Replay: The Key to Success with Jasmine Star

Your Dream Business

English - August 01, 2022 00:00 - 47 minutes - 43.8 MB - ★★★★★ - 34 ratings
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Previous Episode: How to create financial abundance for yourself and have a ripple effect on others too

Next Episode: Replay: Creating a Successful Online Course or Business with Amy Porterfield

Today’s episode of the podcast is a throwback to one of my earlier episodes, where I got to interview the amazing Jasmine Star.

Jasmine is CEO of Social Curators and a business strategist who helps entrepreneurs get sales on social media.

This is such an interesting listen to hear how much has changed over the last 3 years, but how much has stayed the same too!

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

Using Instagram as a tool to grow your business
Are you using Instagram for your business, or is your business just on Instagram?
Jasmine’s top tip for Instagram success

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…
Social media isn’t something that will bring you quick results and if you’re not in it for the long run, find out what is better suited to your business.

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
Jasmine Star Instagram

Jasmine Star Website

Social Curator

TRANSCRIPT
Hello and welcome to the podcast. So we are doing something different. Now, as you know, because I've just introduced what episode on 253, I have done a lot of episodes. And it's summer. And I also, as you know, if you've been listening for a while and if you haven't welcome, I'm so happy you're here, you know, I'm loving the garden and I just thought, you know what?

Over the summer, it might be nice to not put out some new content. It might be nice to replay some of the amazing, amazing humans I've already interviewed on this podcast. And obviously last week we had the phenomenal Denise Duffield-Thomas, which is so very exciting. And I just thought I have interviewed some crazy, amazing people.

And so many of those people I interviewed really early on and I just thought, do you know what I want to make my life a little bit easier for myself when, when it's the summer. And cause obviously I'm a mom and I have my daughter and I'm gonna wanna take some time off with her. But also I really wanna reuse some of these phenomenal episodes that I've done and cut them back out into the world because they're so good.

And obviously I've heard them cause I was on them, but I've re-listened to them before doing the intros and outros and I've forgotten how ACE they were and it makes me so genuinely excited that I'm I have these conversations with these people.

It's so cool. So I am replaying four episodes over the next four weeks. Now one thing you gotta bear in mind is my interviewing skills. I hope to goodness have improved. In fact, one of the interviews I'm playing next week, it was my second ever interview. So you know that that's a lot of interviews since then.

So you have to bear that in mind you also have to bear in mind that some of the content that they might talk about. So like on today's episode, there are things we talk about on Instagram. And they might not still be relevant because obviously this episode was recorded a couple of years ago. However, all of them have amazing content that still stands today and the conversations are brilliant and I just love them, which is why I'm replaying these particular episodes.

The other thing you have to bear in mind is the sound quality may not be as good. It should be fine, but just if there, if the sound quality isn't as kind of bang on, then you'll know that's why cause again, in the early days I didn't have the mic and the setup. And the things that I have now, but for me, I forget.

And I think we all do. And actually, you know, I just want you to...

Today’s episode of the podcast is a throwback to one of my earlier episodes, where I got to interview the amazing Jasmine Star.

Jasmine is CEO of Social Curators and a business strategist who helps entrepreneurs get sales on social media.

This is such an interesting listen to hear how much has changed over the last 3 years, but how much has stayed the same too!

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

Jasmine Star Website

Social Curator

And I think we all do. And actually, you know, I just want you to think for a minute. Cause I had this conversation in the club, in the executive club the other day. Someone was beating themselves up for something that they feel like they hadn't done. And I actually had to remind her, I've now worked with this amazing lady for years, and I actually had to remind her how far she's come, because we forget so very easily what we've done.

It's like we achieve one thing and it's like, great onto the next thing. And like, we shouldn't, we should remember how amazing these things are. I'm super glad I've decided to do this as a bit of a celebration of like, oh my goodness, I've done a lot of episodes. I've spoke to a lot of amazing people. And I wanna remember that.

And I wanna remind myself how cool that was. So today's episode is one of my most listened to episodes. It's with the amazing Jasmine Star. Who I just loved, like talking to her was so cool. She's genuinely a really nice human, really, really nice human. And I'm really glad I'm getting to replay this one.

Now, as I've said, we talk about Instagram and obviously Instagram has moved on somewhat since we had a conversation. In fact, I wonder when this was first aired. What actual episode is it? Let me just look two seconds and try and find what episodes it was. Episode 51. So like, if you think I do 52 episodes a year, someone do math was that four years ago or something.

So yeah, Instagram has moved on, but some of the stuff has story for one is brilliant. Her conversation is great. Some of the strategy stuff still stands and it's just a really, really good. I was gonna say, interview, that makes me sound like I'm saying I did a good interview, she was great to interview and I think you're gonna love it.

And it made me smile. She's so much fun. We have a laugh. It's great. So the first replay you're gonna get is the amazing Jasmine Star. Enjoy.

So I'm so excited this week to welcome to the podcast, Jasmine Star.

Well, thank you for having me. I couldn't even more excited. It's been a while. This has been a while in the making, but here we are.

Yeah. Oh, we have, we've been talking about it for a little while, so it's finally lovely to get you on. And I'm so excited to kind of introduced to my audience cause I'm fairly sure a lot of my audience will know who you are. But I have been following you for ages. I was lucky enough to meet you last year in San Diego.

And in fact, you hooked me up with a great photographer. Uh, Tim King, he's done a photos for me a few times. So we'd had a conversation about that, but it's so nice to get you on and hear about how things are going, cause I know that you've been doing some really exciting things. Haven't you?

I've I have been excited. And when I'm excited, I do exciting things. So yes, , it's been a good year so far.

Awesome. So just as a kickoff, if you don't mind, in case my audience don't know who you are, it would be great to give them a bit of background of who you are, where you've come from. And also, I want you to do this because I've already said in the intro that you are an amazing storyteller.

So. I know whenever you tell any story, it's just, I can't help, but just sit and wanna listen. So if you could do that, that would be awesome.

Oh yeah. There's no pressure in this story at all. I was feeling none and all of a sudden I feel this abundance. Like I better stand on this stage and deliver an academy award where the story right about now, you know, I think that the more we converse throughout this conversation, the story will naturally unfold, but I think it's going to expedite where people or why people see my passion for creating a business and creating freedom, but also using social media as a vehicle for growth in a business.

And so in 2005, I earned a full ride, uh, law school scholarship, and it was the thing I was supposed to do with my life. I thought that as a first generation immigrant daughter, first generation college student, first generation postgraduate student, that this was the thing that would define me and really help expedite my family into a different stratosphere of being American culture and, uh, being American.

And when I was there, I just realized how unhappy I really was. It just wasn't the best fit for me, but I thought, well, this is what I'm gonna do. This is what I've worked for. And my first year of law school, my mom unfortunately had a relapse brain cancer.

And it just really rocked everybody's world because it had been an eight year battle at this time. And the doctors had said that "Her time had come and we had to start making funeral arrangements." And I think that that reprioritized everything in my life, like it forced you to, you know, have hard conversations and really say, "What do I want in life?"

And so I planned a wedding in three months to my long standing boyfriend, we'd met in high school. And I'm very like, independent was like, "I have to finish law school. This is gonna be the thing I'm very driven." And he was just waiting. He's like, "Great. I wanna marry you. And we're going to get married." I said, "Yes, just give me some time."

I had an Excel spreadsheet, color coded. I was so annoying. It's like, who was I back then? Uh, and so, um, and then all of a sudden I got that Excel spreadsheet and I literally was like "Bye. Like this doesn't matter anymore." Every all, all your plans don't matter if you're not surrounded by the people who love you and who you love.

And so we planned wedding in three months and against, against all odds. My mom and my dad walked me down the aisle and it was the best day of my life. And I came back from, uh, the honeymoon and we, I had to make the declaration to go back to law school and I did not want to. So my brand new husband asks me the most beautiful question.

He said, "If you could do one thing for the rest of your life and be happy, what would it be?" And I said "Well I think I wanna be a photographer." To which he replied, "Well, you need a camera first. Right?" And I was like, "Yeah." I, I detailed, probably detailed. I probably need a camera that would help. And so then on January 1st, 2006, I opened my very first camera as a gift from him.

By 2009, uh, my business was voted one of the top photographers in the world and the business just unfolded and grew naturally, organically. And then also when social media came around in that 2010, 2011 timeframe, I really learned how to harness that power, create storytelling conversations that grew the business, and then empowered me to, uh, teach and coach and walk other entrepreneurs, how they could do the same for their business.

That was a little bit of a long story, but not, but now up to date.

And that's perfect. And actually. I love your story because the fact that you had your life planned out, and if I can make assumptions about you, based on what I've seen, you know, you are very driven. So I should imagine at that time you were totally like.

This is what's gonna happen. And then I guess it takes something as, uh, big and dramatic as, as obviously your mom being unwell for you to go actually, is that what I really want? You know, and that's a, that's a hard thing to think about, isn't it?

It's a very difficult thing to think about, but I think it's, uh, it's a choice. I think we are all given a choice at the way we're going to look at a situation and back then I looked at it as a very difficult situation, but I had, I was equally as empowered to look at that situation and think, my God, I've been given a gift. And it's only years later over a decade later that I can look back and think that that moment was like the impetus.

That moment was the catalyst that forced me to say what, who am I and what do I really want? And so it is a gift and far greater than anything else. My mom at the time was my north star. And I'm so happy to say that still to this day, she is my north star against all odds. She beat cancer. And the doctors were amazed and she's a walking miracle and yes, I needed a jolt in the universe to wake me up and say, what are you gonna do with your one wild and beautiful, precious life? And I decided it's not gonna be a lawyer.

Yeah, no, that's amazing. And, and I heard you, I can't remember what I was watching with you on, but you know, you talked about the fact of. You've thought to yourself, you know, you've got what maybe 20 years left at that point. If you, you know, if the same thing was gonna go down the same road, and then you said something like, you know, we're, we're even, you know, we shouldn't ever assume it's even 20 years, we might not even have 20 minutes.

Oh, absolutely. So at the time my mom was 50 years old. When the doctors had said she has a couple months to live. And at the time I was 25 and I thought to myself, if I have 25 years left in my life, I don't wanna die a lawyer. And then this dark realization struck me. I'm not guaranteed 25 years. I'm not even guaranteed 25 minutes and we, none of us are.

So if we were gonna live under that is like, as if today was like my last day, what kind of legacy do I wanna leave? What kind of decisions do I wanna make? What kind of wild and crazy, beautiful, scary, amazing, brilliant life do I wanna live that's not under the shadow of expectations. That was a game changer for me.

And you know what, from an outsider looking in and don't get me wrong, you know, and we can talk about this how, we, we project certain things on Instagram and we don't necessarily put the, the awful times, but it does look like you are having the most phenomenal time that you are doing the most amazing things.

First off you live in one of the most amazing parts of the world. Obviously you live in California and it's stunning and it's warm and it's sunny and you know, but it does genuinely look as if you know, I bet you must look back there and think if I carried on, where would I be compared to what I'm doing? What I wake up to every single day now?

Oh my God. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think that I could be living in an alternate universe where I would be in the top floor of a downtown Los Angeles high-rise building. Being a successful lawyer, because I do believe that success is a foregone conclusion, not just for myself, but for anybody who puts their mind and effort and soul into whatever, they do.

And I would be that person and I would be at a place financially where I could afford paying other people to live my life instead of me making the active decision to live my life. And even if it's as simple as picking up my dry cleaning or spending a two hour lunch in the middle of the day with a friend, it's like, I would be in exchange for time and money.

And somehow. Uh, taking the risk to build the business that I want to live. I don't have to have those negotiations anymore because I could still make money and be a wise steward of my time.

Yeah, no, that's amazing. It's awesome. So let's get back to Instagram about, was it, do you think that your business changed when you really took on Instagram or do you think it was inevitable that it was going to get there, it was just a tool that you happened to be using?

Well, I believe that the caveat was there. Isn't a single platform that's going to make or break a single business or a single entrepreneur. I think that my journey on Instagram started around 2011-2012.

And it, I was, I floundered, I didn't, I even as a photographer and even as a storyteller, I didn't know how to harness the power. I was just using Instagram as like a box to check like, oh, I posted today, like, this is what I'm doing. And I floundered for far too long. I mean, I have like examples. I often share examples of like my Instagram in 2011.

And then I juxtaposed that with my Instagram in 2014. And there looks like there had been no progress. I mean, it still looks like a hot mess. Like you look like you're a junior high, it looks like you are 12 years old trying to be cool on Instagram. Nobody's engaging with you. And by, and by 2014, I was an internationally recognized photographer was a world of wide brand.

And nobody looking at that Instagram account would ever think that they would think I like wine. I like my dog. I mean, I like the beach, it looked ridiculous. And then in 2016, I looked around and I got so tired with my lack of hot spa, dedication, strategy, because I saw other people. Photographers and non-photographers using this amazing platform to build their business.

And I had all the tools to make it happen. And yet I wasn't. And so in 2016, I put a stake in the ground and I said, I am going to learn how to use this for my business. And so today I often talk about the, my plans and my strategies. And I could say that in retrospect, that yes, in 2016 was when I started my plan strategy.

But in 2016, when I started doing it, it did not feel like a plan strategy. It felt like a hot mess. I was just making mistakes every day. I was trying to figure out what works. I was looking at other people. I literally, oh my God, here I go again with my Excel spreadsheet, I kept an Excel spreadsheet. I love making some Excel, you know.

And me and me.

Alright. I mean, who does not love organization and analytics, it just kills me. It makes me excited. Somebody sends me a color coded spreadsheet and I'm like, we're getting married next week. So, um, I made an Excel spreadsheet. I listed the followers on Instagram, who I enjoy ahh just like a personal friend.

And then I listed Instagram or so I felt like we're doing a really great job at harnessing the power specifically for their business. And I wondered to myself, could I blend the two things? And again and again, I tested and tried. And though, like when I started doing it, I had such a profound change in my business.

And it was around that time, 2016, where I really stepped out onto the scene as an authority in the field. Ironically, I didn't feel like an authority. Ironically. I just felt like, Hey, I'm just trying to figure this out. And then I got picked up by major news outlets and interviews, and it has grown since there.

And I'm still a firm believer that I'm actively refining my plan and strategy as the algorithm changes, but it's been a really great thing to learn from my mistakes and then show what I know with others and then see them be met with equally as amazing results.

Yeah. And I think you're exactly right. You with the, the way these platforms are, they move and change so much that I don't think anybody honestly can sit there and say, "Oh, I've got it. It's all sussed. It's all done now."

Oh no.

Because obviously tomorrow they're gonna do an update and everything's gonna change again. And obviously I guess where you've succeeded is that you invested your time and your thought and you were, you considered exactly what you were doing. You were deliberate. That's what I was trying to think of. Deliberate in doing it. You know, you weren't just, like you said, checking up a picture thinking, oh, you know, that'll do you were really thinking about, okay, how can I use this? So I saw you speak in social media marketing world last year, and you gave me the best advice.

So. Prior to coming out, I was on, oh, you have a phrase. Are you using Instagram or are you on Instagram? Is that right?

That is. Well I don't guess you apply that.