[inaudible]
Speaker 2there and welcome back to the Jasmine star show where you'll hear everything from tactical business strategies to amazing interviews and Hey, my musings about life and how to stand in your purpose. But now it's time to get this podcast party started because I don't know if you have maybe uh , left your house at some point in the last year. I'm sure you know the woman I had a conversation with a few months ago, Rachel Hollis is eight powerhouse and in this episode, which is a replay from her podcast call rise, we go deep talking about our shared background and having the audacity to dream despite what others might have told us. I think you're going to love this episode as much as we loved recording it. So without further ado, here's my interview on Rachel Hollis's rise podcast.
Speaker 3[inaudible]
Speaker 4hi, thank you so much for hanging out with me today, Jasmine. I am a longtime fan so I'm nerding out a little bit that I get to talk to you. I wish you were like hanging out in real life and drinking coffee or having wine or doing something fun. But this is pretty good too.
Speaker 2It is pretty good. And I'm drinking coffee so you know, and we're chatting and drinking coffee. That's two out of the five things. We're okay. We're starting off on a good set.
Speaker 4Nice. Um, so I would love it if you would tell listeners who maybe aren't as familiar with you or who are, and just want to hear the story again. Tell us about who you are, what you do and how you got here.
Speaker 2Okay . Well my name is Jasmine star and I'm a photographer and business strategist and I happen to believe and know that I like it to make wild ideas come to life. So to kind of put like what it means to pursue my career in a box would be, it'd be a really wonky box. I just CRE , I love creating and I love when people say it can't be done cause I'm just like, watch me. Let's just kind of create along the way. And so how that's manifested itself is I picked up a camera after dropping out of law school when I saw my mom have a relapse with brain cancer. And I realized the enormity and beautifulness of life, and I realized how short it was. And I thought to myself, I am on the wrong path. And so what does it look like for me to course correct in order to have my mom's legacy intact. But the best part of it is that my mom is still here with us today. And that was a time in my life, or it was just like a big reckoning. And against all the odds she survived. And against all the odds I had taken a camera that I didn't know how to work or what to do. And I was terrible when I first started. Oh, the pictures are awful. Um, but you know, after you enroll in the university of Google, you figured out, you figured out that like you could really make things work. And um , three years later I was voted one of the top 10 photographers in the world. And the game just changed for us. And I think that was the first time in my life where I realized that for people who have the audacity to dream things are possible. So when people would tell me, we will not be Jasmine, it's not gonna work or the odds are stacked against me or I don't think it's possible, I look at them and I just say, everything is possible. How bad do you want it? I love that. I love it. And I have a hundred a thousand
Speaker 4questions. So , um, first of all, I have heard that sort of before I listened to your interview with ed, my someone I love so much, I love his podcast and I tell listeners about it all the time. Uh, but there's a great interview , uh , between he and Jasmine just getting into that story and that journey for you. And I loved hearing about that prompt. Like, you're doing this, this thing, which I think I remember you saying was a pretty big deal culturally for your family that you were going to law school. Is that right?
Speaker 2Oh, completely. I'm a first generation Latina, a first generation college student, first generation postgrad student. It was like a big thing for an immigrant family, but more so it was a big thing for people from like the body. Oh , to see somebody do big things and they felt like, am I going to let people down? That was my biggest worry.
Speaker 4Yeah, that's a lot of responsibility. I know I'm one of our team members who has been with me for ever, she started as my assistant and now she works in operations. Her name is Michelle. Shout out. Um, she grew up in LA. Um, her, she is Latina and that is something she's talked about a lot, is not really seeing , um , examples of who she supposed to aspire to be like outside of the entertainment industry. Um, who are the women that she's supposed to see in business or that she's supposed to admire. So I love that you started out doing something that you, you know, to , to sort of pave away and now you're doing it in a totally like an even bigger platform than you would've if you had become a warrior .
Speaker 2Oh, 1000%. And I believe in and to all the Latinas who are lawyers, like my hats off to you when you are, when you are walking in your purpose, people can see it and they feel like it would have been disingenuous if I was just like, this is the thing I have to do, therefore I must instead, it's like people, especially in a community that is supportive and loving you and they want you to win. And nobody's sitting there wagging their Brown fingers being like, she's not gonna do it. Like, no, I make you all support it. They want it , they want us to win. But I think without a clearly identified plan and goal, we sometimes flounder. Asking for help was like a big thing. But also admitting, say if, if I believe in this dream and if I can get other people to support me along the way, that it will be a manifestation of all of our collective desires and wishes.
Speaker 4That's awesome. Um , and tell me about the camera. Cause this was, did you buy it for yourself or did your husband buy it for you? Like that first .
Speaker 2Okay. Okay. So I, okay, so the thing was I left law school, I had a full ride scholarship to UCLA law school and I left law school with the full knowing that I was going to go back, I was going to reclaim my scholarships and I just needed to be with my mom during this really difficult time in our lives. And during that time my longterm boyfriend of nine years proposed and we planned a wedding in three months because the doctors had said it was time to plan a funeral and he said the one thing I need my mom to see me is to get married. And so the doctor said she wouldn't walk and the doctor said she wouldn't talk and the doctor said she wouldn't be cleared to fly and as a walking miracle that she is, she did all of those things and when we came back it was like I just felt the force and the gravity of everything. She fought for it to be on that day. And I thought to myself, is that the life I want to claim going back and doing the safe path? And I sat down with dinner, I received a letter from UCLA law school and it came on pink paper and we were living in this dive apartment in this totally ripe neighborhood of LA. And I opened this and it said, you know, this is the form you have to fill out to come back and get your place there in second semester UCLA school. And I thought to myself, this is the saddest I think I've ever been in a while. And he asked me if you could do one thing for the rest of your life and be happy, what would it be? And I said, I think I want to be a photographer. And he said, okay, you don't have a camera. Like I didn't have a Canadian own a camera, I've never used a camera. But in my mind I was like, Hey, that thing I could, I think I could do it. And other people would hear that story and they would probably say like, Oh good luck. You know, bless your heart. If you were in the South, you would say bless your heart. And he didn't, he didn't, he believed in, he believed in the dream and uh, he had a conversation after it was Christmas day 2005 and I opened this camera and I am not a crier. I casually joke that I'm like the tin man and I , here I am holding this camera and I'm crying. But 2005 was such a hard year for me. I had left law school, we were still having a lot of issues with my mom. I had no money. I had just gotten married, not living in a place that I had. I was driving a 2002 Honda accord with an oxidized hood. I had , I was working part time at a church. I was like, I was just like hot mess and he said take a year, just one year, one year and if it doesn't work you can go back to law school. Cause I had three year old , a three year window to go back and I said okay let's take this year. But I did not open the camera in 2005 cause I said 2005 was not a year. I ever want to repeat in my life. But on January 1st, 2006, I opened that box and I thought to myself, this is it. We're going to do things with this camera. And we did. So tell me this,
Speaker 4cause I also um , have a like a master's degree in Google. It is
Speaker 2[inaudible] my company 130% ,
Speaker 4I heard say that I thought was so good, like in an age of this much information to remain ignorant about something is an active choice. There is, isn't that so good? There's so much information that exists out there for free. Um, so tell me what you did. You open up that and you go from never having done this to your being named one of the biggest photographers in the world. Give me some of those steps from there to, you know, how'd you go from the bottom to the top and now we're here.
Speaker 2A
Speaker 4who doesn't love a little [inaudible] in there.
Speaker 2Okay, so let's just break this down into listeners who may not have a passion for photography. It's like step number one is reverse engineer what you want. So picture where you want to be in about a year and then work backwards from there. And so I knew that I had one year to really make or break this thing and I thought to myself in one year, how would I measure whether or not I can actually make this work? And I thought to myself, okay, in one year if I could book three gigs and if I could schlep bags an intern and if I could just take a photo of it didn't look like the worst photo ever taken. I mean I was, I was , I was shooting low here. But when I had a clearly identified sense of success, how I defined it, and some people look at success isn't having a private jet and it's not having a yacht, it's not having a home in this particular zip code. Success is how you define it. If that is picking up your child everyday from school, then that success, if it's success to have dinner with your family every single night or if it's to workout twice a week, whatever the case may be, you must define your success so that when you arrive you could look around and say, I did it. So when it came to actual taking steps of learning, going from zero to hero, that was [inaudible] .
Speaker 4I had no other word , I had no other word, Mitchell , Hercules. And I like it. I like [inaudible] who's cooler or the Disney rapper .
Speaker 2So the key, the fact that the better just really did become, I knew nothing. I put I tr , I couldn't get the battery in the camera until I Googled that. I realized that I was putting the battery in the wrong way. So there's that. And then it really just came down to technicalities and technicalities in my regard was how do I shoot manual? How do I get exploded ? I need to understand exposure. But for anybody else picking up yarn to become a knitter or be picking up a laptop to become a graphic designer, it's really understanding step number one, where do I want to be in a year? What would success look like and what are the markers along the way that are going to continue to validate, approve, encourage me to keep on moving forward. I love
Speaker 4yes to everything you've just said. Um, I also love that. I feel like I heard you say something about interning schlepping bags, work other people. Um, so I'm assuming, did you start with weddings? Is that where you got your start? I did, yes . So I was a wedding planner for a really long time and I got there. I ended up opening my own firm because I interned for terrible people and terrible brides for years for zero money so that I could learn how to do what I wanted to do. And I think that we have lost a little bit the um, the, the, the mentality of kind of having to earn your dues, like kind of having to do a little bit of sucky work in order to get access in order to get photography in order to learn like that apprenticeship that doesn't really exist as much anymore. Where you talk about what that experience was like for you and how you found those opportunities.
Speaker 2I will absolutely talk about that experience as it was then. And I will tell you hand to heaven that that is how the experience will be today. I come from literally like no ego or a place of I'm too big or too good. Like if the right opportunity came around, I would absolutely fly myself somewhere to work for free just to see how things are done. I think that is the sharpest learning curve. And so for me, I started immediately joining communities because one specifically where I had come up and how I'd grown up, I didn't know a single person who had started their own business, much less a business in a creative field. So I had nobody to turn to in that regard and I had nobody to really bounce ideas off when it came to like financially planning how to start a business. And I started joining online communities and whenever there was anything like literally can somebody carry bags or can somebody, I'm moving a studio, does anybody want to come and help me? And it was set as a joke and I absolutely said yes. And I again, I, this is how I approach every situation. I reverse engineered. I figured out what was going to make it a win for me. And I thought to myself one day, if I ever have a studio, I want to know what it's like to have a team , uh, to what his rent look like. How do you set up a studio? And it was in that process of moving somebody's studio that I made the broad declaration that I will never have a studio. So I was like, I was literally like , um, I would, I, there was one time, I'll never forget that there was this opportunity to volunteer, to schlep bags for a photographer in Atlanta. And I had no money, I had no resources. And my father, who's a pastor for a church in East Los Angeles, which also AKA means he doesn't have money either had acquired enough , um, airline miles. And he said, you know what, me ha , I am going to book a ticket for you to go to Atlanta because this means a lot for you. So I just feel like whatever opportunity came around, I was just like, yes, please. Amen. Like let's just do this. And it still remains today. Like, Rachel , let's just be real. If you were to say, I need somebody to come move my studio, I had just moved to Austin and I really just need pictures or I need social media or I need a volunteer, I'd be like, yes, I'm there. I
Speaker 4love most about that is the idea of what can I do to make this a win or what can I do to change my perspective in this moment that this is going to be something that is helpful to me or even just to get to a better place with your attitude. I am constantly course correcting like this. So I'll like a good example of this today, and I am going to say this like totally honestly, and this is nothing to the women who are standing in line. But the other night we had had the second premiere of the movie and there was a book signing afterwards and there was a very long line with hundreds of women. And about halfway through I was just so tired. I was so, so, so tired. And I usually am really focused on what's the intention and what's the outcome and I want to show up for these people who show up for me. But that night I was just like so exhausted and I didn't, I didn't feel like I had anything left. But I'm also mindful that everybody's been waiting in line and they want a picture. And I was like, okay, you gotta get your mind right right. Now you've got to find like what is the good thing that's going to come out of this? And in that moment I'm going to as your , you are also a PK, which I did not know. I am a pastor's daughter. So I liked that we're going here. Um , but sometimes the simplest, not the simplest cause it's beautiful, but like sometimes it's just that reminder like whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord. Like I in that moment was like, okay, if nothing else, like, let these people experience grace tonight or let these people experience like, Lord, I don't have the energy to get to the end of this. I need you to help me get to the end of this. So that like, I don't know, maybe they're just experiencing you and not me because I can't and I am not like a , I'm not this girl normally. But that night I was like, God, I don't have it. I do not have it. I did not listen to enough Beyonce to , or I came here. Um , so I love the idea of like, what, what can I, how can I make this a win? And in that night I couldn't, so I was trying to find something bigger. How do I attach this to something bigger than myself? And even you when you're interning, it's not about, Hey I had to move a bunch of stuff but I also know what kind of lighting equipment I need. Now if I'm going to do a studio shoe, which I just think is so great
Speaker 2and above all of that, I always feel that it takes just as much energy to make a decision that puts us in a positive frame of mind as much as it takes energy to put us in a negative frame of mind. And it lets in , and I had recently just heard on Sunday that the average mine comes across 60,000 thoughts or thinks 60,000 thoughts a day and three fourths of them are negative .
Speaker 4Wait, what were you listening to? A podcast cause if you were listening to and my let's podcast or Lewis house cause they both interviewed the same guy recently. We are going to have a side moment here.
Speaker 2No I didn't . No I'm behind. I know, I heard, I saw, gosh
Speaker 4everybody, well not everybody because some people are going to be like Whoa this guy's a little too much. But there is a guy, I'm reading his book right now, dr Joe Dispenza, who talks about mind body connections and one of the things he says is exactly what you said. Do you ever just sit back and think about what you think about
Speaker 2bye .
Speaker 4Get heavy with me for a minute. Think about what you think about because most people don't realize that they are having the same thoughts over and over and over and it feels thoughts are negative, they're destroying your life and you don't know it, but you keep having the same ones a , everybody needs to go listen to those two podcasts episodes, but B , um, I love that. I love that idea. Like this is a choice. Happiness is a choice in the same way that anxiety or fear, it doesn't feel like a choice. It feels like it has control of us, but you can choose to snap out of it. I just think most of the time we clean to the emotion we know best and the motion we know best is the negative one because we've been experiencing it for so long.
Speaker 2Absolutely. And to take this one step further and then we can move on from there. But what kind of my buy my mind blown when I had discovered that the brain and our thoughts, I'm , excuse me, our brain and our mind are two separate entities and that we are not our thoughts and so we are literally in control of do I want to do I want to believe this thought? Do I want to believe this thought that I am a failure? I want to believe it's not that I'm not enough to , I want to believe this thought that I didn't do everything I could in this moment or can I believe the thought that I did my best and can I believe it that that in this moment I am enough and can I believe in this moment that even though the odds are stacked against me, I will continue to rise? Yes , it is a decision and I think that that has had such a profound change in the way that I approach my business in the past two years and I've just see the benefits of it. If nothing else, I just feel like I'm a happier,
Speaker 4yeah, that's so real. I love that. Yeah . You guys, after months of waiting and a year of writing, my new book, girl wash your face is finally out in the world. I want to thank you so much. Every single one of you who has bought the book on ebook or a physical copy or on audio, your support means the world to me. And if you are listening to my podcast and you haven't yet bought the book, you're dead to me now. I'm totally kidding, but I am serious about how important this book is. I keep talking about it because I sincerely believe there are tools in it that can help change your life. So if you have the $16 I want you to go buy it right now because you love your power rage . And if you don't head to the library or borrow it from a friend, but if you care enough to listen here, you're going to love the wisdom inside of this book. Girl, wash your face. I promise you will not be sorry. You did. Dang it. Sorry everybody that we had to take a quick mindset , a equip , like path down the mindset road. But I am so into her right now and I'm reading a book that's like bigger than my two year old and I just like , I'm not kidding. This guy's book, I opened it up and in the first paragraph I had to Google words cause I didn't know what was like, I don't know what this means. And then even after I Google them, it still took me a minute to understand. But now I got it. I know what that word is now. A what ? So tell me, just tell me back into the business side of things. Tell me , um, if, if you all do not follow Jasmine on every social platform that she is in existence on, you need to go do that immediately. And I think you have, forgive me if I'm wrong, I don't think I'm wrong. You have a ton of great content on YouTube. Is that right?
Speaker 2Okay .
Speaker 4Did I, okay. All of a sudden I'm, no , no , no, no, no, no. Okay. Yeah, no, but it sounds, it sounds a little disingenuous when you said, Oh, there's a lot of great content in YouTube. If I were to say yes, here I am looking pretty, it's like, no, here's exactly how you do this thing that you want to know how to do. That's the goal. So if tell me about Instagram, cause I'm gonna assume that you're like me, you, you're in a lifestyle space and Instagram, I'm going to assume as a really big plot , is it the biggest social platform for you?
Speaker 2Um , Instagram, Instagram and Facebook are type Oh , Facebook. Yeah.
Speaker 4No . Is it, sorry, I want to dig into this. So Facebook is still killing it for you in terms of business or just in terms of exposure to new fan bases?
Speaker 2Oh, both. Wow. Oh, I mean like Facebook is like, Facebook is like the high school quarterback who still comes back at homecoming
Speaker 4don't really want to look at, but you're like, I can appreciate God's goodness . That's so funny because you know what I'm talking about. No, seriously. I feel like, so I have, gosh, I probably have three or four times as many fans on Facebook as I do on Instagram, but I feel like the Instagram audience is so much more engaged. So I would love your wisdom if you feel like Facebook is so killing it. Like tell me, teach me your ways, tell me what you're doing that I am not doing.
Speaker 2Well, here's the thing, Rachel, let's just, okay, so I was homeschooled. And so what that basically means for my hippie loving mom is that we taught ourselves, we were raised by like educational wolves. And so if we wanted to figure something out, we just had to figure it out. And so as a result, I kind of became like geeky for all the things that my mother was, which was like free flowing. She had bright red hair and Hazel eyes and just like would like play poetry. She would have this cassette player and she would play poetry and then we would be swinging on swings. Like that was literally her version of education. And I thought to myself, if I, you know , want to do math, I better figure it out. And so as a result, I kind of just started understanding that like numbers really do work in your favor if you understand the numbers. So if you're saying that you have three times the amount of followers on Facebook than you do on Instagram, that even though people are engaging less on your Facebook page, statistically people, the same amount of people could be seeing them on your posts. Yeah.
Speaker 4And so, okay, I was going to argue the algorithm, but okay. I'm with you. I'm with you.
Speaker 2Yes . Well we can, I mean, so you can actually go through and see like when you do a post, now my question is to you, are you showing up on that platform in a way that respects that platform or are you pushing content from
Speaker 4never ? I would never, I , we are very thoughtful about the platform. We do repurpose content, but it , it'll be like a week or two later. So it feels frustrating. We're posting several times a day. It just, it , um , I guess it feels like for the people who found me on Facebook, it feels like a lot of them found me because of a , um, like a certain post went viral or something happened. I got shared a million times. Whereas the ones who find me on Instagram, I feel like they, they're coming there and they found me and now they're engaged with me. Do you feel like that or you feel like, no, you're still, I guess I'm maybe just dismissing a quarterback and I shouldn't be. Maybe, maybe he and I are still supposed to be together.
Speaker 2No, not at all. So let's get, let's get back into a one. I was such a dork in high school that I never, I was the girl who stood like, you know, 16 feet away and like creeped on the quarterback , like , like hoping like, Oh, I dropped my book and he's like picking up results. Um, so statistically speaking, there was a time when Facebook had 1 billion people on its platform and everybody was like, wow, this is so amazing. Dah, dah, dah, dah. And so at that time, let's just call that an eight lane highway and everybody on the eight lane highway was automatically guaranteed equal distribution of lanes. If you had a personal page or a business page and then all of a sudden more people started joining the highway and Facebook said that people who are driving cars are seeing too many advertisements. As a result, all equal distribution of lanes is getting truncated by half in Southern Facebook page has got, you know, less less room on the highway and as a result of less on the highway you were moving slower AKA Pete , less people were seeing and then with everything that happened, more people kept on coming on Facebook, which means that the lanes on the highway became less and less and less so where there was a point in time where Facebook pages were getting eight to 9% organic reach literally just for showing up because Facebook wanted people to have pages. Everyone's like, this is amazing. And then all of a sudden when Facebook says, all right , we're going to truncate this to two to 3% organic reach on content that is somewhat viable. People cross their hands and say, I don't want to drive anymore. And in that case, I'm like, great, pull on over, baby. I'm going to keep on falling through . I won't take four free 3% of my audience seeing my stuff for free. I will, I will raise my hands and say thank you Mark and Mark Zuckerberg. We're good. We're friends. You want to give me a free platform? And all I gotta do is show up and make great content. You got it, boom . Yes sir. I'll take it .
Speaker 4You're so right, because I really am. It's not that it's not successful now, it's that I'm comparing it to six years ago. I'm comparing it to four years. I'm comparing it to when you know, it's like, well, here's a picture of me sneezing and a million people saw it and now it's like you , you have created this content. You've worked so hard. And then yes, you're so right. You're so dang right
Speaker 2and Rachel, let me take it. I'm , I'm totally geeking out right now, but I love this stuff. I really love making people see the same situation's slightly different for the benefit of their growth. And so we have to understand that the , that what we are living in is the golden age of Instagram and we understand that this eight lane highway on Instagram is going to become truncated the exact same way Facebook is because they don't want people being sold to on the platform in in disproportionate amounts. However, the content that you are creating, let's just say on Facebook, so I could say like, dang it, I put this video out on Facebook and half of the amount of people that used to see it are seeing it in my mind. I think to myself, that is AOK because as long as my eggs are in different baskets, I'm still collectively going to create a win. So I take all this time to create a video and I put it out on Facebook and then a couple of days later I will put it out on YouTube, which doesn't get as many views as YouTube once did, but Hey, that's the nature of the game and now that IgE TV has come out, I now have a third arm of distribution now, or a lot of people there. Am I getting 20 thirty thousand forty thousand views? Heck no. But guess what? Every single view is more of a person who has an opportunity to go deep with my video content. So there was a time where, Oh, we were getting all these video views on one singular platform. That's okay. We're going to diversify our approach. We're going to still see that the people who are supposed to see our content will see our content and then choose to go deeper with our business by opting in, by contacting us, by investing in each of those arms. I equally say thank you for this free marketing. I will continue to show up until the next big platform comes in. I'll jump right in and do the same dang thing.
Speaker 4That's so good. Oh, I love that. Um, and honestly I'm gonna like leave here and then call Dave and be like, wait honey, this is a new perception. Here we go. Take all the credit for it. He listens, he'll know where it came from.
Speaker 2Hey, Hey, we'll get right back to this episode, but I wanted to pop in here and let you know about my upcoming 60 minute masterclass. How to double your business without losing your time or your sanity. Yes, y'all. I'm going to be spilling the tea and sharing all my secrets on how to get clear on who exactly your ideal customers are and how to get authentic engagement with them when it comes to your social media posts. I'm also going to be chatting about creating an easy system of content ideas so you never run out of things to post and have a steady flow of customers all day a day. Yes. And lastly, here's the magic sauce. I'm going to walk you through how to stay consistent on social media even when life doesn't seem Instagramable . This is a jam class and this is exactly what you need to double your business this year without losing your time or your sanity. If you've ever wanted to throw your phone across the room because getting new customers felt harder than not eating tacos on Tuesday or any day for that matter. This master class is, are you, I'm going to help you get crystal clear on how to make 2020 the year you double your business without losing all your marbles or ruining a perfectly good phone in the process. Does save your seat for this free masterclass head to Jasmine, star.com forward slash 2020 I'll see you there.
Speaker 4So tell me what does the business look like for you now versus what it looked like for you when you , you know , made it to be, you know, biggest photographer? What, what has it shifted and morphed? Are you still shooting weddings or now, is it more about teaching and platform and all of that stuff?
Speaker 2So there was various iterations within my business. I am, I have like, I have a type a personality. I like to do a lot of different things. I'm an Aries, so I love starting new projects and then I want to turn them over towards the end cause my execution. I'm like, ah, I did it. So , um , what started off as being a photographer really built up that business and we focused on six years, seven years of just focusing on that in there. At that time I started teaching people how to show up on social media. And at the time I was like Twitter and Facebook were like the thing and um, started teaching people the business of how to run a photography business in studio. And then shortly thereafter, small business owners were saying, well, what you're doing with photographers, will it work for my business? And I said , um, uh, imposter syndrome ringing , ding. No, no. Who am I to teach this? Because clearly there are way other, there are people who are way more qualified. And yet I started to create content, put it out for free. And it opened up doors for me to be speaking to organizations and stages. And then from there I started consulting and I was consulting under the radar because I didn't want to like bifurcate my business. I really wanted to still strongly position myself where our golden egg was and our golden egg was photography and I didn't want to dilute what that brand experience was like for our consumers on the photography end and our consumers from the clients that we were booking. And so started consulting and I realized that while it was lucrative and amazing, it really just kind of gave me like an under the table varsity jacket understanding I knew how businesses worked. And then in 2016, meeting strong pivot in the public space to say that I'm teaching and empowering entrepreneurs to build a brand and market it on social media. And since then have created , um, an online social media membership, like a monthly membership to empower business owners to show up on social media every, every day.
Speaker 4Yes. And we have so many people who are listening to this right now, who are those entrepreneurs? Tell us about that thing. Like if you're listening right now and you're like , um , I love this girl, I need to know everything. You see her social and you're like, yep , this is all my dreams come true in one beautiful feed. Jasmine, tell us , um, tell us about how they can get involved with you or can they, is there, is it like a closed club or you can [inaudible]
Speaker 2Oh, if it was a close girl club, you should kick me out . No, no, no, no. I've never been a cool girl. So I will never have a cool little club. No, no, no. So the thing, this is the thing that I started noticing is the more I was speaking to small and medium sized businesses, I realized that there were really great about talking about their business, but it was almost like they were too great. So that every post on Facebook and every post on Twitter and Instagram was just like, my widget is in green. I home make my widget, my widgets, the best my widgets on a holiday sale, I'm launching my widget, my widget comes in green. And what happened was people started asking, well, why am I not growing? Why are people not engaging? And I'm like, booboo , when's the last time you talked back to QVC? Like you don't talk back to the people who are selling you things on a consistent basis. So what is the thing that we have to do with social media is we have to make it social in relation to our business. And I started noticing that I was teaching people to show up and be social and ask questions and talk about personal things, which is something that you, Rachel do so extraordinarily well that yes, you have all these different components, but a lot of times you're okay to talk about your coffee and your manicures and people standing in line. And people resonate with that because they resonate.
Speaker 4And it's funny, it took us so many years to figure that out. For years we would sit around and you'd have like big brainstorming days and we'd say, well, you know, I write cause years ago. So it's like, well I write fiction books and I am also a food blogger and I have kids and we're naming all of these things and none of them really worked. And when we would go try and talk to other businesses or brands that we're going to partner with, so many people were like, I don't get it. I don't get your business. And it honestly took years for us to go, wait a minute, it's me. Like if you were friends with me, we would talk about my books and my kids and the recipe I made last night. And so we can't market the business we have to market like what is the heart of this company? So I love that that's the mission and how you're teaching people because that is the answer
Speaker 2100% and I feel like anybody who just did not like pause the podcast, if you're in the car waiting to pick up the kids from school, we need to put this on pause, take a breather back it up, 15 to 30 seconds because what Rachel just dropped was a knowledge bomb and it just exploded. She said the reason why people followed her was because of her. And I think that it's so important that as business owners, even if we're not building a personal brand, we're building a business that the heart and soul of the business must be out on display. So social curator is a monthly membership that empowers people to talk about who they are as a person in relation to their business. So we provide stock photos, 30 stock photos every month, and people say, but are they industry specific? I sell, I sell essential oils, I sell fitness shakes, I sell running shoes, I sell jewelry. No they're not because you are the captain of that ship. What we provide our social conversation starters, captions where you fill in the blank and say, this is how I spend the holidays. This is what inspires. This is how I work best. Thank you for being here. It just is a creative starter to help you talk and get your people engaging. And the photos are lifestyle inspired photos. So for social media holidays, national pizza day, national ice cream day, what does your desk look like? Your favorite cup of coffee. Are you a tea drinker? We provide all of those just to ensure that consistency remains the queen of your domain. Is that showing up every day and keeping those conversations going. It doesn't make people feel like they're sold to because when you get into a launch, are you really excited to do this thing and you've been silent on social media and then you show up with the machine gun approach. You know, it's like, buy this thing, buy this thing, buy this thing, buy this thing quiet. I'm in Cabo pictures pool margarita is my feet in the sand. Silence, launch this thing by this thing. And so that because we see it happens so often and they just think that actually the Cabo photos are amazing and the launch photos and captions are amazing, but you've got to fill in the blanks on the invitation or people just feel sold to you .
Speaker 4Such a smart idea. So it as part of it, you get , um, you get photos, they can use your photos on their Instagram feed or their Facebook and then they're writing the copy. Is that right?
Speaker 2Yeah . Well they are. And I want to make a very clear distinction that when people say, Oh, they're your photos, no baby, boom , they're your photos. I don't need photo credit. I create these photos as a way to inspire people to show up and no photo credit is needed. And the captions are, think about this as a really cool entrepreneurial Madlibs. So we talk about what are things you're most proud about in your business? And then you fill in the gaps and we talk about the emotions related to that. How do you spend your holidays? It's 15 captions where you can open it up on the first of the month and say every other day I have an engaging caption that is related to my business, but not selling my business.
Speaker 4So we have a team of freelancers and creatives that we work with to get the photos that you see for our social, for the blog, for Instagram, we do photo shoots where we take like a crap ton of photos at one time and then my team will upload them in. I've said it before, we use an app called planet. So that's P L a, N O. L. Y if anyone wants to check it out. But um , there's just a ton of photos and then it doesn't matter what the photo is because what people are coming to my feed for is the copy that's attached to the photo. So oftentimes you'll see on my Instagram, it might be a picture of me, you know, sometimes I'm like, this is just a cute picture, so here's whatever. But most of the time it's like a picture of a coffee cup and I'm talking about motivation. I like their , they have nothing to do with each other, but you need that beautiful photography to set a certain standard for the type of brand that you have or the type of company that you're building. So such a smart idea.
Speaker 2Well thank you. And it was literally built like a , what is that quote Lake. The mother of innovation is frustration. Necessity, necessity. And so I was walking my, I was walking like my tribe through what it meant to do this, what it meant to plan. So basically I am a huge advocate of what you said. Like bashing your content so that you're not shackled to the content. And the thing that we heard again and again is that even if they had the photos, well they didn't know what to say and if they knew what to say, they didn't have the photos. And we also include a monthly marketing plan. This means is that like people are getting this every month we focus just on one micro topic, like how to use Instagram stories as a vehicle to talk about your business instead of, Oh, like my baby's eating Cheerio's Oh, the cat got into the laundry. Those stories are fine and great, but there also are strategic ways to talk about your business as an extension of your ran and really show up for your audience in real ways. We also talk about Facebook ads when moms, we talk about copywriting when months , so we're there to kind of be a solution and a community for people who do want to show up and they just want to clear a path to get there
Speaker 4seriously. I mean, it's shocking to me that I didn't think of it first, so congratulations. [inaudible] I'm just kidding. I think that's such a smart idea and it's so, so helpful because I know like there's a ton of women who listen to this who do direct sales or multilevel marketing and they know how to do the network. They know how to throw the parties, but they really struggle with how to show up on social and social just increases your reach 10 fold , particularly for those of you who live in smaller towns. So if someone's listening and they're super down, what website should they go to to check this out?
Speaker 2My social curator.com it is just $25 a month. And let's go back for a second to , um, building a personal brand. You did mention MLM , but I believe that the foundation of a really successful person within a MLM structure is somebody who knows how to build a personal brand. And the thing is, is that these amazing MLM companies will give you lots of collateral, but it, it empowers the company to , for you to talk about their product. But why? If I can buy essential oils or haircare or a fitness shake from literally hundreds of thousands of people, why would I choose to buy it from you? And now this is your opportunity to define who you are and do that know , like trust factor and say, you know what, that photo of the cup of coffee, when you really talked about motivation, it's just you, Rachel, I want to buy your book. I want to talk to you. So whatever it is, I'm going to choose you. And I think that that's how we need to view this as we are the captains of our ship. How are we going to show up and connect to our tribe in a way that they feel empowered and also a close affinity to who we are?
Speaker 4You know what? I'm never, you're so absolutely right and I've never thought about it before. Uh , the idea that you have, you have to be able to build a personal brand to stand out within a community of people who are all selling the same product that you're selling.
Speaker 2And it's not just any , it's totally not MLM because you clearly did this when you started your wedding coordination. Like you knew that people were going to hire you even though other people can get the exact same resources to the florist, to the DJ, to the venues. But they said it's you, I want to work with you. And so many of us as business owners, we want to lead with what we do. We want to lead with our product. We want to lead with our pretty pictures, but an all actuality. Let's turn it inside out. So we wear our hearts on the outside and our products on the inside. If people get through the outside, then they're in. They're sold.
Speaker 4Dang it. So good. So much good information. I knew I was going to have fun talking to you, but I really appreciate the wisdom that you are dropping on the ladies today. You're so welcome. I'm so beyond checking out the website. If people are not already following Jasmine star, tell us , um, what's your favorite platform to hang out and what handles should they hit you up on over there?
Speaker 2Okay .
Speaker 4Well I hang out on all platforms, but okay. So ,
Speaker 2um , Jasmine star, the entrepreneur really loves , um, all platforms. But Jasmine just like the homegirl with time to waste is on Instagram. Like that's just where I'm at. That's definitely where my heart's at. But you can find me on all social platforms at Jasmine.
Speaker 4Awesome. Well sister, thank you so much for chatting with us today and taking the time and you know , bearing with us as we rescheduled while we moved to a different state, no big deal. Your life was changing. You're just changing the world through movies and movements. No big deal. So I super appreciate it and I am um, I'm really excited to have had you on the podcast but I also 100% want to hang out with you in real life and be real friends. Um, I actually am coming, you're in LA, right?
Speaker 2I am. Well I'm in Newport beach
Speaker 4but you know, down here in Southern California, you know, everybody's like, yeah, I'm from LA. Got you. I got you. But I will, I have to come , um , within the next month cause I have to get my hair done. And yes, I'm going to fly back to LA cause yes, yes, yes . A few people. Well and one of them is located in LA. So , uh, but we will, we will be sure and somehow talk about that when we are hanging out together in real life. But um, Hey I super appreciate, I know I said it before but I super appreciate you taking the time and it also , um, I just want to acknowledge the, like where we started this idea that you were blazing this trail, that you were setting this new standard for your family and what it meant to be a confident, strong Latino woman and you have totally done that tenfold. It just has taken a different form. So I'm so I'm sure so many women , um , are inspired by you and are getting to see , um, you know, that if you can see it, you can be it. You are showing women what they can be. So , um , thank you for your work and thank you for your heart,
Speaker 2Rachel. Thank you. I receive that it takes , um , I , I'm one of those people who like kind of like wilt when somebody gives a compliment. But I'm going to stand in this cause I'm standing in my purpose. I receive this. Thank you for the gift that you are truly friend. Thank you so much for listening in on this conversation with Rachel Hollis. If you want to hear more raw conversations like this one, make sure you subscribe to the Jasmine star show to not miss a single episode. Better yet, it would mean the world to me if you left a review. I read them all and they help secure more amazing guests like Rachel and many others. So I will see you there in their reviews and I cannot wait to connect with you there on social media and by emailing podcast@jasminestar.com if you have requests or ideas for future episodes, I look forward to seeing you on a future show.
Speaker 1[inaudible] .