options. And like, when you’re coming from Mexico, it’s like, You’re going to inherit your father’s like, or you’re going to become like, a, like, I don’t, I don’t know. It was very blue color. Like our options were just like, just pay rent, you know, like you’re going to live with us because Latinos, we all, we all live with each other until we get married or sometimes we just continue living with each other after we get married.

So it was just like, just hold your own. So you had a much higher standard. I will say that I’ll just call it out for what it is. 

Akua: I love that so much. But either way, I think it just gives you such a different perspective. Um, and you move so differently in your business. But one thing that I loved about you was that you said earlier that I didn’t have the most, I wasn’t the most talented, but what you did was that you leaned into the gifts.

You leaned into what you currently had in that season to build the next thing. And then you utilize that to build the next thing. And so something that I’m really curious about to know is, What were some of the struggles that you were experiencing within that? Cause like, it’s not an easy thing to do.

And I think when we hear the stories, we’re like, Oh yeah, like. This is great. But like down to the nitty gritty, like these uncomfortable pieces of that, what was that like for you building these, these offers, you know, especially if things didn’t work out, especially if you, uh, failed, what, like, what was that process like for you?

Jasmine: You know, I think that it seems about, it seems about like in my timing and in my cadence, Every six years, I start shifting and I heard Kobe Bryant describe it the best. And he had said that he got to a point in his career where the game moved slow and it wasn’t that the game got boring and it wasn’t that he got good.

It was that the game moved slow. He understood the game. He could anticipate where the ball was going. He could anticipate where he should stand to get the rebound. He can anticipate if he knew his three pointer or his free throw was going in. He understood it was such a deep complexity that it allowed him to play at a different speed.

And that’s not always a good thing. And so what I realized every six years, somehow the game slows down and I love learning and I love being challenged. And I started realizing that every time that, you know, I tell my origin story and it sounds like I can get it down in 30 seconds, right? I got the sting.

I got the, this and I got that. And I moved here and people were like, Whoa, you did a lot in a short amount of time. And I think that really what it comes back down to is how When you know that there is a different calling on your life, a different level to play the game, it’s going to require you to give up a former sense of your identity and embody something new.

And there’s two main things at play is that you have to give up something in order to gain something else. And there are many times that it, feels like you’re starting from scratch. It feels like you’re at square one. But the thing that I have realized now, looking back at all those times where I wanted to pity myself for starting over or say, it’s really ridiculous that I’m going to be walking away from a very lucrative photography career to start something else is that we look at square one and it’s almost like we have this like tut tut to it.

Like, I don’t need that. Like I am like the English say, I’m going to suck my teeth at it. Like, Oh, and so we look back at these things and I would always look at square one as if square one applied to everybody the same way all the same time. But now I realize that we will never get the same square one again because every journey, every pitfall, every success, every peak and every valley, we’ve learned something and we’ve become a different person.

So even if we go back to square one, we are starting something else entirely. Due to the mistakes we made due to the successes that we had. And so when we start over, the pivot is always the hardest because you have to let go. And the pivot is always the hardest because it feels like you’re now an amateur when you were so used to building your life and career as a professional.

Those are two of the hardest things that I continuously, even in the midst of pivoting myself, you go back to that and you realize, man, This is, this is the stuff that many people don’t talk about and this is the stuff that many people don’t do because it requires us to feel a level of unsafety, a level of unpredictability and a level of sacrifice that if you got used to things looking a very certain way in your life and you want change, it requires change and when it requires change, it requires risk and whenever we risk something, we want to immediately want to like hedge our bets and keep what we have safe, but dwelling in safety doesn’t change.

Allow us to grow and I think that there’s a lot there to be said, but I just want to have that real conversation around what it means right now as we have changed and pivoted. 

Akua: Oh my gosh. Yes. Dwelling in safety does not allow you to grow. I mean, number one, you taking us to church today. I mean, that’s facts because like this is just all that is so key.

And I loved to what you said earlier of you have to let go of something in order to gain something bigger. And do you feel like. As you went into every, like, every six years, and, you know, you’re starting something new, what was that shedding process like for you? You know what I mean? Where, because I feel like, Even if you were going into something that you know is going to be amazing, there’s still grief in what was, if that makes sense.

Jasmine: Oh yeah. I mean, a hundred percent and totally. And I think that I was working with my therapist and she had said that oftentimes it’s really exciting. New things are exciting. Spring is exciting. A new bud is exciting. A Caterpillar emerging from a chrysalis is exciting. We have ideas of the butterfly. And.

There comes a lot of times in our lives and in our careers where we actually don’t take time to express gratitude and a personification of what that journey was. And so she had invited me to look and talk to different versions of my business. And they’re still many of them are still in motion, but I had to speak to them almost like a release.

So, for instance, I am active CEO of Social Curator. We have a team. We have a very thriving community. I love what I do there. I do coaching. We create content. But she said, I need to invite you to express gratitude as if it is no longer there because we need to create space for what is. And so she’s like, you can talk to Social Curator like it’s a person and you could say, Thank you.

Thank you for what you have done. And girl, I have to tell you that thing wrecked me because I didn’t do it in that like, so I just kind of like journaled and I wrote to social curator like she was a real thing. And I was like, you gave us everything. You gave me my house. You gave me my daughter. You’ve given us the best vacations around.

You’ve given me this retirement fund that blows my mind. You’ve given us the chance for this brown girl to learn investing. I now understand what a 401k is. Social curator. Thank you for putting food on my table. Social curator. Thank you for showing my pot, like my family, what’s possible. Thank you. Social curator for changing future legacies.

Like I spoke to her and I was like, at the end of it, I was like, Oh my God. And I’m, and I’m still in it. How beautiful, but it was a way to create emotional distinction of thank you. And more. And I need it just as like, I need to create space for more. And I felt like doing that exercise was so transformative.

And I felt like, Oh, I can love you and I can love this and still find time to create. And I think that that was like the first big step for me to do it. 

Akua: Oh, my gosh. Even hearing you talk about that. I’m not gonna lie to you. My eyes were watering because number one, I think so many business owners, right?

We’re constantly on this hamster wheel and you know, we wear so many multiple hats and we’re just constantly going, going, going. And then once we finally hit what we wanted to hit, we’re looking for the next thing. But to go back and actually look at that journey and especially like you have to let go in order to create more and talk like talking to Social Security as a person.

That is just. Phenomenal. But like, literally, because then you think about it of everything that social security has done for you. And I think of myself right now as I’m in a journey where my capacity is changing with all the change that I’ve experienced, especially in the last six months, seven months.

There are certain parts of me that I’ve had to let go. And a part of me felt guilty of feeling that way of like, I’m so excited for these opportunities that lie ahead, but I miss that. And I know I’m, I’m, I’m currently in my own shedding season and my eyes are, you want to just talk about it because it’s, it’s hard, it’s not easy, but you know, just leaning into that of this opportunity of where I’m at now, exactly.

I’m able to create more of a life that I love to live. I get to be able to connect with so many amazing business owners like yourself who are impacting others and showing up. And it’s truly such a gift. And I think, again, it’s a reminder that our business is a gift and how can we lean into it more? And so I.

Just love that. And so another question I’m really curious about is, you know, I saw this on social media too, which I love that because you had this like fairness framework, which I found so interesting. So as you’re even in, you know, mindset is everything as a business owner and things. There’s so many.

There’s so many disappointments. The things just don’t go our way, especially when we have an expectation in our mind. And you had this framework and for, I literally wrote it down myself. Cause I need to start doing this. Can you just share a little bit about what that is and, and how do you do that in your everyday, especially as you’re in these major seasons of transition?

Jasmine: It’s so funny because I’ve done a lot of work as a person, like in personal development and, um, I, in my family, for better or for worse, we had never even understood what like therapy was. We didn’t understand what like life coaching was. It was just, that was just not even in our orbit or in our sphere.

And so as an adult, I became a business owner and I realized that in order for me, for, in order for my business to grow, in order for me to continue to scale, I needed to scale. I needed to grow. So I started pursuing ways and ventures of self understanding and discovery. And one of those things was being the eldest of five children in a Latino family.

My parents did their absolute best. We did not have money. We didn’t have a lot of, um, we had experiences rich in love, not experiences traditionally that people might look at like a vacation or a trip or a lot of gifts. And so in my mind, subconsciously, I had built this drive for fairness. Things had to be fair in my adult life because things weren’t necessarily fair in my childhood being the eldest I took a lot of responsibility for my siblings and I think that Consciously and subconsciously I shielded them from a lot So that when I became an adult when I graduated college and I got married and I was able to look at my own life I was then able to assess that that is the behavior that I took as my identity and then I started realizing Oh, I want things to be fair when in life You They are anything but that and I started realizing that the older I got and I had the same group of friends since I was 13 years old and as we’ve grown up, a lot of different things have happened to us and that when we look at an event and we say it’s not fair because things hardly ever are, sometimes the unfairness stops many of us.

And it keeps us truncated and stuck in that spot. And some of us have taken an unfair situation and accepted it as part of our story, journey and acclimation to a new level. And so now even further years down the line, I being on the inside as a creator, we have helped more than 40, 000 business owners in their business.

And I started realizing a very distinct pattern is that when something’s not fair, no people don’t normally wake up and say, Today is not fair, but they say, Oh, well, he has that. She has this, he has access to that. She got that. Therefore I can’t. So this, a level of fairness, and if it’s not fair, then they just don’t pursue it anymore.

And I think to myself that the business owners who are actually excelling are the people who are accepting things and regardless if they’re fair or not. And this goes back to the fairness flow chart. I’m going to save the surprise at the end for the fairness flow chart, but let me just start off by saying.

The answer is the same. If it’s fair or not. Or not, our objective is the same if it’s fair or not. And so there is this thing is like whenever something happens to me and have a visceral reaction, I ask myself first and foremost, like, could I control it? Could I control it? And if the answer is yes, I could have controlled it.

Then I moved down, then can I change it? And then I moved down to the final thing. So let’s work this through. Let, let’s just say, was it fair? Was it fair that I didn’t book the client? Well, could I control it? Well, maybe I didn’t respond to emails in time. Maybe I showed up late for a meeting. Maybe I was non communicative.

Well, then can I change it? The answer is yes. As a business owner, you can always find ways to get better. And if I can then change it, then my action is to keep moving forward. Now, there are situations that happen in life and specifically in business that aren’t fair. So I asked myself, is it fair? No. Can I control it?

Well, sometimes I can’t sometimes because of my gender or the color of my skin or the lack of an Ivy league education or the fact that I don’t have an MBA or the fact that I could not get a bank loan. The fact that less than 2 percent of women are getting funding. The fact that less than 0. 6 percent of women of color are getting outside capital for funding or business.

That’s not fair. Can I change it? No. So then what then not do I do? I keep moving forward. If I can control whether or not something is fair or not, doesn’t matter because in either of those situations, if we are to grow in this end, we have to keep moving forward. And I think it’s important for me to assess and just give weight.

Hey, I’m sorry that that wasn’t fair. That really sucks. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing else you do. You keep moving forward. And I think that that was the framework that I had posted out on social media, because that has really helped me a lot. Like it’s okay. Acknowledge it. Acknowledge it. It’s not fair, but guess what?

You have no other option, baby. Keep moving forward. 

Akua: Exactly. Oh my gosh. And that, when I saw that, I was like, I need that. But I just think about that with what you said of there were certain childhood experiences that shaped and molded you and the way that you viewed things in the world. And that totally also leans into how you run your business.

And so I think sometimes we forget of like, We are, we are part of, it’s literally, it’s, it’s one in the same. So what are you doing introspectively? What are you leaning into? How are you healing specific things? Um, doing the work to be able to then run a more successful business. And so that’s what I love about that piece.

And then just the fairness, because I’m exactly the same way, like literally in my mind, I, I’m still working on that where, you know, If something is done in my business that, especially just being a woman of color and the barriers that we face, it leads to having certain types of resentment. And yes, of course I still move forward, but there’s been times where I’m just like, Oh, you know what I mean?

I just get so angry. And it just, that when I saw that framework, it just let, I felt, I just felt like I had permission. You know what I mean? Where it just felt like just be where I could let go. And no matter what the circumstances are, there’s a lot of things in business that we just can’t control. So it’s like, was it fair?

No. It. But acknowledging that and like, okay, that wasn’t fair, but give yourself the gift of honesty. Speak truth over yourself of what the reality of the situation is and utilize that to, to propel you forward to keep going, keep holding your head up high and doing the best that you can. So that’s why I love that framework.

And I’m glad, and I hope that if you’re listening to that, you feel that permission as well. Um, that yes, business is hard and it isn’t fair. There’s going to be aspects where it’s not fair, but then just keep moving forward. I want to actually, we talk about this 

Jasmine: and yes, it sounds good. It sounds warm and.

Buzzy, like it’s not fair. And we’re like, okay, but let’s actually extrapolate kind of like a tertiary, like idea that’s happening here. So oftentimes we as business owners will create content. We create a point of view or we share something we know, and we deal with our best intentions and we put it out and we really hope that it impacts empowers and, you know, Hopefully it’s engaging.

Oh, how we love the likes and the photo of the, the likes, the comments, and the saves. We like that. That dopamine quality makes us feel like we can keep on doing this. And I have to like peel back and say that I shared the fairness framework video and it didn’t do well, well being air quotes in comparison to the other content that I had posted.

But I think it’s really important for us because I had no idea that we would have this podcast conversation around something that I had put out. And it was like, Oh, and you have that temptation of being like, Ooh, that really dragged down the average. You know, it’s like you, you struggle with that. And you’re like, okay, maybe I, maybe I’m not going to be sharing these prayers, like I’m not going to be sharing these learnings because they just not pop in.

I had no idea that it would impact like a person who now, like. Number one is like a rad human being who’s putting out amazing things into the world and speaking up on behalf of people who maybe don’t feel strong enough in their voice. I had no idea that that Baroness framework was going to be empowering somebody who had invested in my business.

I had no idea that we would be sharing a framework now with this audience. And so as we put out content as a reminder to anybody who’s listening, you have no freaking clue what your content is doing, even if it’s one of the worst performing things on your feed, um, in your, um, profile. And so I just wanted to express a little bit of like a moment of gratitude and encouragement for other people who are like, Oh, I’m putting it out and it’s not really going anywhere.

I had no idea. So thank you. 

Akua: Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. And I’m not like looking when I was looking at I was definitely not looking at like, Oh, this was the most like in this and that I just remember going through and of course, all of your content was really valuable. But I remember I just saw that and I was like, I flippin need that.

Jasmine: And I need that today. That’s great. I 

Akua: love that. I love it. But yeah, no, I love that. I think it’s a good reminder that you just again, to your point, you just never know when what people are going to see your continent and what they’re And how people are going to be impacting, impacted by it. But, you know, I want to talk about imposter syndrome because I think that’s something that all of us as business owners, we struggle with, I mean, especially when you’re in new seasons of being uncomfortable and you’re being stretched and pulled in multiple ways.

And I’m just so curious to know with you, um, Especially as you have like listed, we’re so easy to essentially be like, well, I don’t have all of these different types of things and instantly think that we’re not qualified. But I think you’re just such a beautiful testament to that of like, you have leaned in no matter what.

And so I would love to know how you exactly deal with imposter syndrome as you go into these new business ventures, essentially. 

Jasmine: You know, I kind of feel, I don’t, Number one, thank you for asking that question, because I think what you do with people who are listening is that you’re implying that I have somehow like figured it out and I can’t tell if I am completely different.

Um, You’re really dumb or really strong. I don’t know. I, I don’t know. I think that there is a self awareness of me to know that I don’t wake up in the morning and think, Oh, I’m going to go play for the NBA or the WNBA. You know, like, you know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna go win Wimbledon. I’m not delusional enough so that if something comes in my mind or in my heart, it wouldn’t have been placed there.

If deep down, I didn’t believe that I had the capacity to succeed at that thing. Many people receive a similar message, a similar knowing, a similar desire that what that thing you’re longing to do, like open that Etsy shop or apply to become the CMO or become a content creator or start a podcast. You would not have been given that deep longing and desire.

If you didn’t deep down believe you had the capacity to achieve it. But then here comes the very first hurdle of many is there is a knowing and a longing and adhering to that requires a discipline to fulfill on the work required for you to get the thing that you want in many times, we even lack the discipline or the consistency to do those things.

Now, I am, I am one thing. I am one thing. I am not smart. I’m not fast. I’m not the best. I am not even all that cute. I ain’t got that much written. I’m all, well, I’m Puerto Rican. It’s like a shame, but I know that I can be consistent. And so that alone, that alone gets me over the first hurdle, which is that is like 90 percent of the thing that stops people.

People like, okay, I want to do my Etsy shop. I’m going to do my podcast. And do you know that 90 percent of podcasts ever published in the history of all podcasts, publishing 90 percent do not get past episode 10. 

Akua: Wow, 

Jasmine: so. If you just want to be part of the 10%, just do the 11th episode. And so, you know, that has never been all that much of a struggle.

It’s just like, if I’m going to say I’m going to do it, then I’m just going to do it. And I’m just going to do it and I’m just going to do it. Okay. But then we get into like the, the second realm of like imposter syndrome. And that’s just kind of like, you know, Can I figure it out? Can I figure it out? And I’ve never gone into the game.

Like I have never, I didn’t start a sass company to be like, I’m gonna be the best, most profitable sass to ever exist. I’m a blow everybody’s mind and I’m going to be a 2 billion exiting founder. I didn’t. I just said, I think I could, I think I could figure it out. Or I think I could hire people to help me figure it out.

That’s just been it. And so I think to myself often when imposter syndrome comes up, which it does, why do I belong in this room? Should I be making this investment in my business? Surely they could have asked somebody else to speak. So, um, last month I was reached out by my college and they said, we would like you to give the commencement speech for 2024 graduating class.

And my first thought, which is embarrassing to say, is I turned to my husband and I’m like, They could have found somebody better. And he was like, are you kidding me? I struggle with this as much as anybody else. But in every single one of those situations is, I believe, I deep down believe, I don’t know how many women are going to be giving a commencement speech.

And I don’t know how many of them are going to be a woman of color. And I asked myself, could I figure out how to give a commencement speech? And the answer was yes. Could I figure out how to hire a CTO and build a tech stack? Yes. Could I figure out how to record my podcast in garage band and make it a labor of love?

Yes, still to this day, I am recording in garage band. Your girl’s ghetto is all get out, but I think to myself, I can be consistent and I think I could figure it out and I don’t think that I was given a God sized dream if I didn’t have the capacity to do it. So yes, I struggle, but it’s just those two things.

Can I be consistent? Can I figure it out? And then it will take longer than what you hope. And the results will be different than what you expect. And it’s going to be so much better than you imagine. 

Akua: Oh, yes. So much truth in that. Yes. And also too, I just want to say the fact that you keep saying that you’re not smart, ma’am, you have me shooketh every week.

Okay. So stop, stop playing games. Let’s not play games. Okay. Like 

Jasmine: I do believe, I do believe in the power of words and I do believe that our brain listens to what we say. So what I should say, what I should say, what I should say is I am not the kind of person who’s that, that has that like mass appeal intelligence.

Somebody who can just take a bite out of many things or somebody took a quick learner. What I will say though, what I will say is what I know of the tiny bit that I know of. I feel pretty confident in that. So thank you. I’m kind of reframing that. Like I do. I do know a lot about a little bit. And so in that regard, I feel confident talking about other anything else, anything else.

I’m like, Oh, but in my lip, I do not know. And I do not pretend to know. So yes, thank you for the reframe. 

Akua: I’m just saying when I hear you speak and every time I’m in every time each week of the session, I’m like, did she say what now? I’m like, Oh, Okay. Well, let me, let me start thinking about this differently.

So, um, just want to absolutely highlight that, but I love that so much. I think so many of us, I think of myself when, um, when you said like when you reached out to, you know, literally do a commencement speech at a graduation. I mean, that is huge. And I just remember with my own, I’m going to be pretty transparent here with my own personal conversation with Natalie Frank.

And when she, you know, told me the news and then she had said, you know, Akua, I want you to take over the show. And instantly I first thought in my mind. I literally said to her, I said, absolutely not. It’s like, that was my first thing. I said, you are in, like, no, I’m not doing this, miss ma’am. And, you know, and she was like, okay, cool, like, that’s fine, but think about it.

But it was similar to those things that you had said, you know, and it was just so Like, Akua, you can figure this out, number one, and she was having her season of being bold and gutsy, and I was like, I gotta be gutsy too. Like, I can figure this out. I can do it. I have the support. There are people, you know, there’s amazing supportive people at HoneyBook who are here.

Like, I can do this. And so, I just leaned into it, and it has been like, it’s been so uncomfortable, so many moments, but I am learning so much. So much about myself about who I am as a person, who I am as a business owner, the person I want to become the business owner I want to be and how I want to show up in a lot of these spaces.

And so just to even say like, they’re so, if you’re listening, so I know so many of us are, can all relate to that capacity where like there’s an opportunity or something comes up and we can instantly automatically be like, huh. Me, you know what I mean? And so just similar to you, I’m like, Oh my gosh, I’m reminding myself to have like, I can do hard things.

I’m capable. I can figure it out. And so, yes, I love that. So, but 

Jasmine: add to that you are consistent. How many shows did you work with alongside Natalie and stay consistent to prove yourself? We stack proof. Our actions just stack proof. Is that like somebody’s like, Oh, I want to run a marathon. You don’t wake up the next day and you run a marathon.

What do you do? You stack proof. It’s like one day you run for five minutes and you do that for five days and the next day you run. I mean the next day six, you run six minutes and you do that for another five days and then day 15 you’re out there running seven minutes. You’re just stacking proof. And I think that’s what you did.

So two main things for imposter syndrome would be the things that you did. Can I stack proof? Can it be consistent? And can I figure it out? And you did. 

Akua: Yes. Oh, I know. And that’s, that’s, it’s fact. And I know, I love how you just, it’s, it’s simple. It’s simple when you hear it. It’s, we all know it’s so much harder to implement, but then when you’re actually talking about it, you’re like, can you figure it out?

Yes or no? It’s like almost right. Like putting it in a framework. Can you figure it out? Yes or no? Yes. Okay. Then what’s the next step, right? Like that helps you move on to where like, okay. Yes. Like where you can empower yourself to move forward. I love that. And so a question I’m really curious about for you is.

What is next for Jasmine? Like, as you were, you know, number one, you’re giving a speech at a, at your college, which is amazing. I’m excited to hear about that, but also, you know, I’m gonna take my girl. Everything’s content. I’m taking my 

Jasmine: videographer. I was like, I’m not even recording. I was like, I’m gonna take it so I could share it.

Like, you know, it’s just like, how many people are going to be in a stadium at that time? But how many followers do I have? Or how many times can I share the things that I have? And I feel like I feel like I want that pressure on myself because I don’t feel like you ever give a commencement speech. to the people who are sitting in the audience, you give it to other people who need to hear that message as well.

So, yeah. Sorry. 

Akua: No, no, no. I’m excited. I can’t wait to see you in your gown and cap. Because it gave me one of those. I’m pretty sure. I’m like, okay, okay. I know. I know. I’m excited. But I’m really curious to know, like, what is next for you? You know, and especially, how do you continue to lean in with whatever it is that you’re doing?

And, What are you excited about? What are you nervous about? I’m so curious to know. 

Jasmine: Uh, I had a conversation with my mentor and she was on my podcast and she had said something that has kind of been like a defining thing for the me the past year. And she had said that you earn the right to solve bigger problems because there’s like the story in entrepreneurship that we’re saying, well, when we get to this place, When we get to that spot, it’ll be easier or more manageable.

And that was like a common misnomer and you know, I’m very fortunate that the business has continued to grow year year over year. And whenever I said, okay, well it’s just when I make 100, 000, well it’s just when I make 100, 000 in a month, it’s just when I make a million dollars, well it’s just when I make a million dollars in a month, it’s just when I make a million dollars in a day.

And so it’s always this moving line that never became capital E. Enough. And so I think that my big move this year is to really embrace the bigger problems I get to help solve for people, the more money the business makes. And so this whole year has been a year of exploration is how might we solve bigger problems?

And one thing that I distinctly realized in 2022 was I’m the kind of person who, uh, I love to solve things. I love to be like, I’m a get her done kind of girl. Like, let’s just go, go, go. And, uh, you, a separate entity can only get to a certain point on your own in anything. Positive, amazing, powerful, transformative has been on the back of the Team that we have built.

And so for me, it is a whole, like, in fact, just this morning, I went on a walk and oftentimes I get my clearest thoughts when I’m exercising, because I don’t listen to anything. I don’t do anything. I’m just in the zone. And so I had sent a voice memo to our COO. And I said, I just want to say that as a CEO, many times we function in two zones, reactive or responsive.

At our most healthy where our, our majority is responsive. I’m responding to things, initiatives, visions, reactive is it’s emotional. I need to give a quick response and I’m going to send you a message today that is fully responsive so that if ever in the future, it’s reactive, you know, the true root of it.

Undistilled undiluted. And I said, I love the structure of the business that we have today. And I want to keep this structure. I want to keep this structure and I want to double and double and double and double what we’re doing in this business. So this is me being fully responsive. And then I listed everything I currently love.

I am no longer in meetings that I don’t need to be there to be like a hype up girl. I have two standing meetings a week. I have large swaths of work days. Yesterday was a work day where I get to only do things that only I can do in the business. If somebody else in the business can do it. I need to not be doing it.

I need to get out of the weeds. I need to co create with a powerhouse team and I can do the thing that only I can do in my business. I only want to do only things that I can do in any time. So one of the questions that we had, we had a conversation with in the podcast channel on slack and they were talking about finding the right type of editor.

So we had three different editors work on it and I was listening to the nuances and they wanted my feedback and I said, I love that. I was asked about the feedback. Okay. But let me tell you, I trust our podcast producer and let me tell you that even though our COO came back to us, she’s like, yeah, but she had an opinion and you had a different opinion.

I was like, but let me just tell you at the end of the day, yes, I preferred somebody else for X, Y, and Z, but it wasn’t 10 X greater. I was listening to nuances that the average listener is not going to listen to. So the fact of whatever time it took me for me to be in there, to look at pop mics, to figure out the kind of acoustics, I’m like that 30 minutes was worth the dollar amount that served the business much better than.

What we did in the podcast and she’s like I hear it loud and clear and I was like that felt so good So where am I at right now? I’m asking myself How might we solve bigger? Problems and I think it’s been a very interesting Conversation because the minute you start asking these questions your mind starts opening up to pathways that probably had other people Always been there and you never allowed yourself to see them.

It is the same thing as like, Oh, if you get a new car and it’s like a red, whatever, a red BMW, all of a sudden you start seeing red BMWs. They were always there. They were always there, but you just see them differently now. So all of a sudden we start asking, like, I wonder if we could. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, these conversations that I’m having, I’m like, Oh, it’s always been there.

And so right now it’s just a year of deep exploration. And I told the team, I was like, so how little can we pull on making an ask of the audience? How little can, how much can we over serve and ask for a little? And so that’s where we’re at right now. Like, how do I solve, because the bigger, the problems that I solve for people who could really afford it, the more I’m empowered to create, create, create, create to the people who need it the most and can’t afford it.

And so that’s been our big focus this year. 

Akua: Oh my gosh, I love that so, so much and just how you are leaning more into exploring and just creating that space for yourself so that you can become more innovative. And I think innovation is key because you know, the landscape of entrepreneurship, it’s just changed.

It’s changed so much over the years. Like what just even just from four years ago, like after the pandemic, I feel like everything has just shifted. And how, and the way that we do business. completely has changed. And innovation is one of the best ways to help you stay on top of things, but also to where you can do the things that really truly bring you joy and that are really going to serve your audience and serve them well.

And so, oh my gosh, Jasmine, I could talk to you for hours and I’m like, oh my gosh, 

Jasmine: can I add, can I add just one time? I need to make sure there’s a moment of clarity because then when you’re like, I love how you add so much time and space for creativity and innovation. And I’m like, That is true, but it is not 100 percent of the truth.

And I want to make sure that I’m sharing 100 percent of the truth because I don’t want somebody listening to it and being like, must be nice. What Akua said was true. I am creating space. I am allowing for innovation. I’m in a zone of creativity, but please know it comes at a cost. And the cost for me right now is coming in time.

Every minute of my day is truly scheduled. And I even have to plan ideate for X set up meeting for Y build out team structure for whatever. And also At money, we were cutting off revenue streams because they were requiring me to be the driving force behind it and not the team. So please understand that.

Yeah, it’s a beautiful zone. It’s also a very precarious zone and we live and die by the sword so that we, you know, we cut down the crops that we think are going to impede on what we hope to be a much larger harvest in the future. So that’s, that’s the 100. 

Akua: Well, thank you for saying that because I, a question I was going to ask literally for you is kind of so much of how you are creating that space, because I feel like as, especially with solopreneurs, like it’s so difficult where it’s like, even for me at times, like I said, my capacity has changed and I’ve been like, Oh my gosh, like I want to be innovative.

I want to create that space, um, where I can, you know, think of something new and this and that and that, but I’m so exhausted and like X, Y, Z. So I love that you shared that because I’m like, Yeah, it’s gonna come at a cost. I didn’t even think of that. I literally did not think in my mind that that could like what you have to give up in order to be able to create those spaces, but you need to create.

I feel like it’s important to create those spaces because that’s how your business is essentially going to evolve and it’s and take you into a journey that you would never think of. I never ever in my life wanted to be a storyteller. I never thought that I never even thought that my business was gonna be, you know, but it was just like, yeah, I literally kept having those spaces to be creative.

I just remember like in the beginning journey in our business, when you have much more of that space, but as things continue to evolve and scale and grow, the amount of time just becomes so much more limited and it’s just so much more difficult. And then like personally at times where I have felt stagnant in my business and I’m like, I just don’t have that space to create and it’s such a hard hump to get over.

And so I’m glad that you were just overall just transparent of like, I am creating the space, but also to like, let’s look at the facts here of like what you also have to give up. So absolutely love that so much. And Jasmine, this, this whole conversation has just been so, so impactful. I mean, I could talk to you for hours.

This is the first time we’re 

Jasmine: meeting and I’m like, Oh my God, like if you left us alone in a coffee shop, we’d open and close it down. And then be like, this time tomorrow, 

Akua: with snacks, get me some good snacks. I will never leave. Exactly. And chatting about all things about life and business. And no, truly, this has been a life, life giving conversation.

And I think if you’re listening, cause I have felt it too. I’ve just, I feel just a certain amount of, um, permission in certain areas of letting go and, and you know, what. Really thinking about again, what kind of business owner do I want to be? And, and in this new season of life. And so a question that we love to end with for every episode is what do you think is the biggest differentiator between the businesses that succeed and the ones that fail?

Jasmine: Consistency. It is literally everything you want is on the other side of consistency. And it is so simple, but it is not easy. 

Akua: But now I’m going to add to that because we hear consistency all the time. And I’ve also also heard you got to be consistent with what looks like for you and all those different types of things.

How do you stay consistent? 

Jasmine: You plan for it. And I want to be very clear that consistency is not doing the same thing again and again. That’s the exact definition of insanity. Einstein said, Insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. All I’m saying in regards to consistency is just decide to show up and do something.

Because it is the something that will lead to a slightly different iteration the next day and a slightly different iteration the next day. So it’s always a constant evolution, but you have to just first make the commitment to do something every day. And what we want to do is we want to quantify, well, if it’s only a 10 minute thing, did I really do it?

So is it really worth it? The answer is always yes. It is better for you to put your head down at the end of the day and say, instead of watching that one extra episode of Netflix, instead of sitting around scrolling for 10 minutes, I should have been engaging. It is that one. an act of consistency that truly defines those who succeed and those who do not.

And I know I sound pretty hard nosed about it and I’m bullish. I am bullish around making a decision because here’s the thing. They, the people say, Oh, it’s so easy for people to be consistent if they’re disciplined. And I’m like, no, we’re all disciplined. We just decide to apply our discipline in different ways.

It is very, it takes somebody very disciplined to watch an entire season on Netflix. That’s discipline. 

Akua: So true. That’s 

Jasmine: discipline. It’s a lot of discipline for somebody to eat a whole pizza instead of three or four slices. That’s discipline. It’s just as disciplined for you to say, I’m not going to watch Netflix.

And instead I’m going to go through and plan my content for the next month, the next week. I’m going to find my content for the next day, depending on how much time you have. We’re all disciplined. Where are you applying your discipline in order for you to get the benefits of consistency? My mind is blown.

Because 

Akua: that is so true. I have never, ever, ever thought about it that way. It is so true. It is absolutely, it’s a different, it’s a, where are you applying the discipline? I have absolutely shamelessly watched so many episodes of Grey’s Anatomy recently. You sound like my sister in law. It caught me and I was like, here I am again.

And you know, halfway through season one in a day, you know what I mean? Where I was like, oh. I have work to do. I have work to do. And that’s so true. And I think, again, it just makes me think about number two things. My therapist reminded us, she’s like, choose your heart. Everything in life is hard and it’s just a different type.

Choose your heart, right? Like if you’re watching and this is not to guilt anybody, cause I, like I said, I just did it the other day now, but you know, if you’re out here watching or doing something where you know that your time is best spent, you’re going to have a harder time, right? Like I always think to myself now, like, okay, if I don’t do this now, what’s going to happen?

Like, I’m going to have a harder time doing this or that. So I’m like, just get it done now. Choose your heart. Right. And so I remember I saw this, uh, social media posts. I’m like, what consistency looks like? And it was like all of these, uh, illustrations and it had like, like a bottle, like, right. Like one day maybe you could give just, you know, 10 percent or the next day you can give 50 or then the next day you can give a hundred and then, or 20%.

And it’s like, I think to your point of just like, still just showing up to do something that’s going to move the needle forward in your business. So I love that so much. And Jasmine, thank you. Thank you so much for being on the show today and for people that wanna connect with you, where can they find you?

Jasmine: Well, I have to say that this conversation has been very McDreamy. You can find [email protected] or on my podcast, the Jasmine Star Show, . 

Akua: Oh my gosh. Uh, this conversation has been so much fun. Thank you. Thank you so much for being here and for everybody listening until next time.