← The Futur with Chris Do
The Futur with Chris Do
313 - Navigating the Entrepreneurial Journey: Lessons on Growth and Community - With Jasmine Star
01:17:41
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- [00:00]
Jasmine Starr
A mastermind is not for the host to teach. The mastermind is for the host to facilitate, to push and prod. So you want to look at this as a mastermind as there's a shepherd and there's sheep. And your job as a shepherd is to keep the sheep moving up the hill. And as long as they're doing it together, we're going to believe that the sheep are smart enough to find winds or pastures to graze in.
- [00:40]
Chris Do
My guest for today's podcast is long overdue, and she has impressed me for a number of different reasons. I'm going to tell you maybe the top two reasons. Number one, she knows how to turn around when she's on the stage, because you might see her kind of in the green room, and she's super chill and she's talking about how she's an introvert and has certain anxiety, but when she hits that spotlight, she's a pro and. And she brings it all. That energy, that passion, that determination comes through in her voice. And I first saw her at growboots Video Live at Sean Cannell's event. And I saw her, I'm like, I need to talk to her. But fate would have it that we're not going to talk that day. Funny thing is how the world conspires to help us. I believe we meet each other in the green room for something that we're both doing. We're mentoring some young entrepreneurs for the UPS Ink Magazine challenge. And we're in the green room, we're chopping it up, and I just have this weird instant connection. You know how you, like, meet someone, you feel like I've known you for a really long time, even though it's their first time talking? Okay, number two, why I'm super impressed with this lady is she's really brave. She's like, let's do a podcast together, Chris. That's not the brave part, but she's like, come to my house. We're going to meet there. And I'm like, in this day and age of social media, you never know what kind of creeple is going to roll up on your house. You don't know me and you invited me to your house. But that's still not to impress. Impressive part. The impressive part, I'm like, I pull up and it's a nice neighborhood, but as soon as I pull up to your address, I'm like, I know that's her house. I could just tell from the outside, the way it's designed, the landscaping, it's modern, it's clean, but it's warm and inviting. And I walk in and does not disappoint. Everything is in its place. And I feel like I'm walking into one of those model homes, you know, where the realtor shows you, like, you could buy a house like this one day. And I said to her, do you live here? Do you actually live here? She goes, yes, with child and husband. I live here. I'm like, this is impossible. This is impossible. Okay, Jasmine, welcome to the show. For people who don't know who you are, can you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit of your story?
- [02:43]
Jasmine Starr
Thank you so much for that introduction. It's one of the most personal introductions, and I have to say that what people see online and what they experience when somebody walks into my home and says, like you had said, well, I could tell that's gotta be her home, that is the highest compliment because I only want to be as much of myself in front of people I deeply care about and want to help. And so the fact that you saw that is the kindest thing you could say to start from the beginning. So thank you. My name is Jasmine Starr. I'm CEO of Social Curator. I am wildly curious. I am a creator, and I am an innovator, and I love empowering other people to believe that the impossible is possible because everything I've set out to do in my life, for all intents and purposes, should not have come to fruition. And yet it did. And so I am a believer, and I want other people to believe in themselves as too.
- [03:32]
Chris Do
Okay, let's spend a minute there. But really, I'm going to tell everybody who's listening to this or watching this. This one I'm just gonna call it right now. I don't wanna put any pressure on Jasmine, but I think that your mind's gonna be blown because the few times in which I've been able to sit in front of this incredible human, I've learned a lot. And she's so transparent about what's going on. It's as real as it gets. So I think you're gonna learn a lot. There's gonna be a bunch of unlocks for both of us because we're going to talk shop.
- [03:56]
Jasmine Starr
We are.
- [03:57]
Chris Do
There's so much I want to learn from you today, so I think I'm going to take our audience on for that journey. When you said that what has happened to you is really kind of implausible. So let's take us back there. Take us back to your childhood. Tell us the kind of pre frame of how we can understand why it shouldn't have happened to you, but yet it has happened to you.
- [04:15]
Jasmine Starr
Well, I mean, it depends how granular we want to get. So I am half Mexican, half Puerto Rican, and statistics show that over 60% of girls before the age of 18 who are Puerto Rican are pregnant. So already starting off at a pretty okay spot. And since then, having graduated at the top of my class, I didn't learn how to read until I was 11. I tested horribly on standardized tests. Now, what I realized as a child was I was able to have conversations with people and I could connect disparate dots, but I was in no way, shape or form what somebody would consider an academic. And so the fact that my parents homeschooled us, and so that's another crazy thing. It's like my father didn't graduate or he barely graduated high school. They passed him. He immigrated from Mexico, didn't know English. They kind of just passed him through at the time, which was very much the case in East Los angeles during the 60s and 70s. It's just get on out. And so he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. That was actually how my father earned his American citizenship. So he entered in illegally, swore his oath to this beautiful country, and then earned his citizenship. And my mom is Puerto Rican, and she barely graduated high school. They never went to college. And so here, for all intents and purposes, people are looking at my parents to say, I don't know how likely y'all should be the people educating your children at home. And yet they did. And so getting into high school, it was just this thing I thought to myself, I don't want to be dumb. Even though I don't understand everything, I'm going to figure it out. And so I think that a pattern in my life, which. A pattern that has suited me well to a certain point. This is now at a point where I'm actually trying to break that pattern. But what got me here has been I will not quit until I figure it out. I will be pushing through, I will be breaking walls, I will be breaking ceilings, because I'm going to figure it out. And I think that every time something came into my life when it came into my business, I don't think I'm special. I don't think I'm smart. I don't think that I get things. I have not been born with a silver spoon in my mouth. But I could simply say, as long as I am the last person standing, I'll find a way to figure it out. And I think that that served me very well to this point. Chris and I, we were talking, like, we're going to have this podcast. We're talking about the business of the business. We're going to get into the nitty gritty. We're going to have people, like, show the good, the bad, and the oh, so ugly and painful parts of growing businesses. But now I feel like I'm at a stage state, at my point in my life where that pushing through and breaking walls was good until here. I actually have to break the frame of reality because there's no way I can ascend to the next version without letting go of every preconceived notion about the thing that I thought made me who I am. And that's kind of been my year so far. I mean, here we are starting with the real stuff. And the real stuff is I have to break my version of reality. And that is one of the most difficult things I've done professionally.
- [07:07]
Chris Do
Okay, so much to dig into there. I'm going to make an assumption. You're not really into comic books and things like that and comic book mythology, but there's a little moment I want to share with you here, and you tell me how much of a geek you are. Okay. Bruce Wayne. Batman has to replace Batgirl, and there's a new girl, and she's been trained by an assassin, and she's been mute all her life. And what's really interesting about her is because she didn't have to develop language skills, she was able to study movement in ways that very few people could. So she can just look at somebody, do something one time, and be able to emulate it perfectly. So it made her a pretty deadly assassin. And Batman tries to bring her to the good side. My question for you is this is if you didn't learn to read till you're 11, which is really late, everybody, I think you developed other skills. What other skills did you develop since you weren't busy reading? Like, your brain develops in different ways?
- [07:56]
Jasmine Starr
I think so. Chris. I love this. I love this. I'm going to go on a deep dive because this is what I do. Things that I don't understand. I will deep dive. But just at the preliminary, she had something that was less and used it as an advantage. Has been 100% the truth, because not only did I not learn how to read until very late in life, I also grew up very overweight. I was obese as a child. That was one of the early things that caused me to be quite Honestly, an outsider, I was made fun of, but not in a way that says, oh, it's going to break me. It was, I was made fun of and that taught me quickly to be quiet, stay, stand against the wall and have nobody notice you. And because that happened, it empowered me and heightened my skills to watch the way people behave. So that's why when you spoke about how she was mute and she could emulate a movement, I became very good at emulating movements. I became very good at finding patterns. It is one of my greatest assets as an entrepreneur. I can see a pattern. And once you trust your pattern spotting abilities, you can then really trust your anticipation ability. You can predict things based on patterns, and that is a huge skill to have as an entrepreneur.
- [09:10]
Chris Do
Wow. Okay, so maybe you didn't read words, but you read people.
- [09:14]
Jasmine Starr
Oh, yeah, Chris.
- [09:15]
Chris Do
The subjects, the micro expressions, body language. And so you're reading on a different level. Okay, so you're homeschooled, which is kind of crazy. From parents that barely passed high school, why did they choose to homeschool? That's a curious decision.
- [09:30]
Jasmine Starr
Mostly it was where we lived. And so my dad is one of the hardest working men I have ever met in my life. It was very common for him to work four jobs at a time. And we did not live in good areas. And that was just the truth. And my parents were very protective. And they didn't like that we would have to go to school with metal detectors. They didn't like that. On our streets there were drive bys. Like, they didn't like that. When we went to the post office, there was literally a drive by. My sister and I were sitting in the front seat. My mom, who was pregnant, threw us to the base of the car and then covered us. And like those early fundamental memories, ideas really shaped the decisions that my parents made and said if our kids are going to have a shot of not staying here, we have to create and inculcate and create their own world in our apartment. And that's what they did.
- [10:16]
Chris Do
I see. Okay, what age do you then enter into Public School?
- [10:20]
Jasmine Starr
14.
- [10:21]
Chris Do
Okay, tell me about that experience. What was day one like?
- [10:25]
Jasmine Starr
It was crazy.
- [10:27]
Chris Do
This got to me. I can't even. I don't even know how to deal with this.
- [10:30]
Jasmine Starr
I'm sweating comic books. This is literally like a hero going into a different planet. Like, and the planet functions so much outside of what you could ever consider to be normal. Like, I had never been around thousands of students, thousands of people my age. I had never gone to a locker. I had Never had bells ring that indicated that we were going to go from one classroom to another on the other side of campus. I had never heard of people raising their hand to go to the bathroom. I mean, when you think about human conditioning and training, it hadn't exist until that point. The first time I got a slip to go and visit my counselor in one of my classes, I was mortified. And then I was terrified. And so I walked over and I was like, I'm in trouble. I did something wrong. And they're like, okay, oh, we gotta just make some schedule changes. So here's your new slip. And I get my new slip. And I'm like, what is this new slip? What does it mean? Like, so everything that anybody would think was normal was entirely and wildly new. And so my sis, I have a twin sister. So my twin sister and I entered as freshmen and we got put into, like, the standard academic track, which was fine, technically. My mom was giving us grades, so the school was like, that's great, mom, but your kids have to start, like, basic classes. And so what I had discovered was after I learned how to read, by 11, I was around 11, 11 and a half, I had learned to read. I went from basic reading to advanced reading in less than a year. So I was reading massive novels by the time I was 12 and 13. So that when I went into high school, I quickly understood that I was outpaced in English. And so by sophomore year, I got into advanced placement and honors track. And I say it again, Chris, it's not because I was smart. I simply said, I will do everything I can to figure it out. And I think it played out extraordinarily well for both myself and my sister. We ended up graduating at the top of our classes and getting academic scholarships to college.
- [12:20]
Chris Do
Wow. Okay. Whenever I see kids that are homeschooled, they're usually. And this is kind of strange for you, academically super smart, self assured, very articulate, but they weird. I'm just going to say it out there. I know it's a broad net and people are going to send me some hate messages. They're just a little awkward.
- [12:37]
Jasmine Starr
No, we are homeschool kids are weird. We're weird. We are. But when you think about it, Chris, and now I'm a parent and all I want to do is look at my daughter and be like, let your weird be so weird. Be unapologetically weird. Because as a kid. So my parents, we were homeschooled, but they were very active in their church and in local events. So we were around other kids. And I knew I was weird, so I always knew. And we were also very, very poor. And so people were always siding out, like, that I was wearing the same clothes and that, like, the church was taking collection plates and giving us Christmas gifts. Like, I was weird. I knew it, but I didn't know the extent to how weird I was until I was put into a much larger pond, AKA high school. And that's when I realized, everybody's doing this same thing the same way. Everybody wants the same shoes and the same shirt. And now, as an adult, what I see was happening then is as you're developing, you have a tribe that is your high school. And to be on the outside of your tribe means that you can't survive. Our tribal brains have been so conditioned to say, well, if we look the same when we act the same, we won't be on the outside. And for on the outside, we're gonna have to sustain for ourselves. And now, the crazy thing about my twin sister and I is we went in, and I immediately I got a job as a telecommunicator because I wanted the same shirt and the same shoes. I wanted to look like everybody else. Now, my sister also got a job, and what she did is she went and bought clothes from thrift stores and vintage items, and she literally looked like she walked out of the 1960s. And she was so her own person that I was mortified because there goes my sister in, like, big Peter Pan white collar and a lime green jumpsuit and like, like, platinum wedge shoes. And I'm like, and we look identical. And I'm like, I am trying so hard to match, and you're so different. And now what I look at is what courage it took, what chutzpah, what self awareness it took. And so now being a mother of a daughter, I want her to choose her path, and I will celebrate it. If she wants to wear the same shoes and the same shirt, how could I judge something that I once possessed? But if she wants to wear Spider man costumes in high school, I'd be like, all right, girl, I got you. Let's be weird. Let's be. It takes courage to carve your own path.
- [14:53]
Chris Do
I love that. So that's for all the parents out there, soon to be parents. As you're thinking about how you want to raise your little one, I fully support and embrace, and I want to be a champion for the same message. I think our duty and responsibility as parents is to reverse engineer who our children are going to be, not who we want them to be and just help to support all the weird decisions that they make. Okay, now here's one other thing that impresses me about you. As a person who's been in this space for as long as you have been, there will be moments where someone will say some negative things. There's going to be some haters. But as I told people I'm going to be on your podcast, they kind of rose up with excitement. Like, somebody on my own team is like, she the real deal, Chris. I'm not going to mention her by name, but she's been through a lot of coaches and courses, communities, and eventually, when you're out there long enough, your real self comes out and it's not always good. So be careful of who you put on a pedestal because they ain't who they appear to be. And as far as I can tell, everyone that knows about you, it's like you're going to be talking to Jasmine. Like, yeah, well, I'm not ShopLimmer, but yes, I'm going to be talking to Jasmine. And it's been glowing reviews across the board. What do you think you've done to maintain that sterling reputation?
- [16:06]
Jasmine Starr
Goes back to channeling. The very thing I admired my sister for having years earlier is having the courage to be yourself, just a hundred percent yourself. I don't think that people like me because we agree. I don't think that people like me because I say really nice things. I think people have a deep respect for what I say because I believe it to my core. I believe it is my truth. It doesn't make it right or wrong. But I'm unafraid to exactly say what I'm thinking and how I'm thinking. And for better or for worse, I don't use a lot of words. I will say it exactly how I see it, and sometimes it rubs people the wrong way. I know I'm not for everybody, but for somebody who really appreciate hearing the truth, like, unadulterated and just saying, like, this is what I see and please correct me if I'm wrong, that's power. When I say I don't agree with that. I don't agree with the way that this is done. I am an advocate for this. And then not just saying because it's. I'm a researcher. I promise you, I promise you today, sometime today, you're going to get a text message with the name of that mute assassin and I. I promise you, I promise you, I promise you I'm going to find more parallels between her and I so that in the future, when we do another podcast, we'll be able to make that reference point and have it as an anchor point. Because I just go in and then I figure it out and then I say, is this true or not true? And if it's true, you're going to hear exactly how I feel and why I feel that way. I think that's empowering to a lot of people.
- [17:42]
Chris Do
I think so many people struggle with that about showing up 100% as yourself and worried about, oh, is somebody I like this post or that didn't get engagement and what's the blowback going to be like? And so they are just so busy hiding in public, which kind of boggles my mind. But you are more the exception than the rule. If I were to look across the social media landscape, especially people in our space, I would say like 80% of them are pretending to some degree. Some a hundred percent pretending and some just a little bit pretending. And so what can you say to those people who really are on the fence and are going to hear this message and it's going to stir something in the side. What can you say to them right now to give them the courage to stop pretending and show up as 100% authentically themselves?
- [18:27]
Jasmine Starr
Well, I wouldn't particularly say or identify with somebody who's inspirational or motivational. I wouldn't even necessarily identify as somebody who is like an advocate to make people feel really great about their decisions. What I will say, which will likely rub somebody the wrong way, is if you have an inkling and you're listening to this now, and Chris just said that not everybody is 100% themselves, and I happen to be the exception to the rule. Is that immediately what we do, our brains immediately, it's science. We want to keep ourselves safe. And in order for us to keep ourselves safe, we're hardwired to keep things the same because change is unpredictable and change causes ripples and effects. So there's the devil you know, which is where I'm at. And I'm putting it out and it's not really getting a lot of traction. And I use a different voice when I show up and I. I am producing content and I'm. That's the trend. I'm going to use the trend. I'm going to be inspirational right about and I'm going to do something a little funny and then I'm going to show a clip of me and my dog and throw the arm around my friend and I'm living the best life on social and if you feel that already and you know that what Chris hit and resonated, then all I will do is follow up and say, it is so hard. It is so hard for you to be entirely okay in your own skin. And it's never been harder before in human relations. Like, if we go back to our ancestors and tribes, we hung out in small groups of people, and studies have shown that the maximum amount of people that somebody is actually aware of, can take input of, can know a name of, is 50 people, 5, 0, anything beyond that point. We actually don't have a connection point of connectivity. Now, if you would like to bring somebody into your 50, there's a good chance that somebody will leave that 50. That is how we're hardwired as humans. And then social media came along, and what it did is it magnified not our 50, but to 5,000, 50,000, 500,000, 50 million people. And now what we have is we have the ability for somebody to have an opinion about something. We wear, something we said, how we looked, how we danced, mistake we made. And it feels so much more amplified because here again, science and studies have shown that we have a tendency to listen to something that's negative than positive. And so if you're sitting here and you feel like, yeah, you know, maybe I can be a little bit more myself, I am here to tell you it will be harder than you think. Not because you're not doing anything spectacular, special, or different than what you've always done. More people are going to be looking at you. But one thing that I go back down just to my root is I would rather be made fun of. I would rather have somebody not like me. I would rather have somebody criticize me for me being a hundred percent of who I am than a shell or a copy of who they think I should be. Because if and when anytime you put something out there, it will come back to you. Because when somebody has an opinion about you and it hurts your feelings, how devastating to have something hurt your feelings for you not being a hundred percent of who you are. I would rather somebody say, I cannot stand the way she talks, the way she looks. I think she's a crook. I think she's fake. I think she takes people to the bank. And I'm like, well, I'm a hundred percent me. And there's a group of people who have gotten very distinct results on the back of the things that I've been applying. If that has not been the case for you, or even worse, you would like to have an Opinion about not having done the work about me. You can do that, but we're just going to choose to disagree. And that level of fortitude only comes on the back of, I know who I am, and I'm going to be 100. And if you're going to like me, great. And if you're like me, great. It's not going to stop me doing what I should be doing.
- [22:10]
Chris Do
All right. It's on fire right now. It's like there's a little smoke in the studio. You guys smell that? I think something's burning. Yeah, that's your ear and your brain.
- [22:20]
Jasmine Starr
Excuses. We're burning excuses.
- [22:22]
Chris Do
Preach, preach. Okay. All right. I could probably spend a lot of time sitting here and unpacking the mind that makes the person. And I'm saying this in all sincerity hours, talking about this, but I know I would beat myself up later if I didn't get into the business of the business a little bit with you. And that's a line that you use on the podcast. And this is where. Where I'd love to take you and tell me about the business that you're in today, because I know at a period in time you're a photographer, but you're in a different line of business. How do you describe it?
- [22:50]
Jasmine Starr
So I'll start here. And probably not what people had expected, because I think when you come on a show like this, it would be better to have my crap together. I think it would be better and a hell of a lot more impressive for your listeners to be like, dang, Chris, you got this gangster. And I'm being like, okay, so what I will say. What I will say is 100% my truth. And I'm doing it because I want to document it. I'm doing it because I firmly believe, Chris, in five years, we're going to look back at the conversation and we're going to say how little and how small we dreamt, how finite our thinking was at the time. And so what I will say in order to actually say where I'm at right now was it feels like and is genuinely have been the case, every five or six years, a big, massive change happens in my life. And that's my number. My number is five or six. And I started off my career as a photographer. I was at UCLA Law School. My mom had a relapse with brain cancer. I was so unhappy. And I thought to myself, my mom was 40 years old. She'd been given a death sentence. And I was like, I'm 25. What am I gonna do for the next 15 years. What if I die in 15 years? And then I thought to myself, what if I die in 15 minutes? Like, what am I doing? And so I went deep down and I said, I want to be a photographer. And I didn't own a camera and nobody would ever look at me and think, there goes a creative girl. Not remotely. And at the time, this is 2006, blogging becomes a thing. And I start reading about other photographers just like the daily interactions of their business. Now, this is pre social media. This is pretty people just writing about what it is they're doing. And I'm figuring out what special person can start a business. Like, I hailed from a community of gardeners and housekeepers. And on the high end, if you were a secretary, then you just made it. And so in my mind, I was just like, oh, well, they're set apart, they're different. Like, you have to have something or be somebody to start a business. And I was 25 years old and I thought to myself, I actually think I could start a business. With what? A camera? Did I have a camera? No. Did I have any sort of skill or barometer of what I would be able to do as a creative? Not remotely, but I just saw what somebody did and I was like, I think I can do that.
- [25:03]
Chris Do
Now.
- [25:03]
Jasmine Starr
That sounds totally crazy. But then even crazier, I always tell my husband, who's the crazy one? The crazy one or the person who married the crazy one? So my husband went to Best Buy for Christmas. We didn't have any money. Like Chris, we had no money. I was working part time at my dad's church. I had just left law school. My husband was with his startup at the time. We were literally, I want to say we were living paycheck to paycheck, but no, we weren't even doing that because he was getting commission from sales. And like, whenever that paycheck came in, oh, good, we can go out to Taco Bell for dinner. Other than that, it was not anything. Like, it was so unpredictable. And so I took what I could, which is just practice. I just started practicing and I started a blog. And I just said, I'm creating this blog because I'm documenting that I'm going to fail and I'm going to go back to law school. So I went on scholarship. I could go back to law school and get that scholarship a year later. And I was like, you have one year. You have one year to make this work. And then within that one year, lo and behold, against all odds, against all odds. And oh, haters unite. There is no greater hater than a creator who is better than someone else. Tear that person down and them, because they got something that they believed they were deserving of. So, case in point, my first year of business, I made $100,000. And to me, in my family, being first generation Latina, that was unheard of. That was the craziest thing to ever exist. 26 years old, making a hundred thousand dollars, Game over. And what happened was because I was so open on my blog and I was literally giving the framework of what I was doing, people were so upset because they had programming, they had albums, they had agents, they had all this other stuff, and they weren't making a hundred thousand dollars and my work wasn't good. And here's the thing. The reason why, when somebody said, oh, your work sucks. The reason why it hurt different than it does now was because it was true. My work did suck. And I knew enough about the art that I knew my art sucked. And yet I was able to sell what I was doing by being a creator. I wasn't selling my photographs. I was selling the photographer. And better or worse. My clients loved it. My competitors hated it. There was a whole group of people for well over a decade, well over a decade, who set apart and said, we're going after her. And that was hard. And Steve Martin says, it best be so good that they can't hurt you. And I got better and I made more money and I started documenting the journey. And then a crazy thing happened. Other photographers who had the same skillset I had, which was none, wanted to get in the game. I was like, look at us, Bad News Bears. We're gonna do something. So I was sharing a ton of content on my blog, and then I decided to create an online store, which. Let's go back. It's 2008. This is so difficult. It's not really done. It was this thing called E Junkie. I sat down on a weekend with my husband and I'm like, I'm going to upload a PDF. I'm going to sell this PDF for 1999. Because the thing I kept on hearing from photographers was just like, jasmine, how are you building your business? Like, how are you getting your leads? Like, what are you doing? Like, how are you closing people? I started closing international and national clients, not meeting in person, which at the time was like, super fricking rare. And I was just like, oh, I'm just. I have an email that I use and they're like, what's? Your email. So I decided I'm going to put it in a PDF. I believe it was 12 emails. And I didn't know Chris, that's actually an email funnel. But I just created. I was like, these are 12 emails that work really well. I sold them for 1999, I put them on a store, I went on my blog and I was just like, so if you guys want these emails. That was it. If you guys want these emails. And within 12 months, we had created another $200,000 revenue stream. And that was the first time that I started realizing there's different levels to the game. We had a revenue stream by the clients we were booking and then we had this new revenue stream by selling a digital resource. And then at the time I just started, people said, well, we want to see your posing and we want to see you in a meeting. And so I started selling like 4 minute videos, 5 minute videos for $2.99 that they can download and watch. I feel like that was like probably like a three year chunk right about there.
- [29:25]
Chris Do
That was from 2006 to 2008, I believe.
- [29:27]
Jasmine Starr
And so then around 2009 and 2010, other people start seeing what I'm doing and how I'm getting lead generation. And they asked me to start doing that for their businesses. So I would write and I would create content for third parties in the photography world. And then I realized, okay, I'm trading time for dollars and I'm very distracted. And so they said, I said, okay, I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm going to focus more on my business. And they said, well, can you teach our team what it is you're doing? And that was the first time I ever understood really what a consultant was. And so I was like, wait a minute, you're going to pay me to tell your team what to do? And then a month later I'm going to come back and we're going to see like what they did and how we make it better. And they're like, yes. I was like, sign me up. So started that and that you could see how you just start seeing like these tiny little things that happen in about six years. And so around six or seven years into me becoming a photographer, I realized I actually don't want to be a consultant because I can only take on so many clients. So we had three of our new streams at this time. We had consulting, we had taking care of my clients, the clients that I'm booking, and we also had the digital store. But in addition to this, I am creating content daily, long form content daily, to just share people about my business, where I'm at with the journey. So I was blogging a long form blog every single day. And so we had around 25,000 people hit that blog daily. And I knew, okay, there's something here and I gotta hit it hard. But 2010, 2011 happens. That's when Facebook and Twitter really get open to the masses. And that's when I knew things were gonna shift for me again.
- [31:02]
Chris Do
I understand this business and I love the evolution.
- [31:05]
Jasmine Starr
Great.
- [31:06]
Chris Do
And how you keep yourself open to new opportunities and you keep kind of blowing, I guess, the ceiling off each time. Like, I get paid to think that's pretty cool. But you keep coming to the same conclusion, like, is this a good use of my time?
- [31:18]
Jasmine Starr
Absolutely, absolutely. And so then what happens between that year, it's like 2010, 2011, about 2013. This is when Instagram also gets introduced in a very big way. YouTube gets introduced in a very big way. And so with every new iteration and or platform now, there were other things that were coming out too. Vine came out during this time. Meerkat came out during this time. Like Meerkat was like live broadcasting, which is now what we would consider like Instagram Live. But you can only do that on a separate app. At the time, there was Meerkat or there was Ustream. And so everything that came out, I became a quick, quick consumer of it. Like, I need to learn it, I need to understand how it translates into growing businesses. Because first and foremost, I needed to grow my own. Secondly, I needed to teach people by way of digital resources because it was a revenue stream that if I created long form content to educate that somebody would pay me 9, 10, $20 for this information. I would also apply it to my consulting clients. So understanding it. And then all of a sudden I realized that I was burnt out. I was doing so much and I was like, okay, there's got to be something different and there's got to be a different way. And so then in 2015, I have this idea. Now, I know people hear it now and they're like, yeah, big thoughts there, girlfriend. But the idea was, what if I were to get a group of people together and I teach them over two days and then I record it and I sell the recordings. Now, of course, doesn't come off like out of nowhere. I had an online store where I was selling five to 10 minute videos and I thought to myself, well, what would it look like to do this long form? And so I, oh Lord have mercy. This is one of those like tsunami moments in life. But you're like, I think I just sacrificed everything. So it's 2015, I do a live event, the tickets are a thousand dollars and it's a two day branding event. It's in Los Angeles and we wanted 50 people to attend. And at the time we had just moved into a fixer upper of a house and the construction just went out of control and we had, we're big savers. Like we don't get into credit, we do not live above our means. And so all of a sudden we were spending so much money because we had, oh gosh, this is my biggest mistake. We hired a production crew. We didn't have one. We had eight videographers on site, we had two audio specialists, we had a frickin Hollywood producer. It was just, I didn't know what I was doing. I just said okay, you magical people who are good at what you do, I'm going to pay you. I paid out the freaking. They saw me coming. Cha ching, cha ching. It is payday. When I walked in that door, I'll tell you that much I ever done.
- [34:02]
Chris Do
I think you held up a sign that says take advantage of me.
- [34:04]
Jasmine Starr
It really was, it really was like let me give you a credit card and then just take everything from it anyway. And so I have this content now. I have two days worth of video content and I have this idea like I'm going to create a course. I have no idea how to create a course. I have nothing. And so then I, I come across the Internet of all things, just some random search around this word called a mastermind. And I was like, what's a mastermind? That was weird. And so then in, it was an invite, it was a blog post and it said if you want to learn more about what you need to do to up level your digital business. Now at this point in time I didn't realize that there is a difference between having an online business and having a business online. My business was online. Like you can buy something from me. Ta da. You're online. But having an online business is different in that you've created a machine that is creating opportunities and money and growth by starting with one point that extends through the entirety of the point instead of a singular one time transaction without any sort of follow up upsell ltv anything along those considerations. So I started getting really interested up at this point I know nothing about digital marketing. I know nothing about the digital world. And so I joined this. I didn't even know. They just called it a live class. They called it a webinar. I'm like, I don't even know what this is. My husband and I are in the kitchen and we're cooking, we're making dinner. And I'm watching this live class talking about things you need to do in your business. And I can see like we're sitting then at the table then, and the pitch is coming. And my husband says, oh, I think this is going to be expensive. I was like, me too. And I said, I think it's gonna be $5,000 to join this one year mastermind with this guy who I just met on the Internet that night. I was like, oh. I'm like, that's a lot. And JD's like, no, I think it's gonna be 10. I was like, you're crazy. There's no way that some charlatan on the Internet is gonna ask somebody to pay him $10,000. So we're sitting there, we're on my laptop, we're watching this over dinner, and he pitches and he says, and this. Join us for a year. And it's $25,000. I slapped my laptop shut like it was Satan poking his head out. I was like, no, what? What is it? Crazy? I was be crazy. This is the stupidest thing I had ever heard. I was like, who is so. Who's so dumb? Who is so dumb? So then we're washing our dishes, it's quiet, and my husband says, you're thinking about it. And I said, I'm thinking about it. He's like, okay, next day, I said, listen, you have to pay $1,000 to apply. I won't make it. I'm like, I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it. I paid $1,000. I get the interview. I'm invited to come to the mastermind. My husband's like, see, I told you you're gonna be there. I was like, yeah, but they just want my money. I'm gonna get ripped off, but I'm still gonna go. Cause of my business. Suffice it to say, I had spent $25,000 and in there. Now, to be clear, a mastermind doesn't teach you what to do. There's no one on one. A mastermind is a group of people who get in together in a room and they're talking about their businesses. And let me tell you, Chris, I had never in my entire life what it was like, I don't know. I was like, 30 years old, 34 years old at the time. And I'm like, wait, there's other people who are making millions of dollars with digital products. What have I been doing with my life? What in the world is this thing? And so in that year, I decide I'm going to teach myself how to do a course. I'm going to ask these people how they've done their other courses. Now, the first time we ever launched a course, it was $197. We had open cart five days. We made $255,000 in five days. And I was like, my whole world, everything that I thought was normal was pushed out of the water. And then we ended up launching that thing twice more that year. And so just on that one 197 course, we brought in over a million dollars just on that alone. And then we started parlaying it into how do we leverage this and other things. We launched different courses. By 2017, we had launched a membership. And I was like, if I just can 500 people to join this membership, it would be so great because we're diversifying our product suite and meeting people where they are. We launch it, 2,444 people sign up on day one. And I'm like, oh, my God, something going on here. And then in 2021, we decide to turn the membership into actually a SaaS platform. We needed to be on our own tech stack. We needed to integrate with every social platform. Because what we do is we empower small business owners to create their marketing, schedule it, plan it, be a part of community. We have courses on the inside, we have challenges. And so this is basically what we call for the small business owner. Your digital agency in your pocket. Everything you can do for your business can happen on your phone. And we want to facilitate that and make that easier. And so if I ended it there, I think it sounds really like, great and be like, okay, this is why I have Jasmine Chris Dove show. Like, this is why. And I just want to be very clear, because you get to that point, and at the time of this conversation, I'm on year six of what is Social Curator. And I've learned so much about tech, about having a SaaS offer around, moving in terms of how people get investment, who gets investment, how people like me, who look like me, sound like me, walk like me, talk like me, are educated, my skin color, all of that, how people like me do or don't get funded. And I'm very proud to say that everything we've done has been bootstrapped. I'm very proud to say that we've always been positive. I'm very proud to say that we've always been posting a profit. And that is such a rare thing for people to say that on the real hard days when I'm just like, I'm doing everything wrong. Just like. But what you're doing is what the 1% are actually able to do. And so I could relish in that. And so what I've taken a big step back and started asking myself is, am I stepping into my fullest potential? And it's been very hard and I don't really want to talk about it publicly, but I absolutely will. And I don't think at this point in time I am stepping into my fullest potential. And so we have our president, who's been sitting for the past year and a half in charge at the helm running all things Social Curator. And what I do in Social Curator are the things that only I can do. If somebody else on the team can deploy against it, they will. And so I do business coaching on the inside of Social Curator. I will do promotions as Social Curator. And that is the extent of what I now do in this massive business opportunity, which feels so good. There's so many people who are saying, yes, but how do I work myself out of the business? And this is just like a little notch in my belt, but I have to like, tether it by the other side of. What are you doing, though? What is the next iteration? What is the next iteration of you? What is the and for every time, every iteration of my career, Chris, it's been pretty clean, I'll be honest. It's like I pitched you the whole Disneyfied hallmark version and then one thing and then one thing and one thing and razzle dazzle. And this is the first time in my life, my career, where I'm like, actually, I don't know. And so it's been pretty, pretty, pretty quiet for the last year for me just to do the work, for me to study. Like, what do my days look like a lot right now? I'm going back to the thing that has always been the thing that have kicked my ass is create. Creation's hard. Creation sharpens your teeth. Creation sharpen, like, heightens your spine. Creation makes you feel like the worst version of you and the fricking best version of you. Creation sharpens why you think a certain way. And so I went back to the thing that I felt was like getting back in the ring of creating. And then also my calendar, three days a week I talk to seven and eight figure business owners with nothing other than can I have 15 minutes? I'm asking questions. I'm asking questions. And I hope that in the creation, in the ideation, in the knowledge, I'm going to be able to see like what is the gap? Where are I most valuable? What's going to be the biggest lever to pull? Because at this point in my life and career, Chris, how freaking fortunate that I am to say it's not because I don't have opportunities. I have too many opportunities. And so I'm just like, I need to choose what's best. And if I choose now, I didn't give it the time that I needed to gestate. So I'm just going to sit, keep my mouth shut, trust the process and really believe that when the time's right, we're going to strike it hard and we're going to strike it hot.
- [42:16]
C
It's time for a quick break, but we'll be right back.
- [42:20]
D
Hey guys, it's Rich here. I wanted to ask you what is something that works so well that it's basically magic? Air conditioning? Noise canceling headphones? What about selling with Shopify? Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you sell at every stage of your business. From the launcher online shop stage to the first real life store stage, all the way to the did we just hit a million order stage. Shopify is going to be there to help you grow. Whether you're selling shipping, supplies or promoting productivity programs, they're going to be there to help you sell everywhere. Shopify powers 10% of all E commerce in the US and Shopify is the global force behind Allbirds, Rothys and Brooklyn and millions of other entrepreneurs of every size across. Listen to this. 175 countries plus Shopify's award winning help is there to support your success and every step of the way. Because businesses that grow grow with Shopify. Sign up for a $1 per month trial period at shopify.com future.
- [43:30]
Chris Do
Want to make the most of the opportunities coming your way this year? I'd like to invite you to join me inside the Future Pro membership. Your ace in the hole for 2024. With expert guidance and a supportive community, the Future Pro membership was created as your ultimate business lifeline and we have years testimonials from members to prove it. Check it out. TheFuture.com Pro.
- [43:55]
C
And Rebecc welcome back to our conversation.
- [43:58]
Chris Do
You said that you were hoping to get 500 people to join your membership. You got 2,444 on day one. Incredible feat there. I'm curious what that membership cost was. What did it cost to join the membership?
- [44:12]
Jasmine Starr
Well, during the first five days of the membership, we had an introductory offer for 25, because after the five days, it was going to be $35. Since six years ago, we've added structure, onboarding, timeline, access to all content. At the time, you were buying just one month of content. And now Social Curator is $59 a month. But you get access to every single piece of content ever created. And we also leverage AI. So when you're feeding Dottie, we call her Dottie because she connects the dots. You're feeding her your voice. You've built out a profile. So it's different. It's like an extension of an LLM in that, like, the more you use it, the more it's gonna be attuned, and the more information you give it in your profile, the better off those results are gonna be. So a lot of iterations and changes since then.
- [44:57]
Chris Do
Okay. Now, you also mentioned this mastermind that was five times more than what you thought it was going to be, but you joined it anyways. And this is a theme that I've seen in you, and that you're not afraid to invest in yourself. And Sean loves to say that. Sean Cannell loves to say this. Scared money don't make money. And you definitely aren't scared money. And this is really fascinating for me because especially given your background, growing up with not a lot of money poor, we look at money as, like, more than what it is. Like, money is your God, and you have to respect it. You leave it alone. You bury it under the bed or mattress, whatever the expression is. But you, on the other hand, are like, I'm going to spend money. I'm going to go for it. I'm curious about your mindset around spending money to invest in things that may or may not work out, because there's no guarantee. You talked about this. You know the devil you know and the devil you don't. This is the devil you don't. And that person could be a total charlatan, and you just gave them $25,000. That's not easy to come by. What is it about you that allows you to do that?
- [45:57]
Jasmine Starr
I say this with all humility, but it's also that I hope that you know and people listening know, I do the damn work to figure it out. And so I don't say this, be like, I'm just like this. The amount of inner work and awareness that has to exist in order for somebody to make such a significant amount is that I have to accept that even if I pay a charlatan, I have something in me that will find an ROI on whatever that amount of money is. And I have to say, not every investment I've made in a coach, in a Mastermind, in group coaching, in consulting, I can honestly tell you, I do not have the best track record. But what I can tell you beyond a shadow of doubt was in the process of that, I met somebody or I created one thing that empowered me outside of them being snakes, and I bought them oil. I found a way to make it win. And to be honest, Chris, I didn't know that that was unique, that that skill of I will make this ROI positive was a skill. I had the honor and the privilege of hosting my very own first Mastermind back in 2023 and worked with 15amazing entrepreneurs. And it's crazy to go from being in a Mastermind to hosting a Mastermind, because now you're looking at it very differently. And I started noticing that there was a cohort of people within it that were going to get an ROI regardless of anything I did or said. And then there were people who were hell bent on not getting an roi, and they didn't see it that way. They didn't see that they made it impossible for themselves to get an roi. And let's talk about that, because this goes back into any type of investment that you make in your business, if you're making an investment in your business, because you hope that the person on the other end will tell you exactly what to do, how to do it, and when to do it again and again and again. You're actually not an entrepreneur. You're a student. You're just looking for somebody to give you the path there. And it will never work that way. And so how do you become ROI positive in anything you do is always look for the next lever and the next win. And it's not opportunistic. It's not opportunistic at all. Boy, one time on a podcast, they ended it and say, and if you ever want to see your booty shape, this is the person. And I was like, oh, and guess what, Chris, I cannot be offended by that. Because guess what? I had shaped my booty. There's no lie in it, Chris. There's no lie. It's just when you hear back the things you do, you're like, oh, wow. I had allowed it to get there. I had. And boy did. Was that just like a good Course correction. And so what I've realized is there's a dichotomy of like, the content that people are seeing and then the people who value most and will pay me quite handsomely. And guess what is that my business is consultancy. My business right now, no. Could it be maybe again, where am I at? I am letting things come to me and finding ways to create ROI moments. And I just look at admission to a mastermind, to an event, to a cohort as simply, I'm going to get in the room. Because for so long, and we don't have to get into the history of it, minorities and women and poor minority women have always been exposed, excluding from rooms. And I just have to believe that if I can pay to get in the room, one day I will host the room. One day I will invite other people into this room. And everything that I learn on the inside of the room, I hold myself responsible to be sharing what goes on behind those closed doors because I have been given the 1% of the 1% of the 1% opportunity. So you bet your bottom dollar I will be buying my way into those rooms.
- [49:26]
Chris Do
Okay. I know that you're a thoroughbred entrepreneur despite not having any entrepreneurs in your life in your early formative. What you say really kind of resonates with my entrepreneurial heart, is that you and I, we can go in a room and experience something that's really lackluster, but walk away with some gems and we'll work real hard to like, pan for that gold. And it could be a couple of flecks, but we're going to turn those little flecks of gold into something much bigger. And so I think people like you go into any opportunity, quote unquote, and will get the maximum juice from that fruit. And some other people, it's like already squeezed for them and they're like, eh, I don't know, I just don't like the flavor. And I think that's something really unique. So I want to ask our audience to think about this. When was the last time you participated in a mastermind, a course, a workshop, a mentorship program, Anything that you've committed yourself to and took on that attitude because I think that's got to be one of the biggest keys to success. And I know it's a cliche, when life gives you lemons, start a lemonade stand. And you know how to do that in spade. Now I'm going to just get super selfish with you. I don't know anything about masterminds. I sort of ran one For a minute. And also from some advice from you because you're like, you saved my bacon.
- [50:42]
Jasmine Starr
Are we going to go there? Are we going to go there?
- [50:43]
Chris Do
We're going to go there right now. You saved my bacon, okay? Because you said to me in the green room, chris, don't do a year long program.
- [50:49]
Jasmine Starr
Hold on. Wait, wait, wait, wait. We got to take people back, brother. We got to take you back. We got to put them in the room. The storyteller and me. You're going to see the story.
- [50:54]
Chris Do
Okay? You do it.
- [50:55]
Jasmine Starr
Set the setup. This drives my husband crazy. He's like, jasmine, not everybody needs to know what style shoes you were wearing. I was like, no, no, no. So Chris and I are mentors for the Ink magazine and the UPS store challenge. Now, I've seen Chris at a distance. We've known each other in, like, casual nods. I have actually sat in audiences where I paid tickets to listen to the brother. I was a fan far before he even knew I existed. So the fact that we were both chosen as mentors, I was like, oh, my God, the Christo. Okay, so then just imagine we're at the top. We're at the top of the Observatory Center. We're in New York City. You have expansive views of New York City. And then the mentors, they put you off in this pipe and drape. You're basically in a white marble on the inside of this gorgeous room. And they have fruit and they have snacks, and Chris is there talking to other people. And so then I sit and I'm eavesdropping. He doesn't know I'm eavesdropping, but I'm eavesdropping on Chris's conversations as he's talking to other people. And he's kind and he's good. And then the producer says, okay, everybody who's not a mentor needs to leave. So Chris and I find ourselves seated next to each other on a couch. Take it away, Chris.
- [51:58]
Chris Do
You're right. Context does matter. Oh, my God. The story is going to be much, much more interesting. So we start talking business. Now, I have to say, I'm just so socially awkward. Despite not being homeschooled, I'm just normally socially awkward. I have no excuse for this, okay? And I'm like, do I talk to her? I know I've seen her on stage. What do I say? But we get into the heat of it, and it's awesome. And you start pouring into me. I tell you that I'm going to be starting a mastermind or something, and you're talking about something that you're doing. And you gave me some amazing advice. And this is part of the theme here. Gold can be found anywhere, not even in a classroom. You could be in backstage and you could say one phrase to me that gets me to think differently, to act differently and choose a different course of action. And you said something to me. I'll credit you for this. Hey, man, don't commit to a year. Try it out for six months. Just start the program, chop it in half, and just do it for six months. And I was like, God, that's genius. And I'm so glad that you told me that because I would be somewhat miserable right now still running my Mastermind, figuring it out. And I'm glad that when that six month came up, I was able to get some clarity and some space. And I'm still thinking it through now. As a person who's never enrolled in a Mastermind, I guess I'm the opposite. Maybe I'm just cheap. I don't know. I just don't go for these things. And so you start telling me later on in our second encounter in person about how things are run. And I'm like, shoot, I need to learn from you. So you enrolled in this program and then you've run your own Mastermind. What does one need to know? Can you give us the high level? These are the big concepts. Here's how it should work. Here are things you should avoid. Because I just want to learn from you as a student right now.
- [53:37]
Jasmine Starr
Yeah. And so this is why I actually truly believe that it's not just going to be beneficial to someone like Chris or somebody who wants to host a Mastermind. I will say filling a Mastermind is wildly difficult. It's one of the hardest things you're going to do because it is a high ticket offer because of the proximity to the person who's hosting it. So when people love the idea of hosting a Mastermind, but to have another person pay a significant amount of money for that, it takes a lot to move that level of audience to that point. So I'll say that. However, I do think that making a case for a Mastermind, how it should be hosted, things to be looking for work just as well for somebody who's looking for or wanting to invest in a Mastermind. And I say this and, you know, my family makes fun of me because they're like, just the way you talk, you. You talk so much like you know it all. And I'm like, I actually don't intend to talk like A nodo. I really don't. I came out of the womb, I was like, mira, mommy, you did it wrong. Okay, let me tell you how to make this better. Okay, well, this is what I will say about this one thing, Chris, about this one thing. Well, this one thing. I have invested in so many masterminds. I have invested in group coaching. I have done executive cohorts. Like, I get it. And I believe beyond all else, it's important for representation to exist in those rooms. And it's not always altruistic. I will always find a win. But I believe anybody can find a win if they're looking for the win. You got to work for the win. You got to dig for the win. Okay, now what I will say is the way to the best of my recollection. And Chris, please feel free to correct me. When we were talking in New York two years ago, the framework of the mastermind was people would come in and then Chris would be teaching.
- [55:17]
Chris Do
Yep.
- [55:18]
Jasmine Starr
And I want to be clear, based on a lot of research and being a consumer, that a mastermind is not for the host to teach. The mastermind is for the host to facilitate, to push and prod. So you want to look at this as a mastermind as there's a shepherd and there's sheep. And your job as a shepherd is to keep the sheep moving up the hill. And as long as they're doing it together, we're going to believe that the sheep are smart enough to find winds or pastures to graze in. Now, coaching is when you as an instructor, as a guide, come in and teach. And not just teach what's on your mind. We're going to teach a framework. We're going to give how to's. We're not going to how to with you. We're going to teach the how to's so that you are now a sheep among sheep. You're the head sheep. So you're going to be teaching along with the rest of the herd how to navigate those hills. And you're going to show them the best path. And you'll be like, okay, so you got to take four steps and then move to the left. That's what a good head sheep does. But you're not saying, I'm going to push your feet for you. And then you have one on one instruction. That is the equivalent of somebody saying, okay, I'm going to wait until you move your feet. Just move your feet. Okay, let's go. So that spectrum of if you're trying to host a mastermind at A high ticket level and attract a high ticket audience. And what you do is teach, teach, teach, teach. You're actually going to be pushing the audience in a different direction because traditionally what people want is I want to be in the room with those other bright people. And here's the thing, this is the thing that you know and this is the thing that I know. We don't know it all, but we know how to get the right people in a room so that we're all collectively doing that. So people are paying you, Chris, to say, I bet on you, shepherd, to build the best flock. That's a lot of fricking responsibility. And it takes a lot of strength not to want to jump in and help. When we see a sheep is stuck, we have to say, you have to find your way or let's help a few other sheep come in. And you really are only stepping into somebody else's business when they're in a really hard spot. And for Chris to actually distill that down and get it down in six months and then really convey that on the front end. Because we have to look at this from like a business product suite. And your product suite is like an ascension model. So Chris does a ton of free content. The guy kills YouTube videos. I mean, people will take a sword for Chris. I hung out with Chris. Every time I hang out with Chris, somebody's like, chris, can I get a photo with you? I mean, we could be at Target, we could be at Ocean, you know, in Beverly Hills and they're asking for photos. I was like, dang, set up coming up with Chris. And so that is starting his funnel. And then what he has are smaller ticket offerings taught by other people. Then he has courses that are investing. You buy on demand and then he has coaching programs. But if the person who's in a mid level coaching program gets to the mastermind and is expecting the same thing that's not on the user, it's on the sales team or it's on the sales page. It's on Chris to say, this is what's different. If you are expecting me to be your one on one coach, were going to be misaligned.
- [58:26]
Chris Do
I feel so called out.
- [58:27]
Jasmine Starr
No, I didn't say that. That's what you did. I didn't say what you did. I didn't say that's what you did. I didn't say.
- [58:32]
Chris Do
I'm saying you're right. You right, girl. I did it all wrong.
- [58:37]
Jasmine Starr
I would go to these masterminds and half the group would be expecting it. To be a mastermind framework, which is a bunch of baddies in a room being like, have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? Okay, what about this? I'll follow up. Versus when you go into a mastermind and then the host is just talking and teaching for eight hours, which is great. But a mastermind is not one plus one equals two. A mastermind is one plus one equals 30. Because 30 people, 20 people are in the room. You get more than having just the singular smartest person who's doing that very thing. Well, there's 29 other people who all have a different perspective. And you get to where you want to go faster based on the collective, not just the single person.
- [59:15]
Chris Do
I've done the worst of all things. I've actually gotten in there and did the work for them. I mean, I committed all the sins. I became the sheep. I'm not even the head sheep. I'm going to chew the food and I'm going to spit it out. And you eat it now because it's done.
- [59:29]
Jasmine Starr
So I.
- [59:29]
Chris Do
Okay, lessons learned here. Sometimes you learn because you're smart. Sometimes you learn because you're stupid. And this one is just on the back of, like, dumb things I've done. And that's why after the six months, I was just burnt out. Yeah, I don't think they got what they wanted and I didn't get what I wanted. And I don't know if we moved them enough. We didn't get to the stable or whatever. I didn't shepherd them in. So I'm going to ask you right now. Tell me what it's like from a structure point of view, what a typical mastermind is when you facilitate. Tell me the right way. I just feel called out for the wrong way. Please teach me the right way. How does this work?
- [60:04]
Jasmine Starr
So, you know, I only spit. Like, I spit the truth. And I'm going to say that in 2023, we hosted a mastermind. It was six months. It was 15 people. And to the best of my ability, I said what a mastermind was. But half the people in the room had never been in a mastermind. And so what I should have done, only looking back, was I should have repeated that at least once a month because at the end, we did an exit survey. Okay. So then at the end of the six months, there was a group of people. We said, okay, we want to sign on another six months. We had a wait list for the mastermind. And then something came in, like, strong intuition. I can't explain it. The team was like, okay, we're ready to go. I was already doing interviews for people to come into the Mastermind and I was like, I'm so sorry, none of this makes sense. I'm pausing this. I was like, I'm out of alignment right now. And the team was like, what? Like we have revenue goals, we have targets, or we're planning these events. And I was like, I know I'm out of alignment and if I'm out of alignment, we're not going to execute. And I'm so happy I did that because in other times I had created and launched a different offer that was much more of where I needed to be. That I do believe in fact would help our Mastermind members. So I'm happy to by the time it was turning everything upside down. But what I will say is the distance between ending that first Mastermind and now working on our next one. And no, I'm not pitching it. We're not even going to talk about that here because it's not what I do on the show. I were talking about the lessons here. Was that the distance between ending that one and coming to the first one. It's like for people who thought I was, you know, myself, honest and truthful. Yeah. But now what I'm going to do is I'm going to be so crystal clear that I'm going to say it again and again and again. I will let you down if you think you're going to be getting one on one sessions with me. I will let you down if you think this is going to be warm and fuzzy accountability. You're going to get a text message. Hey Jennifer. Checking in. Did you do that? No, honey, no. I can't want it more than you. So I'm going to read just one thing that is a part of the sales page. Now this is not even like the sales. This is just what we will include. But we start off with this is what a Mastermind will not include. A personalized roadmap. This is not a course or group coaching. While the Mastermind sessions will include guided prompts and ideas to help you up level, you will need to get clear on what you need to do in your business. And the Mastermind group will provide feedback, support and insights along the way. It will not include hand holding. It is up to you to make the most of this Mastermind and reach out to other members, share feedback and insights and hold each other accountable. If you're ready to go all in, you need to decide on your own and be okay with exactly this. I don't think that's warm and fuzzy. And then when somebody signs up, they're going to have to pay an application fee. If they don't get accepted, the application fee is returned. But we really only want to deal with very serious people. And so on part of that, we're going to make them sign each part of their level expectation. You will be a part of our Slack channel. You will show up to the live classes, you will attend both events. You have to sign it. Once they do that, I will have a 30 minute, one on one session onboarding. Setting the culture. What do you want? What's the goals? How do we get those measurable goals? Because if you come in and someone's like, I just want to be inspired by the mastermind, that's a little bit of a pink and orange flag for me. Because how do you define inspiration, how I define it are two totally different things. Now, can you be inspired achieving a specific goal? Yes. Now, in order for us to hit the goal, we have to know what the goal is. And that's what we're going to be doing in this onboarding. And at the end of it, we're making them sign an agreement. This is what I agreed to. Because at the end of it, there were some people who felt disappointed. Now here's a perfect example. A person comes in with X business and what this person wanted was to expand that business. Halfway through, this person realizes, oh, I can duplicate this business, go super niche in a market and start bringing in revenue using the same team. And I hear that and I'm like, winning, winning, winning, good. That's where you need to be. But except by making that decision, what are you doing? You're using your current revenue to start up the new venture. So you didn't grow your revenue and so now you're going to say that you're disappointed that you didn't grow your revenue in six months. And I'm like, how about we have a conversation in 16 months? How about we have a conversation in six months when you're doing double what you would have done before given the same time frame, I can't make you appreciate or think about the wins. If you came in only thinking one way. I need to make more money, I need to get an ROI on this mastermind. Honey, you will get the roi, but do you have the patience to wait after the six months? Because all good ideas. And then when you had this idea at month three, were you really expecting to get it off the ground and make money in three months? What kind of businesses are we actually running here? And of course I sound like I'm hot and bothered. I'm not. I care so freaking much. I care about obviously my name and the offer and I wanted this person to be happy with it. But I care that you think like a fricking winner. And thinking like a fricking winner means that you don't win every single day. Sure, maybe you're not hitting your revenue goal for quarter three. Talk to me. Quarter two and 25. Let's have a different conversation then. I can't teach you how to think. I can't teach you how to win. I can't teach you to mind for goals. I can't teach you to be appreciative. And so this time around I was like, I'm be very clear, I'm be very clear. I would rather have a mastermind with five people then 20 and 15 who had mismatched expectations. And so going in, it makes me feel free, it makes me feel light. I know what I'm doing. I know exactly who the guests I'm going to be speaking into. Because what we're doing in this mastermind is seven figure business owners only. I want to get us all in like a better framework so that we say this is what we're doing and how we scale. And what I've known to be true is how you scale in your seven figures is done in two ways. It is done in people and it's done in systems that's unsexy and unglamorous behind the scenes work that very few people want to do. For people who are stuck below 2 million, it is only because of two reasons. You haven't built the system to scale or you haven't built the team to scale. And so what we want to do is get a group of people who are going to be between that two and seven figure range and be like, great. What is our goal collectively? To get to eight figures. Some of us will scale faster based on the depth and the breadth of our systems and our people. But who are we bringing in as guest speakers? People who speak to those two things. Not sexy. It's gonna kill.
- [66:08]
Chris Do
I'm excited about this, but let's say, like I am not in a mastermind. I still want to know structurally how a call might happen. Okay, frequency, how many calls are you gonna do?
- [66:20]
Jasmine Starr
Okay, so this is what I'm gonna say. Just, you know me, if you wanna know what the best bike is, ride some freaking bikes, Chris. Like get in a mastermind, pay Money, care, Shock yourself, Shock yourself with what you're going to spend in a mastermind. That's how you're going to figure out the type of castle you want to build or the menu you want to curate. But I will tell you structurally, and here's the thing, someone's going to hear this and be like, I've never, I would never. That's not what masterminds do. You're right, because some masterminds, they meet twice a month. But generally speaking, most of the masterminds, I'll tell you the general framework of what most of the masterminds are. Most masterminds are 12 months. I personally think that's too long. We're too long committed. The people who are not getting results. And this is what always happens if you have a six month mastermind. People start seeing results around the halfway point. We gauge ourselves according to a finish line. Move the finish line forward, you figure out how much more you can get done. This is what I've learned. So what happens if you have a 12 month mastermind around month six, there's like a lot of movement. The people who are not getting movement, they turn into themselves and they either become complainers or they become very needy. And so what we want to do is make sure that we're facilitating a time and a feedback that people feel really supported. And so generally a mastermind will be for a fixed amount of time. It will be a monthly call via Zoom. It will be 90 minutes to 120 minutes, depending on the size of the group. The host will start off and give like either an update about what's going on in their business or a key takeaway, something that's all pointing into the transformation. Now let's peel back even further. The best masterminds have a very specific theme or transformation that the members are trying to achieve. When the masterminds that I joined were like very, very, very broad, it was hard for us to find connection points. The masterminds that all focused on launching, that focused on course creation. Dang. Like those ones were so niche specific and all of the conversations were focused around those one things. Do I think that the lifespan or longevity of niche specific masterminds are long? No, because how you don't want to be a part of like a launch mastermind for four years. Like you know what you're doing by that point in time. So the transformation, what does that person want at the end or throughout the mastermind? What's our singular focus? So then the speaker, the host will come in, talk about getting everybody calibrated on what was your goal? This is a transformation, this is a timeframe. Are you training towards those things? Then either you will bring in a guest speaker who speaks around 40 minutes. We do Q and A based on that topic. But again, the topic isn't fun and sexy unless it is, but it really is pointing towards the transformation. And then every other one, we do what we call a hot seat or what we call a reframe. And this is where somebody in the group, we follow a very specific framework. You have to apply for them. At least in my masterminds and the best masterminds I've been in, you have to apply for a mastermind because you have to be very clear, like what is your problem? Or what is your question? So you fill out like five or six questions and then the host will say, hey, we have Stephanie. Stephanie does this in her business. This is what she sells, this is what is her pressure point. So then Stephanie comes in, she probably speaks for like one or two minutes to color it. And then the group will ask one of two things. Clarifying questions like, wait, do I actually understand what's going on in your business? And then two, you don't say, this is what you should do. You offer insider feedback. Be like, I was in this situation, I'm not exactly the same and I did X, Y and Z or hey, have you considered bringing in this person? Or what is your org chart actually look like? And it is the question very similar. When I had asked you the question in New York, hey, have you considered just doing it six months? That's not deep thought, Chris. That's not a deep thought.
- [69:49]
Chris Do
So I think I'm getting it now. And you're spitting fire the whole time. So I think the big kind of mindset shift for me is the mastermind isn't about tactical things, the how to's, the step by step or accountability. It's just asking a question to help the person reframe and find their own way. And if you select the right people, that's what they're going to value. If you select more process oriented people, they're going to like, this is not. I don't know what to do with that because you're not literally telling me to step by step. So I've committed all the sins. Lesson learned. I'm going to slap my hand after this show and just kind of think about it because I'm so not ready to get back into it. But this brings a lot of clarity to me. I really appreciate you Doing that and sharing so openly, there's a group of.
- [70:32]
Jasmine Starr
People who need you in more ways. And so I would just caution your timeline around when you're ready for it, because this one thing will make a big difference. When you'd said it's maybe not all the systems and the exact how tos, but based on the library of content you and your team have created, there's going to be people in the mastermind who actually need those very things that are already created. This is why at the end of my Mastermind, I didn't renew because I said I'm getting so many questions around launching in our launch methodology because we've had so much success with it that I paused. I said, I am making a whole course on the exact SOP, standard operating procedures, how ToS, step by step on how we launch. So that in the Mastermind, when someone's like, but I'm really looking on, like, what's the cadence of the flow? Great. Well, we have a partnership with ConvertKit. I'm gonna send that to you. They're in my mastermind. I don't need to say that anymore. Like, oh, but I was really working on our messaging. Great, we have a whole course on messaging. Or here's just this one unit. So now the team was going to be able to look at the swath of our information and for somebody who we can serve with a high piece of robust content, we'll send it to them, but we do not need to be the disseminator of it. I think you're really well set up for people who need that support based on your content already. So I would just say whatever time that you think, ask yourself, how do I want to be in a group and what do they need? What is the transformation that I'm pretty sure they can get on their own under my guidance. I think that will get you to an answer and hosting one really soon. And I think you should get in one. I do.
- [72:00]
Chris Do
Okay. I don't know why, but I'm so, so reluctant to do it. I, I hire people for one on one teaching and coaching and I'll pay a lot of money for that. And I'm just kind of guy, like, let's just scrape. I can learn everything I need to learn in 30, 45 minutes and I'll, I'll be able to execute.
- [72:16]
Jasmine Starr
I do the same. I do the same. But, but there is something to be said. Like if you went in and it was an experiment, you're like, this is just an experiment. It's Just an experiment. And you take what you take and you leave the rest and you figure out, oh, I hate this so much. And then it makes your mastermind better. Everything's a win. Everything's a win.
- [72:34]
Chris Do
Okay, I want to ask you the question, which is, with Gary's growth accelerator, you said this. Weekly calls, are you on every call and are you getting value from it, or do you even need to get value?
- [72:45]
Jasmine Starr
Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Okay. Oh, okay. Well, here's the thing. I spit my truth. And I would never say something to somebody that I didn't say something to that person directly.
- [72:57]
Chris Do
Yeah.
- [72:57]
Jasmine Starr
Okay. So they lay out the weekly schedule of calls, and they have people like Damon John and Bobby Brown. They had their Vayner AI team. They had their Vayner LinkedIn growth team. And so every week there is a different guest. Now, Andrea and James did a check in. Now, I was talking to JD and I said, listen, I love these guest speakers. I think they're all amazing. But I think that the ROI on learning about growth for, say, X Company, while impressive and good, it's not really moving us, like, towards a needle. What I wish, if they were going to have such a diverse spectrum of speakers would be that each speaker answered the same set of questions. Because then what we would do as the listeners would be able to get the different answers and then distill them so that we can apply them to our business. But everybody's kind of come in and they've done their own thing, which is not bad remotely, but it's very similar to the content that you're getting at, like, a conference. And so I told jd, I was like, do you think that I should, like, go back and let them know that it would probably be really more valuable for us to have more time with myself and the nine counterparts. Cause they're freaking brilliant people. And he's like, no. Like, pace it out. And so then I was like, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna go to, like, this session or this session. And he called me out and he said, if there was somebody in your mastermind who came to you and said, hey, here's ways that we can get better. And they didn't show up to the calls that you'd provided. He's like, you would feel a certain way about it. And I was like, sure I would. And he's like, so if you're going to come, you need to experience so that they know you are fully committed. And then preemptively, because they're freaking Amazing. They had a check in call. Andrea and James are like, what would you like to see different? And I said, I would love to. Actually, I love the speakers, but I want more time with the people. Like, I want to learn from them. And they said, you know what? Everybody we've spoken to has said the same thing. They're like, we're learning. So this is their first maiden voyage and what they're doing is they're adding more sessions and then the next time they do it, they're not going to have as many guest speakers. But hey, what does this show everybody? What did you learn on the back of your mastermind? Things to do and get better. What did I learn? I learned a hell of a lot of things. I'm going to get better. I thank the people who did my first mastermind. I thank them. It is not easy being the first crew. I thank them desperately. And now I'm so honed in the second group. Game over. And now what do I see by people I deeply respect people who have hundreds of millions of dollars in an organization and they're saying, we're learning and we're getting better. That's business.
- [75:11]
Chris Do
That was fantastic. I know. We could sit here and peel back every single lady.
- [75:16]
Jasmine Starr
I'm gonna drive down Pasadena.
- [75:18]
Chris Do
It's gonna be like an eight hour podcast, guys. The live broadcast, it'll be a ticketed event. You're gonna sit there with Jasmine and we're gonna unpack her entire brain and I'll be drawing on the whiteboard. If that sounds interesting. You comment on this video, share it somewhere and say, we want that. We want the eight hour session. I'll totally forget about this prompt because people, eight hour, and I'm like, what are they talking about? And I won't remember, but we'll be able to listen back to this moment. And you know what's really interesting is you said every five years there's a reinvention kind of recalibration. You're in the recalibration mode. I totally, deeply respect that. I love how you work, how you're able to delegate most of the business to someone else so that you have this time to think about what the next five years are going to look like. And we're in a time of massive disruption and change. And so I would kind of raise my eyebrow at you if you're like plowing straight ahead without really thinking, reflecting. We're in the same space. So there's something about you that I just feel like there's a connection even when you don't speak, I'm like, I think I get hurt. I feel the same way, just at different speeds. And the way that we're doing it. I admire you, I respect you, and I'm so appreciative of your time. Thank you for sharing and pouring and spitting your truth. I don't know what else to say, but just once again say thank you for doing this with me.
- [76:27]
Jasmine Starr
I truly adore you. I think there's people that you meet and you just think like, man, they're better than you thought. And then jd, my husband business partner, met you in our kitchen and he's just like, chris is somebody you just want to hang out with. And for JD to say that his barometer on humans is next level. And I was like, I agree, Chris. Let's make this a regular thing. I appreciate you. I think it's two birds of a feather. And what an honor to flock together. Thank you.
- [76:57]
C
Thanks for joining us. If you haven't already, subscribe to our show on your favorite podcasting app and get new insightful episodes from us every week. The Future Podcast is hosted by Chris do and produced and edited by Rich Cardona Media. Thank you to Adam Sanborn for our intro music. If you enjoyed this episode, then do us a favor by reviewing and rating our show on Apple Podcasts. It will help us grow the show and make future episodes that much better. If you'd like to support the show and invest in yourself while you're at it, visit thefuture.com and you'll find video courses, digital products, and a bunch of helpful resources about design and the creative business. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time.