Jasmine Star (00:00:01) - It is. Welcome back to The Jasmine Star Show, a place where we talk about business, marketing, and today, drumroll wait for it. We are going to be talking about a week's worth of what I consider to be setbacks or flops. Now I use the word flops like, you know, it's very loosely because, you know, I'm making the decision. I am choosing to look at situations in a non dualistic way. And so what does this mean? I understand that setbacks and challenges, they're not good and they're not bad, but I believe they're necessary for business and personal growth. Right. But it's one thing to talk about that it's an entirely different thing to record it and document it for a week and then share it with you. So that's exactly what I did. Throughout a seven day period. I candidly recorded these short clips like, I literally did it in the moment. You're going to hear the audio change because I did it on my phone. When something didn't go as planned, I just popped on my phone and I talked about it.

Jasmine Star (00:01:13) - And, you know, now that I've had some time, I've had some time to reflect on what I called flops, and I wanted to share the lessons in other insights I've learned from them. And so before we go any further, I want to let you know that even though this is what you could call like, I don't know, like an audible journal for the week, this episode isn't about me, it's about you. And I'm sharing this because, number one, I've noticed problems in business. They're not all that unique, and we often struggle with the same things. And number two, I think that a lot of times so often we see people a few steps ahead of us in business, and then we think, well, when I get to that point, I'll be good. Like when I get to that point, even if things don't go as planned, like, oh, my team will take care of it or I'm going to be in a state of flow. Or maybe like you and I have a real conversation and you just simply say to yourself, I'll know more.

Jasmine Star (00:02:03) - And so I'm going to be more in control of my situation. And if I am that person for you, like after hearing what I go through and you're just like, wow, thanks for calling out that future curve around the bend. Thank you for calling out that wave that's going to be hitting me in the next 12 months. Great. Like, I want to keep it real with you, and I want you to be prepared for stuff that maybe I wasn't prepared for or just normalize it. Like life and business, they're not always easy and picture perfect, but it's worth it. And this is what I get an opportunity to not just talk about, but to prove, to show you like to put you in this situation with me. So I'm going to give you an overview of each of the things that went wrong. And there's a total of six clips. So right before I play the clip, I'm going to share the lesson or any insights that I've learned. So I'll kind of give it like a preview.

Jasmine Star (00:02:53) - Then you're going to go into the real candid feedback. And at the end I'll talk about from a different perspective after it's happened. And I'm recording this kind of connective storyline through it, you can see what I've learned. And for my note takers, I want to make sure that you stay until the end, because we're going to review it all together and then tie it up, hopefully with a big nice bow. Oh all right. Okay. Why am I nervous? I'm legitimately nervous. I think that people say, oh Jasmine, you're very open and I am with some things. I'm a highly private person and I know people don't really think that, but I am. I'm basically like the limo of emotions and things that are existing in my private life. And so when I'm recording these in real time and then sharing them, it makes me feel very like open and vulnerable. But I'm going to tell you something. Oftentimes we'll record podcast that are both audio and visual, which means the video will exist on YouTube and Facebook and LinkedIn.

Jasmine Star (00:03:51) - But in this one, I'm only doing audio and I'm only doing audio because I like this medium. I like just me, you, my voice, and my true authentic self. So maybe this is what I would call it podcast exclusive. So like just my real OGs, like my ride or die, like you guys are going to be getting premium content that exists nowhere else. Welcome y'all. Welcome to the Jasmine Star Show. This is how we do it okay. So let's start with the first flop. Now just as a reminder, I'm calling them a flop. I don't think that they are. But in the moment it definitely felt like it. So the first flop is when I felt like I could have done a better job communicating in managing expectations about a new offer with my team leaders. So let's get into that clip now. Okay, so on Mondays we have team all hands meetings. This is where the entire team gets together and we talk about our initiatives for the week, things that are getting us stuck, things that we're excited about are wins and so forth.

Jasmine Star (00:04:48) - And lately I've been trying to incorporate a little bit of personal development that I've been doing to ensure that the team is seeing things from my perspective, and they're invited if they so choose, to really focus on self development as well. So yesterday, Monday, I'm talking to the team about associating value in exchange for energy, which I know probably sounds super woowoo, but I did an okay job explaining how my mentor explained that money in exchange of value is really like an energy exchange, so we shouldn't be attached to a numeric value of sorts, but us aligning a value, right. And so let's put this into a little bit more context. I'm really excited. Like absurdly so got an idea of creating a new course. And so the team and I are working behind the scenes on what this should be about and the messaging and the pricing. And so I was talking about an energy exchange of how do we showcase so much value that it makes it almost crazy not to make an investment in this type, of course, on what somebody's going to get back.

Jasmine Star (00:05:53) - So I was feeling really excited about it. I should also mention that this is the first time ever we're working on a large scale with affiliates. So I'm going to I'm going to be honest, it was kind of just really riding a high. And then I had a meeting with two of our key leads in creating this course. And so they sat down and had a serious conversation, and they said, we need to just speak our mind. To which I was like, great, please do so. And they brought up a few of their concerns in regards to what kind of affiliate launch we were going to have. And when I heard carefully what they were saying, I needed to make sure that what I was hearing was, in fact what they were trying to say. So I asked questions, making sure that as I understood it, they were really focused and concerned on optimizing how we could make the affiliate structure for this course even better. Like, how do we offer them a white glove experience, something that they feel like it's a concierge, something that they're so proud to be a part of? And I understood those questions.

Jasmine Star (00:06:54) - But what was underneath those questions was this idea of, Will it be as good as this person's affiliate system, that person's affiliate structure, that person's affiliate education? And so what I needed to do in that moment was really hear what was going on. They want to serve our affiliates so well, but there was a comparison going on at the same time. And so I feel like almost as a leader, I was like, I didn't set up the team and really establish the foundation that like, they're doing a great job and we're running our own race and maybe our affiliate program. Since it is brand new, it might not be as fancy or built out as other people's, but we're just getting started, so we're not getting started behind or we're not getting started too late, we're just getting started. So we have a long path ahead of us. And so I heard them out. I explained that it is my job as CEO to get things out of their way, wherever they're stuck, wherever there's like a speed bump.

Jasmine Star (00:07:53) - My job is to remove that. So I said, what do you need to ensure that you are giving a 12 out of ten experience for our affiliates? And they listed four things. And of those four things I said, JD and I are committed to making sure that you feel seen and heard. And I kind of felt great after I got off the call. And then I kind of fell into a little bit of a funk. When JD and I were at dinner with Luna and we were discussing what I was feeling and the residual, and I think I felt really bummed that I didn't set the team up from the beginning to say, you guys like, we're we're running our own race and you guys are doing a great job. I should have done better with that on the beginning to set those expectations. And so then I slept on it. And then the next day, which was today, I woke up this morning really early and I said, I need to have my own time. I need to figure out what is coming up for me.

Jasmine Star (00:08:43) - And so then I had a little bit of prayer time. I did a 25 minute meditation. I then went and practice yoga and I know people are like, that sounds like a lot of inner self work. Who has time for that? I know it was. I was just up at like 345 this morning. I couldn't sleep, I literally couldn't sleep. So I said, well, I'm awake and I'm going to do the work in order to prepare me to do and be and embrace being a different type of person and a different type of leader. So I journaled, I did yoga, I felt better, and then I sent a message to our key leads and I said, I want to make sure that you feel heard. I want to make sure that we're removing obstacles. And I want to make sure that you always feel okay telling me what you need when you need it. And I want to make sure that you feel heard. I don't want to be this ever optimistic Energizer bunny to be like, we can do anything.

Jasmine Star (00:09:31) - Let's go team like. I need to hear what is getting in people's ways, and then I need to work with JD to remove those things. At the end of it. I kind of felt like yesterday I kind of felt like a little bit of a flop, right? I felt like, oh, I kind of felt as like a flop leader. Not preparing the team to let them know what was truly expected. Today, I feel like I have a second breath. I have a second opportunity to confirm that. I heard them to confirm that we are here, to remove obstacles and to confirm that we're still moving ahead with this launch and really preparing an affiliate structure that is very, very, very positive. So I talked a little bit about those lessons here in this clip when I was in the moment. But I want to further explain, there are three main things that I want you to take away from this lesson. Number one is to consistently work on effective communication and active listening. This means being willing to listen to team members or maybe, you know, clients members.

Jasmine Star (00:10:23) - Customers like to listen to their concerns without feeling attacked or without the need to like, defend it or fight for a point having team members or people who care. And here's the thing having team members or people who care feel comfortable enough. Those are two different things. Like having a team is one thing. Having team members who feel comfortable enough to come to you with, like their concerns or their insights like that's a blessing. Y'all. Like their concerns, make us better. Number two is managing expectations. For me, this was setting the team up to know that we're running our own race. We are just getting started. This could also look like letting customers know, like when to expect deliverables, like the results that they're getting, how often they're going to hear feedback from you. This is about managing expectations. This is about owning exactly where you are and making no apologies for it. This is telling everybody everything so they feel informed and powerful. Lesson number three is to practice self-care and reflection. I know this, it's like okay, that's cliche.

Jasmine Star (00:11:30) - Listen, probably, but taking care of yourself, it helps you handle difficult situations and bounce back. These are things that are easy to do, but they're also easy not to do. For years I did not do this. But when you choose to do these things for yourself, you're also choosing to lead from a higher place. And that, friends, is wildly valuable. That is how you turn a flop into a flip. Okay. Oh my. This is not notes. This is just me having a conversation. This is how you turn your flops to flips. Maybe that should be the podcast episode title. Okay, so moving on to the second flop. This one shares a time when I not only underestimated how much time it would take for me to review content, but also made me rethink the content I wanted to teach in an upcoming course. Oh yeah, you guys, it was a moment I'm just going to tell you. Okay, so here we go. Clip number two. Today's Wednesday, but I woke up thinking it was Thursday.

Jasmine Star (00:12:22) - So I got up, I worked out, I showered, I made Luna breakfast. I sat down at my computer at 855 because I thought I was going to do group coaching today at 9 a.m. and I realized it's not Thursday, it's Wednesday. So in addition to that, I looked at all of my workload, and I realized that yesterday I had a pretty large assignment, and I asked the team, whenever there's a pretty robust item to be reviewed or needs my oversight, to, if at all possible, assign how long they might think it would take me to do it. It helps me organize my day. So Katie said that I would have review tasks that would take around 40 minutes, so I allocated an hour to review it. I like to buffer that, but it took more than an hour and I didn't finish it yesterday. And so I woke up this morning, I started reviewing it, and in the middle of it I realized, oh my goodness, this isn't going to take me 40 minutes.

Jasmine Star (00:13:18) - It's not going to take me an hour, it's not going to take me two hours. It has taken me about 2.5 hours to review because it was so much beautiful content. But in addition to actually realizing that the review process was taking me longer, I actually also realized that the amount of content that I was reviewing in terms of teaching it in a course was too much for one weekly lesson. And so when we were creating an overview of the course, I was like, this should be in a, you know, this one weekly lesson and this should be in this, another weekly lesson. And I'm on week two and I realize, oh my God, what we thought was going to be content for week two. I think it needs to be divided at minimum between two weeks. And so then this caused me to actually pull back even farther and ask myself, what is the goal? Do we want people doing this course? Because I'm teaching this course live and because I'm teaching it live, I mean, I think how freaking cool would it be to actually finish the course with us and then go out and launch and promote your product, like if that is our goal? And then I realized myself, oh, I'm assuming that's the goal.

Jasmine Star (00:14:25) - And so as I'm going through content, I, number one underestimated how long it would take me. Number two, I underestimated how much I actually want to be teaching to students in any given week, because I want people not to get overwhelmed. I want to give a clear path to getting it done. I don't want people taking a course. I want people promoting their product or service, and I want them doing an entirely different way. And so if then that's my goal, I need to take a big step back and be like, okay, so how we originally thought that this plan was going to unfold, it's not unfolding. Not a problem. We're literally months out from creating this and teaching this and even promoting it itself. However, it's causing me to ask much bigger questions. And so I think that for a second I was getting overwhelmed thinking, did did we underestimate how long this program would be? And then I thought to myself, well, why should it? I look at that as a positive or a negative.

Jasmine Star (00:15:18) - I simply look at it as a fact. Wow. This is amazing. We're months away from launching this, and now we get to come out and reassess how long this program is going to be. Not because we want to make the program longer, but because we actually want people to do something on the back of that. And that made me feel excited. I went from being like, oh man, oh man to oh man, this is going to be legit. At least that's how I'm feeling today. Okay. So to be clear, this situation, it wasn't necessarily positive or negative, but it wasn't something that went as planned. The main lesson that I would want you to take away from this would be to remain solution focused, even when it's inconvenient. You know, it's like being solution focused when everything's working out for you. That's easier. When the timing's not great, you're like, oh, okay. Solution. Focus. How do we get to. Yes. How do we get to a win win win? So making unexpected changes and then breaking up the beautiful content that Katie and Jade had spent hours laying out? I'm telling you, that was not necessarily ideal.

Jasmine Star (00:16:20) - But because we were solution focused, we saw this as an opportunity to add clarity to the course and make learning more manageable for our students who choose to join. And those students, they are our number one priority. We think of them. We put ourselves in their shoes and ask, how do we make this as easy as possible? How do we get it done? How do we empower them? How do we make them stronger? And coming from that place of putting ourselves in their shoes, aka your shoes, we're making a better decision so that you feel known, seen and heard. Okay, so I agree, sometimes it is easy to look at unexpected moments in business and then you get frustrated because of how much time it's taking or going on a detour to find the right solution. But I also want to take a moment to really understand what just happened in case it happens to you. And so if that time comes, you're ready to apply a new mindset and find a way to be thankful for the moment.

Jasmine Star (00:17:15) - What really happened was that we saw a road bump before anybody else did. The three of us actually diverted a potential problem. Like, think about this. We fixed a messy situation before any students even experienced it. Like, come on, can I get a praise hanky up in this place? Like, this is priceless. This is priceless. Like, I would not want to learn this lesson in the middle of it. So we can't just look at any given situation and think, oh, it didn't go as planned. We must be able to see into the future and express gratitude in the present for the gift of being able to fix something in the early stages so that your students, your customers, your clients, they have an excellent experience where literally applying a new mindset to the same situation and not having it feel heavy. We feel gratitude that my friend is turning a flop into a flip. Okay, are we over that? Are you just like Jasmine? That was okay the first time you said it.

Jasmine Star (00:18:14) - No more. I probably feel that same way. I mean, who are we kidding here? Okay, let's move on to the third flop. And I recorded this one when I wasn't even able to start the largest task of reviewing content that I was assigned, and I needed to ask my team for a two day extension. Y'all, this hurt my feelings. Here's why. Let's get into that clip. It's Wednesday, the end of my workday. It's 501 at this moment and things did not go as I had expected. I didn't even start reviewing the second biggest task today. I had said I was going to be reviewing week two, and three didn't even start week three. That is how much time and energy. So what happened is this had a meeting to actually discuss a much bigger picture of how we're going to be unveiling our content. And then in order to ensure that we were in alignment, I reached out to people who I think are dream future students of this course, and then I asked them if we would be able to strategize content, layout, what would be the best and most effective way for them to consume the content.

Jasmine Star (00:19:23) - And so we went on this like different, entirely different conversation. I feel really, really I feel like it's promising. It just took us so many different hours. And I hopped into a different meeting. And then I had a late day meeting that was slated for 30 minutes, and it ended up being over an hour. And I think it's really cool. There is a company that is having discussions around equity and how much equity I would be able to get as part of consulting with a company from marketing strategy and a go to market kind of approach in the digital marketing space, and then talking about equity in different shapes or forms. If I were to take a public position for the company, you know, if it works out or not. Just having these types of conversations is really inspiring and hopeful, but at the same time, it kind of threw a big kink in my plans because it went much longer than I expected, so went into slack. I asked for an extension from the team who's waiting on me.

Jasmine Star (00:20:23) - And here's the crazy thing is, I'm not asking for an extension from Wednesday to Thursday, because tomorrow I have a long list of podcast interviews and meetings that I won't have time to actually get into the review content. I try to keep my review content to specific days so I can stay in the zone of doing that. So I'm asking, hey, can we push this till Friday? So not exactly what I expected, but trying to roll with things as they come. Okay, so the lessons I want you to take away from this point, there's two of them. Number one, be realistic with your time and your workload. And number two under-promise and overdeliver. Now, this isn't just for your own sake, but for the people who work with you two asking for a two day extension. It just it was not ideal, but I knew I wasn't able to get this done the next day either. Okay, like I could have said, oh, let me get it done the next day, I would have let people down by asking for two days.

Jasmine Star (00:21:14) - I was able to fulfill my commitment when I said I would, and if I don't know, maybe by chance. A meeting was canceled on Thursday and I was able to get it done on that Thursday. Well then, awesome. But always under-promise and overdeliver. It's the difference between disappointing and satisfying people, even when the result is the same. So on our team, one of our core values is dependability. And we define dependability as you do what you say when you're going to do it right, it's like you do what you say you're going to do. When you say you're going to do it, that's it. Dependability. We need to depend on you. So we have a small team. So our deadlines well they mean a lot. This isn't something that is about one person but the whole team. If we miss deadlines it has an entire domino effect on everybody in the company. Because the week was filled with unforeseen detours, I couldn't make a deadline. So instead of taking on too much or promising an unrealistic timeline, I informed the team of a new deadline that I knew I could hit.

Jasmine Star (00:22:14) - The key takeaways are having enough self-awareness to under-promise and overdeliver, and then having the confidence to ask for precisely what it is you need. Now, I should probably add here. There was a time in my previous career like there was a time in my life earlier in my career, I should say, is when in order to hit a deadline, I would just grind throughout the night to get it done and it works. But I don't think it works for me. Like the person, like it worked for me as a founder who is scrappy and it's like, come hell or high water, I'm going to do it all. And what happened was it quickly led to burnout. And so now I've learned a lesson is I know that there is a fast track to burnout, and there is a fast track to asking for what you need, when you need it, and still being able to hit overall deadlines. And I just wanted to draw that line of distinction that, yeah, I could have stayed up really late that night getting it done, but I don't think that it serves the long term vision of what I want to do with this organization.

Jasmine Star (00:23:18) - Okay, so the fourth flop that I want to share with you was an unexpected life moment that came up during my work time. I had plenty of work, plenty of work that I needed to get done that day, but I had to put it aside to prioritize a family matter. Okay, let's get into that fourth cup. Good morning. It's Friday and a slight change of plans. JD and I were able to secure an interview for a preschool. We've kind of keeping our eye on a few preschools and, you know, it's basically October. Schools already started. Schools are not trying to admit new students, but we got pushed off for a few weeks, and then we got word last minute that we had an interview opportunity. So it's part of my work day. So, you know, we had plans for me to get work done. But that's okay. I am going to prioritize what we need to prioritize right now and then find a way to make it work tomorrow. I'm speaking at an event in La Jolla.

Jasmine Star (00:24:14) - So that's a Saturday. So, you know, this weekend, probably a little unexpectedly, will require me to do some work. And that's okay, because this is a workday that I'm using for personal time, which means that I'm going to have to maybe use some personal time over the weekend to do some work. And it is not exactly how I expected, but trying to make the best of it and then adding grace along the way. Now here's the lesson. The lesson is to give yourself grace and give yourself the same grace that you give to others. If a team member of mine needed to adjust a couple of hours of work time like to do this, that most likely wouldn't have been a problem. I am proud that we have created a culture that empowers people to work independently, and not have to choose between work and family, like we actually take pride in how well we work as a group, but also on our own. I love being the type of leader who sets a goal, and then the team figures out how to make it happen and their own responsibilities and their own timelines.

Jasmine Star (00:25:14) - Okay, so let's get into like, how does this work? Because it's one thing to say, I love setting a vision and the team deploys against it. And the people are like, okay, but if the team is doing it, like, where do you fit in? Okay, here it is. I set a goal or a project. So for the sake of this example, let's use launching a new course. Okay. So I'm saying let's launch a new course. And I set an ideal timeline for launching it. Then the team leaders who are responsible for the project, they meet to organize the flow of the project. This is done in asana and then tasks are assigned and a project manager is watching the timelines to ensure everything is going to stay on track to hit our ideal timeline. So me, CEO and visionary say this is the vision. This is one I want to get it done. Then the team leaders say, okay, let's work backwards to see how likely it is. And in order for us to work backwards, we need to know who is getting tasks and how long are those tasks going to take.

Jasmine Star (00:26:13) - So who gets tasks? Well, it depends on the type of project, but safely assume everyone on the team will play some role in the project, even if it's small. Okay, so for example, I get tasks like writing the webinar, practicing the webinar, recording ads for the course, inviting affiliates to join us for the launch. Okay. On the other hand, I might get a task to ensure our affiliate tracking feature is tested and ready to go. Our podcast manager might get tasks to schedule episodes around the launch to promote the course launch, and the deadlines to join. Okay, so you see how we all get tasks and I am still very much in the process of it, but I don't have to be the person managing all of it. So now you have an idea of how our projects flows and task work. You can now see how we can work so quickly and efficiently. It's very common for our team to balance their workload on their own schedule. You know, like as long as it's done on time, get it done when you get it done.

Jasmine Star (00:27:14) - And it's common for our team to balance their workload on their own schedule, you know, and like I really like that. For example, at the time of this recording, one of our team members is pregnant or should I say was pregnant with twins. Congratulations, Whitney. We're so excited for you. Okay, so she just gave birth to twins, but as she entered into her third trimester, she had more doctors appointments and each baby needed their own time with the doctor. Right? So if you're getting an ultrasound and you're pregnant with twins, you're actually getting two independent ultrasounds. So her time being a mom was literally doubled before the babies were even here. So because she knew she'd miss a few hours during the workdays, Whitney chose to plan her schedule in advance to ensure she could attend her appointments without the stress of traditional work hours, like she got to work really early in the morning. Or maybe she did some pre work over the weekend so that she would be able to take a significant amount of time during the workday off.

Jasmine Star (00:28:12) - Okay. And as a side note, I should also mention, even though we offer unlimited paid time off and we allow team members to go to appointments as needed, we still have a highly productive team of players who truly care about the business, and they care about getting their work done. When you surround yourself with people who care about the business and care about. Out getting their work done. You don't need to micromanage them. Why? If your core value is dependability, you just say, are you going to do what you said you're going to do when you said you're going to do it? Cool. We're fine baby boo. Let's keep on working. Okay, so the fifth floor is when Luna got unexpectedly sick, like out of nowhere the night before. Had to speak at an event. So here is clip number five.

Jasmine Star (00:29:04) - Okay, so I thought I would record a voice memo. It's. Let's see, just before 6 a.m. on Saturday, and I'm in my pantry blow drying my hair because my plan didn't go as planned last night.

Jasmine Star (00:29:19) - For some reason, Luna started coughing out of nowhere. She has had exhibited no symptoms of being sick. She starts coughing, coughing, coughing and she starts coughing so hard she throws up. So we take her up out of our bed. It's like 1:00 in the morning. We clean her up. We put her in our bed to sleep with us, clean up her bed and she's just not feeling well. So she slept with us. Which meant when I got up this morning at 445, she was still in bed, which meant I couldn't be making a lot of noise as I prepared. So I went to the opposite side of the house to blow to my hair. And that's why I'm in the pantry, not wanting to wake her up because she needs her sleep. Which is crazy because I'm getting ready to go speak at an event in La Jolla Lodge is about an hour hour and 15 minutes from where I live, so I'll leave the house around seven ish. 715 I'll speak and I was planning on coming home and finishing some like last minute things from work.

Jasmine Star (00:30:16) - But then my mother in law made a request. And let me just tell you, if your mother in law makes a request, that's one thing. If you have a mother in law of the only son of five children, so there's four other girls and Mama Tiger makes a request. So here's the crazy thing about my mother in law, which I'm obsessed with. She is absolutely a tiger mom. She has protected her children fiercely. She has demanded of them fiercely, and the way that she rides or dies for them is the way that her kids will ride or die for her. So when she requests family photos, because the only thing that she ever wants is a photo with her family and all of her grandkids. And Hinton Christmas is coming up. So here are some gift ideas. His sister is rolling to action. They say, you know, hey brother, get your wife. She's going to take some photos for us. So I'm going to.

Jasmine Star (00:31:09) - Be coming home.

Jasmine Star (00:31:10) - From the event picking JD and Luna up.

Jasmine Star (00:31:12) - We're going to be driving to LA. We will be having a family photo shoot. We will be going out for dinner after, and I am pretty dang sure that when I get home tonight, I am not going to have any space or bandwidth to do work. So all of these plans are good. They're not what I expected. I am thankful for them. Tomorrow I am going to be spending the full day with JD Luna relaxing and my plan, fingers crossed, is when she takes her nap on Sunday. That will give me about an hour and a half to do what I need to do, and whatever I don't get done in that hour and a half, I don't get it done. I'm not going to use my Sunday to infringe on our time together. So while she naps, JD will go to the gym, I'll get work done and then the rest of the day pre that and post. That should be just all about family and I am just taking it as it comes, always trusting that things are getting done when they're supposed to get done.

Jasmine Star (00:32:10) - So the lesson here is prioritizing time with family. Here's what I've learned. When business owners prioritize their business over their family, it almost always backfires anyway. And here's why. Number one, it's damaging to their mental health and the relationships. And number two, it's playing the short game. It's simply not sustainable. And when you are not being able to sustain life and business, that also hinders your resilience. Resilience is the ability to get back up even when you get knocked down. But when you're not in the right mindset to do it, it becomes increasingly difficult. And, you know, like society, sometimes they lightly deem these sacrifices. Oh, it's like so noble. And what I want you to hear from this is that you don't need to learn the lesson the hard way. When my mom got sick, she struggled with brain cancer for nine years. Like, things in my mind naturally reprioritize themselves. Things that seemed urgent before they just no longer mattered in the same way. Have you ever been there? Has something ever in your life really transformed the way that you saw things and realized what is really important? The key takeaway is you can train your mind to prioritize what truly matters.

Jasmine Star (00:33:26) - Instead of waiting for tragedy or an illness for you to do it, you can, number one, lead a more fulfilling and purpose driven life, both personally and professionally. And number two, you could avoid burning out and resenting your business when you feel like your business is being prioritized over life and family. Okay, so y'all, this is going to bring us up to Magic clip number six magic. Tongue in cheek y'all. There was no magic happening this week okay? If there was magic, like I didn't pull a rabbit from a hat. Like I pulled like a rubber duck. Okay, so the sixth and final clip, it's not necessarily a flop, but it was something that was on my mind in. I was there, you know, completing my audible journey and journal. And I want to get into that now as a clean break from what it actually happened this week. So let's pop into that now. There's something.

Jasmine Star (00:34:15) - That I.

Jasmine Star (00:34:15) - Wanted to make sure that I recorded just as a complete, full circle of my thoughts.

Jasmine Star (00:34:21) - I think that as business owners, we could tell ourselves that we get to make our own rules and.

Jasmine Star (00:34:25) - We get to make our own timelines, and that's true.

Jasmine Star (00:34:28) - But as our businesses grow and as our team.

Jasmine Star (00:34:31) - Goes.

Jasmine Star (00:34:32) - I believe now this is just a personal decision that I want to embody, core values.

Jasmine Star (00:34:38) - That the team.

Jasmine Star (00:34:39) - Will then.

Jasmine Star (00:34:39) - Embody.

Jasmine Star (00:34:41) - Do I have to work on a weekend to complete.

Jasmine Star (00:34:43) - The work that I didn't finish during the.

Jasmine Star (00:34:46) - Week? No I don't. I'm the CEO. I get.

Jasmine Star (00:34:50) - To make the rules.

Jasmine Star (00:34:51) - But I also, at the same time, don't want to make a new set of rules for me. Even though there were things that were in and outside of my control. In the past week.

Jasmine Star (00:35:00) - I.

Jasmine Star (00:35:01) - Used some of my.

Jasmine Star (00:35:02) - Work time for personal things.

Jasmine Star (00:35:04) - And so now over the weekend, which is a very traditionally personal time for myself, I'm now using it to finish the work. Why? Because one of our core values is dependability, saying.

Jasmine Star (00:35:18) - You're going to do something and then doing it. If I say, I'm going to finish this task before going into the following week. I need to do that. Why? Because I want to hold up a standard that the team can also adhere to. And how could I expect for the team to uphold a standard if I am not.

Jasmine Star (00:35:36) - Doing it.

Jasmine Star (00:35:37) - Myself? And so I just kind of wanted to add a little bit of clarity to say that, yeah, when we have our own businesses, we get to make up the rules. But I also, if I want a team to play at an Olympic level, if I want a team of a players, if I want people who are dependable, then I must embody those things, or else I feel like I can't ask of that from the team. And so I wanted to point out the obvious we going to make our own rules, but at the same time, whatever rules we do make, I believe as a personal decision we should apply them to ourselves, not just to our team.

Jasmine Star (00:36:08) - Okay. That's it. I can't say it enough. Embody the core values of your company as a CEO. This kind of leadership lays the foundation of trust and integrity. Please believe me when I tell you your team will always notice and they will follow suit. Okay, so before we wrap up, I want to go over the seven lessons with you that I learned from this week. Lesson number one is to constantly work on effective communication and active listening. This means being willing to listen to team members concerns without feeling attacked or the need to defend. Number two is managing expectations by setting your team, your clients, whomever up for clear and realistic goals. This empowers you to under-promise and overdeliver. More of that to be coming. Lesson number three is practicing self-care and reflection. Taking care of yourself helps you handle difficult situations and bounce back from those setbacks. Lesson number four is to remain solution focused even when it's inconvenient. Asking yourself, how do we get to yes, how do we put ourselves in our users, in our clients and our customers shoes and make sure that they are so happy, they feel seen and are satisfied? Lesson number five is to under-promise and overdeliver.

Jasmine Star (00:37:27) - This is the difference between someone being satisfied or disappointed in the outcome. Lesson number six is to give yourself the same grace that you give to others. And the final lesson, lesson number seven is to prioritize time with your family and to revisit why you got into this to begin with. I don't know about you, but when I started this business, my why was empowering people to believe that their crazy, audacious, impossible dream was actually not that crazy. And it wasn't that audacious. And it actually quite is possible. And I know it seems a bit lofty to say that, but if you tell me the thing you want to do, generally while unabashedly, I will look at you and say, let's figure out how to do that. And even if you spend the rest of your life trying to figure out how to do it, it will be a life well-lived. And when you go back and you think, this is why I do what I want to do, and I'm not on anybody's timeline, the stories we tell ourselves that it should or it must or it has to happen in this way on this date, and I need to make this much money.

Jasmine Star (00:38:39) - We begin to shackle ourselves to expectations that we set for ourselves. And so what happens when we set expectations without understanding the fullness of the complexity of the game that we're playing? We end up beating ourselves up when we don't hit our expectations, never realizing the expectations were so lofty and unrealistic. What if we instead got into the game to play the game, to stand in our purpose and to realize that the timeline is going to be something that we do, and when the time is right and when the time happens, we could sit there and say, I did what I came here to do. And if we understand that this game, like Simon Sinek says, is an infinite game, it doesn't begin and it doesn't end. You just decide at what point you are going to enter the game so far, before you got into the game, the game was being played and far after you leave the game, the game will continue to be played. So if there is not a timeline of the game, why do we rush ourselves?

Jasmine Star (00:39:38) - I said us.

Jasmine Star (00:39:40) - Me too. Me too. But the more I realize I'm going to be playing this game, God willing. To my very last breath. Why not take the time to prioritize the things that are finite? I will only get 52 Mondays with my daughter when she's three years old, and I'll only get 52 Tuesdays with my daughter when she's four years old. I will only get 52 weekends a year with my best friend partner in high school sweetheart. So if I know that there is a stack of finite things in my life and a stack of infinite things in my life like the game I love to play, but why I'm playing the game and how I'm empowered to play the game is to do it for and with the people I love. Then, understanding that the timeline is going to happen when it's supposed to, empowers me to take long, deep, heavy breaths and say, I'm going to keep my priorities right where they are because I know my why, and I know who I'm here to serve. And for those people who are walking alongside of me, understanding that the game is long and the ability and the people we get to do it with is an honor and a privilege and something we need to prioritize.

Jasmine Star (00:40:51) - Well, then, hot dang. We're doing it together and I want to say thank you. I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you would be so kind to leave a review. I mean, I'm telling you, I look at those reviews every single week we drop a podcast, I see you, I want to say thank you for the words that you say, because the words are not for me. The words are for a group of other people who are sojourners on the path, looking for other people that they can do it with. And when they read your words, and that you have found a place here in the audible land of this podcast, and they say, I understand this language, and I see this person and this host. Yeah, she's all right. But I want to do it and listen with other people like him and her and him and her. Well then, hot dang. Let's go. Thank you for listening to the Jasmine Star podcast.