Speaker 1

Hi

Speaker 2

friend, you're listening to the Jasmine star show. If you're new here, my name is Jasmine star and welcome to my podcast. If you're a dedicated subscriber. Oh, Hey, help me . Hey, thank you for being up in there in the subscribes and getting this podcast right, fresh and hot delivered to your updates. Today's show is a recording from an interview I recently did on autumn Witt Boyd's podcast, the legal roadmap. Now y'all know I'm a proud law school dropout who still loves watching old episodes of judge Judy and judge Milian . I love the people's court. So when autumn invited me on her podcast, I was like, Oh, let me dust off some legal ease and get right into it. Um , autumn is an award winning intellectual property lawyer who helps ambitious business owners just like you, protect everything you have worked so hard to build. And I have to take a second and say how much I really admire autumn for her understanding of the online business world. She has a really impressive resume of clients that you have definitely heard of. Some have even been on this vibe guest and for her interviewing capabilities like she's just one step ahead of the curve. It was a really great conversation. Speaking of the conversation, we discuss business with like illegal twist, everything from transitioning my business from selling a service to online courses. People ask about that pivot and the things that I had to like think about from a legal perspective. I also talk about what a side hustle clause means and like why you might want to include it in your employment or independent contractor agreements and so much more. Now I have to say even if you're not into the law legal court, I mean it's still a great conversation because it prepares you for this stuff that you really need to get an order to make sure that your business is protected. I don't want to keep you waiting any longer. So here is my interview on the legal roadmap podcast with autumn Witt Boyd

Speaker 3

legal roadmap podcast listeners. I have such a treat for you today. I have the lovely, beautiful, smart, talented, incredible business woman, Jasmine star joining me. Welcome Jasmine. Thank you. Autumn. What a good day. I'm so happy to be here. It's a fabulous day. I would love to start off, you know, I don't give a big background or read a bio. It's more fun just to ask if you will give me like the short and sweet background of how you built your business. I know you had a couple swerves and changes along the way, so we'd just love to hear it in your own words. And I noticed when I was reading your bio, you're a law school dropout, which is hilarious. Coming from a lawyer. I am. I am a law school dropout. Actually, that's like a really great to start the story because

Speaker 2

I do believe that that's so much of the origin is I am a first generation Latina, first generation college student. I hail from beautiful, amazing parents who happen to be immigrants, and so it was a new venture for our whole family and I navigated the best I could and I just realized that when I was there, I didn't have a clear vision for what it was. I just felt like it was going to be a passport of socioeconomic parlay into something different and that is never enough to get you through law school. I knew I wanted to create change. I just didn't know the vehicle. I knew that I wanted to empower people. I just didn't know the vehicle. And so when my mom was diagnosed with brain cancer, my first year I took a medical leave and I fully intended to go back and then life had other plans. And it was during that time where I realized that your hip with the gravity of life, right? When you look at somebody you love and you think that they're going to pass, they measure their lives and the things that they didn't do, not the things that they did. And it was such a wake up call and I had the hard realization that I really wanted to be a photographer and I never gave myself the permission to do so. And when I saw the ability for me to quote unquote fail at something I love, it was easy for me. Then instead of choosing the safe and the safe path, and my brand new husband, we had just gotten married, he said, I'd rather see you fail at something you love than succeed at something you hate. He's like, so let's give you a year and you can go back to law school in a year and get your scholarships. So that was the start of my photographic career gift to have that support to try and fail. Yeah. Oh, totally. Totally, totally. And so it was during that time I started a career, I won a bunch of awards. I became internationally recognized for our work and it was fantastic. But as something had transpired, as I started teaching photographers how to build their businesses, and then other creatives started asking me, can you help us build our business? And at first everybody, you know, you struggle with that imposter syndrome. Like who am I to teach this? Certainly somebody else's better. It's been said before. And so you kind of work through that identity crisis of sorts . And over the years I've been able to really step into my zone of genius and I am a creative, I will always be a creative. But what I have a knack for is understanding what business looks like from a marketing perspective for small and medium sized business owners. And that has become a game changer. So do you still do any photography, Jasmine? Oh yes. I mean I travel with my camera everywhere, but oftentimes people, people often say yeah, like they'll say, Oh well you know, she's not a photographer anymore . And I was like, I was a photographer before anybody considered me before anybody paid you and I will continue. So I am the cofounder of social curator and part of social curator. It includes visual collaterals like the photos. So myself and our photo team shoot every month. So I am still an active photographer, so I love it. But now on my terms, I don't have to deal with art directors or magazine editors. It's me empowering small business owners, which is what I love a thousand times over. Yeah. And you

Speaker 3

still get to be creative and you still get to do what you love. There's a beautiful marriage. I love that. So what is the pivot from being strictly a photographer to an online entrepreneur and online marketer? Tricky or it sounds like it was kind of gradual for you.

Speaker 2

It was, I am a slow mover. People think, Oh Jasmine, she talks fast. She thinks that, and I, I , I don't necessarily disagree, but I am very methodical. Like I've never been one to really just make a decision and go, I'm not a quick start.

Speaker 3

I'm not either. I'm super slow,

Speaker 2

do I am very slow. I'm very, very, very like strategic, linear,

Speaker 3

let's do a lot of research

Speaker 2

of course. But the minute you decide it's like nothing [inaudible]

Speaker 3

off to the races. Yeah.

Speaker 2

And that was for us what it was and it was literally, it was market driven. People were asking us, can you, can you help me learn Instagram? Like my very first foray I had , I was doing consulting. It wasn't a scalable model and I knew that people wanted help, but they didn't know how to ask for it. Precisely. And so they said we just need help with Instagram. So I put together an Instagram for business course and no I'm not pitching it cause I'm not selling it. People are like, Oh she's trying to pitch us. No, I'm mad. No I'm not. It's nonexistent at this point in time. It did is so, well it was called instant 80 and it really just opened my eyes to the fact that there are so many people who are hungry for solid good content in the digital sphere. And that opened the door for me to create other digital courses and then ultimately work , feel like my power play. What I love to do all day, every day is a membership. People have the time and luxury now to consume the way that they want without the pressure and with ongoing accountability and support. And I felt like that to me is where my business needs to be. [inaudible]

Speaker 3

and were you just self-taught on the marketing? Like at first were you just kind of teaching what had worked for you?

Speaker 2

Let me tell you, autumn, you can take the girl out of the hood. You can't take the hood ,

Speaker 3

natural born hustler, just yeah ,

Speaker 2

born hustler. And I also hailed, like I'd mentioned, I love this country, what it is afforded. My family is just never lost on me. We didn't have money and my mom homeschooled all of her five children and she couldn't afford to buy textbooks. So she would go to the local public school during the summer and teachers would throw out books that were missing pages and she would collect all these books and then assemble a new textbook based on six to eight others that were missing pieces. And so to me, watching my mom take what she had and need it work really set the precedent. Like there's truly the things I talk about. I am not a savant. I am not anybody special. I am a rabid consumer of like information and I'm good at distilling and I'm good at sharing what I know.

Speaker 3

Let's say you do have some super powers , Jasmine, don't sell yourself totally short. Yes. Oh good . I see your Instagram feed. Yes, I see all the things you're doing and it's very thoughtful and it's , there's clearly a strategy there. So don't act like you're just throwing stuff up without

Speaker 2

Oh no, no, no, no girl. No. I just, I'm just not one of those people who feel like it's like something magical or mystical. I wasn't born special. I'm not a special snowflake. I just know how to aggravate a lot of information and share it in a strategic way and people appreciate that.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Do you think there's something about like being a photographer or having a background in photography that lends itself to online education? Cause there's, there's a number of other online educators who kind of have a photography background. Jenna Kutcher is one that came to mind. So what do you think it is about that field or does that spark anything in you?

Speaker 2

I see the vast majority of people who are really making a dent in the online educational space and the vast majority of them are not photographers. Do I think that, in my opinion it helps because we understand visual branding in different way. I would say a hundred percent do. I think that it's necessary to have that zero, not one piece whatsoever. But if you have somebody you trust a VA, somebody on your team to really help fulfill that gap, then yeah, it's a shoe in . But no, I don't think I'm predisposed to it because I'm a photographer.

Speaker 3

I love that perspective. Thank you. How have your offerings changed now? We know you started as a kind of one-on-one photographer and then shifted that a little bit, but you mentioned you started out with an online course. How has that kind of changed and evolved into what you have now? Is your main offer, your social security or social curator?

Speaker 2

I got you. I got you.

Speaker 3

Zana see , it looks like it's all planned , girl. I got that yet .

Speaker 2

Well , for us, like when I started off as a photographer, I was strictly in the one-to-one clients and I loved it. It served me so well. And then as we started diversifying, I started working with art directors and editors, so it became still client to client, but a different client . And then as I started educating photographers, it became slightly the scalable model, but it was still doing like workshops and seminars and very hands on. Yeah, still very hands on. And then we took it from like mass appeal. So people were investing like $2,000 to come and spend the day with me in a small group, it was like 20 people. And you know at the time, goodness gracious is probably like 2009 when I started doing that 2010 and it was such a game changer, but people still desired like a white glove, one-on-one experience. And when I started consulting for businesses outside of photography, I absolutely loved it because it challenged me to think in a new way outside of like the service based business that really sharpened my teeth. And after that I realized that I can create an online course in . I did that only after really understanding the importance of a mastermind. I had never heard of the word mastermind until 2016 never, never heard. I didn't even know that group coaching existed. I'd never heard of the word webinar. I had never heard of an Instagram ad.

Speaker 3

To be fair, this is all fairly recent stuff's true . I see that . And some people are like ,

Speaker 2

what the heck? And I'm like, that was just my wife. Like you know, it's like four years ago I didn't know this world existed. And I just think it's a Testament to what the 21st century is giving so many people. It's like if you can dream it up, you can make it

Speaker 3

happen. And this is not like a hallmark commercial. And let me just truncate that. We did the consulting, we created an Instagram for business course and we charged $197 for it. Then I did a 10 week coaching program for how to build a brand and marketing and social media called the path to profitability. Again, not a pitch, don't, don't try and buy it.

Speaker 2

I know. And what we learned from there, that was such great insight into our target demographic because people said we love getting courses, but during a constricted amount of time we can't handle it all. And I realized that dragon for the fire hose . Yeah , absolutely. I was doing a disservice to people who invested because if you didn't do it in this timeframe , then I'm sorry. That was what I committed contractually to. So we got into and people I learned really wanted to go at a slower pace and actually commit to doing the work, which led us to social curator because the biggest pressure points that we heard from business owners was, I don't have photos, I don't know what to say and I want to know the most current marketing plans for not two years ago. Exactly. And so to me, my, and it's harder, I think it's much harder to be producing a membership style.

Speaker 3

It's not Senator forget it. You can't just like regurgitate last year's course and like do some new graphics yet.

Speaker 2

But that's always been my personality. I like, I like the odds, it's a little bit of a chip on my shoulder to be like, when people are in social security , you're getting to fresh, you're getting the newest, you're getting the best. And I stand by that. I love it.

Speaker 3

Were people also, because when you had the course, it was over a shorter period of time. Did you offer some support during that course and then like when it's done, it's done, like maybe some calls or feedback and that kind of thing.

Speaker 2

We offered at the time weekly support calls and so I was committed to people doing the work, but I just realized that life happens or people invest in two or three courses at a time and it's like they're coursed out and then they feel like they're confused in order to show up. And then this is the thing we saw too, was overwhelm kills more dreams than fear or doubt ever will when people get overwhelmed. That's where everybody stops as if we have this misnomer that life should not be overwhelming. So if it is, Oh, you're going the wrong direction. Yeah . It's kind of like, no, we can think about this differently. If you're feeling overwhelmed, how do we take the steps to be less overwhelmed? That was where I felt we really wanted to take a pen and focus on less overwhelm and more action.

Speaker 3

I love that. Well, I remember the first online course I did, which was I think 2015 right after I started. My business and it was a sales course and similar to what you're saying, I want to say it was like six to eight weeks and I literally set aside every Friday and I could at that point, I couldn't do that now, but I set aside every Friday to like consume the content, do the homework, make sure that I was keeping up, you know, get in the Facebook group. You are such a lawyer,

Speaker 2

are you all gunner autumn ?

Speaker 3

I was not. So for those of you listeners who do not know what a gunner is, Gunnar is law school. The person who raises their hand all the time, I was not a gunner. Yeah I wasn't either. I was like yes I was the same. I was like please don't call my name, please don't put my name cause they will call on you in law school and you gotta be ready to answer.

Speaker 2

Oh, I mean and let's just say like on for people who are, who are listening not to really with law school it's called the Socratic method and named after Socrates himself where the w you know, the professor will stand. And then just have the his or her thumb underneath you unrelentless make sure you come up with an answer on the spot. And unfortunately on him , I take that approach in Colton .

Speaker 3

Now teaching through questions basically is the Socratic method. They don't tell you what you need to know. They ask you questions and they make you reveal the answers and teach your classmates. It's horrible if you get nervous in front of crowds cause you're in a classroom of a hundred people. Yes .

Speaker 2

Want to know what did you not every time you spoke feel like this euphoria, this rush of I'm handling this. Oh my God, I'm doing this. I my God, I will never forget the answer to this question for the rest of my dang life. I really do think it really sharpened my teeth for like business .

Speaker 3

Yeah. And it makes you prepare in a totally different way because you, you don't know when your day is coming, so you've got to show up and be ready to answer the questions. Yes , there's , there's some good things. There was definitely ready the first time I went in front of a judge who was asking me all the questions. So it is good preparation in some ways. No, but I love how you saw what was missing and what your students were hungering for in the course and created that in your membership instead. So smart Jasmine. I love it. So what events, some challenges and building out the current, you know , suite of offers it sounds like. So [inaudible] is really the offer right now since you told me that nobody can buy any of your courses. You know ,

Speaker 2

goodness gracious. It was in 2018 that we decided to step back from any other online offerings because I always want to stand by the thing I'm putting out and with social media changing so often, like so frequently. Like so for instance, and it's one 80 we had a module on Instagram ads in, you know, six months later that model is outdated. And I'm like, I can't in good faith put out something that's just not exactly what it should be. And so I want to make sure that when people make an investment, they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that that's where they should be. But remind me the question again. I think I got, I think I got, what was some of like the learning? Yeah ,

Speaker 3

some of the challenges. Yeah. Either and putting together the membership or making the shift to just offering the membership.

Speaker 2

Yeah. You know, I, I do think that it's only in retrospect that you can go back and wish that things might've been done differently. I think my biggest struggle, frustration is with tech. I know that there are out of the box solutions for memberships and of everything we looked into it nothing fit us the way that we needed. And so I decided to invest in tech and have something, you know , custom built and it's amazing and it's a beast all at the same time. So I can look back with Rose tinted glasses and think, should I have or should I not have, I don't know the answer. But instead of focusing on the past, you know, I'm learning from what things that have not gone well and really pressing forward with a very clear strategy for 2020 and 2021 so you know, silver lining to like a gray cloud, but it is what it is. It's all a learning and it comes strongly from tech.

Speaker 3

Yeah. Are there any resources that you've come across or things that you would recommend to someone who's kind of thinking of building their own membership that might help them either overcome the challenge a little more easily or avoid it?

Speaker 2

Yeah. You know, I think it was rather myopic. We had this dream of launching social curator and it was really, we launched it as a solution, as an addendum to people who had gone through our online course, say, Hey, this is continuing education. It's fresh and this is, we had this like ,

Speaker 3

well images as well, which is a big pain point.

Speaker 2

Absolutely. Yeah. The paint . Yes. The pain points that we solve are you get 30 lifestyle images that people can use, and social media newsletters, blog posts. We also have 30 captions that people inspire to like think of like I'm filling the blank tile style things and also a monthly marketing plan focusing on different divisions. So when we launched that in July, 2017 we had this Beehag, this big hairy audacious goal of launching to a thousand people. Now we thought that that was crazy. And so we built it around our crazy ideas, but life has showed us again and again that crazy is one thing, but you have to give yourself the permission and the bandwidth to think beyond that. We launched to 2,444 members and so we built [inaudible] .

Speaker 3

That's what I say . Did you basically break it right out of the box? Yeah ,

Speaker 2

right out of the box. So if I had to give advice to somebody, it would strongly be until you know exactly what your membership looks like, use an ad of the box solution. If I can go back and tell myself, I'd be like, use the out of the box, find your parameters, and then build from there. That's so smart.

Speaker 3

Okay. So shifting clears a little bit Jasmine. I would love to hear it. Now you have a legal background, so you maybe approach things a little bit differently, but can you tell me when was the first time you thought about either doing something legal for your business or consulting with a lawyer for your business?

Speaker 2

It came actually rather early on. My name is Jasmine star, that's my birth name. I have a twin sister, her name is Bianca flower . My mom is a hippie and my maiden name is Jasmine star. Whereas, and I decided to use Jasmine star as my business name and I realized that at the time there was a college band and Texas who had the name Jasmine star and they also owned the domain. Right. And so I kind of just kind of got an inkling. I was like, this is kind of going to get confusing. So I believe it was like 2007 that I applied for a copyright and had my name trademarked. So that was like very early on in my career and good thing. It was all in, it was all approved. And wait by 2009 I bought Jasmine star.com . Awesome . Yeah, it came very early.

Speaker 3

So they didn't, it didn't turn into a dispute. It doesn't sound like, so that's a good, good thing.

Speaker 2

Yeah, I'm actually very happy. I actually reached out to them, crazy story to see if I could buy the domain because it seemed like the , the domain was inactive and they wanted, and by that time I'd already won a lot of awards and my name was super Googleable and they wanted $25,000 for the domain. And I was like, you're crazy.

Speaker 3

So I got Japanese , like American dollars pesos, you mean pieces ?

Speaker 2

Uh , no. It was Jasmine dash star for about two and a half years and the band was completely inactive. And then my husband reached out again and they said, okay, we'll do it for $10,000 and they said, you're still crazy not going to do it. And then the , like the leader of the band, which the page had been inactive for like five or six years. He was going to Mexico and he just like, I'll give it to you for 600

Speaker 3

and I was like, [inaudible] money. That's amazing. Yeah . And so it worked out well for us . Well that's great that people ask me frequently like, how do I get this domain? You know, how can I sweep it out from under someone else ? I'm like, no, no, that's not really how it works. As long as they were not doing something deceitful, you got to pay the money or, yeah, absolutely. Or they have to let it go. Well that's great. What were the kind of effects of having that protection early on? That just gives you kind of some confidence and that nobody else could copy your name and they're like, you planted your flag in the sand.

Speaker 2

But it was more than anything else. It was like this level of this level of confidence in, for me it was a level of no going back and that for nothing else provided me. And also to be fair, I am a girl who hailed from a long lineage of permission slips. Right. I never believed that I can give myself the permission to dream bigger than what my mind was out or or hope for more than my soul was capable of. And I was always the person to ask for permission, asked permission to go to college, asked for permission to go to law school and pipe moose by permission. I wasn't saying can I go, it was doing the applications and going through all these things. I wanted a piece of paper, I wanted the letters J D after my name to mean something. When I walked into a room I was to be trusted and I did that early on in my career cause I said this is why I want to become and now I look back and I think fondly of Jasmine's are in 2007 and be like, the less your heart you are going to be just fine without the paperwork. But if that was what got you to where you are today, we'll clap it on up. But is it necessary? No. Am I think for it? Yeah.

Speaker 3

Yeah. No, I hear that a lot. People are like, it's not that I really wanted to stop anyone else from doing anything with the trademark. I just kind of wanted to feel more legit. And like sometimes that is, that's enough and it's worth the money and the time. Yeah ,

Speaker 2

I want to quote MC hammer, but that piece of it

Speaker 3

would you to quit and here you still are. So I love that. So from those first couple of steps that you took, what are some of the legal protections that have changed over time? You know, you've got a very different business now than Jasmine star, the original business.

Speaker 2

It's so important for us and I think that the bigger the business has gotten, we have to take more precautions. And so whenever we, even as something like a change, our terms of service, when I am very happy to be a public speaker, but my contract, like not only am I signing the advent contracts, I'm having them sign one of my contracts, I'm just clearly denoting and no, it's not a contract that's like 37 pages. It's literally just itemizing like this is what I am delivering, this is what's to be expected. Anything beyond that will be renegotiated a different point in time. I'm fully thankful. I mean civil procedure and contract law.

Speaker 3

Do you want to say you're like speaking my language Jasmine,

Speaker 2

like I just, there was one time I actually want to say something that's super embarrassing that I've never said before, but by the time my husband and I got married, I had just dropped out of law school and we were living in an apartment in this really shady area of Los Angeles and our neighbor who lived in a duplex with us, he was moving out and he said, Hey, I have some things in my garage. Can I put them in your garage over the weekend while I moved and now my husband bless his heart is so sweet. This is of course when he came upstairs and he told me, I brought it a piece of paper and I wrote I, we are not responsible in the garage should something happen to it if it is stolen, if it gets wet. I was like, we don't know what he's putting in there. And he's like, I can't have him sign it. I said, I have seen too many episodes of judge Judy. There will be no confusion as to what we were responsible for. I'm telling you I am , I am

Speaker 3

amazing. Were you like just blame me. Tell him your wife's crazy. Like she's the crazy law student. It's fine.

Speaker 2

Yes, yes. And now as we bring people on our team specifically we do have full time employees but we also work with contractors and we have like one of many things that they sign is the side hustle clause because I want to be very clear that you were side hustle does not but against intellectual property that we're creating that you can then go and create systems for somebody else and I am not against anybody building up their own business. I am really leery of you coming in and then you spinning what we work behind the scenes to do, to leverage. So our side has a clause is go on and do your side hustle, but if it butts up against what we're creating, please disclose it to us. And so we can have proper protocols and conversations around it.

Speaker 3

Yeah, well there's a lot of trust when you're bringing someone like behind the curtain and your business and we all have our , our secret sauce that we don't necessarily want them taking to our competitor. So the thing is honestly to be 100

Speaker 2

I don't know if I'm a proponent of secret sauce or secrets. I am a huge proponent of systems now, systems art unique, but the time it takes to create the system will take our team upwards of nine to 12 months. Now is this system so special and unique? No. You could probably teach it to somebody in a day, but what we spent 12 months creating cannot be leveraged by somebody else in a day and then to charge a couple hundred dollars when it took us tens of thousands of time, energy, resources to create. That's the thing I'm trying to protect. I'm trying to predict time to the best of our ability. Yes. Yes. I love that.

Speaker 3

Some legal surprises, if any that have come up. I mean you've been in business a long time, so anything that you could share.

Speaker 2

I will say that I did find it valuable that when it comes to terms and conditions, people don't read them. This is true. Do you have a box that when you join social curator, you're acknowledging the terms of service, but people become so irate and our terms in service, they are detailed, but it's not like iTunes terms of service. Right. It's not, you know, a re 92 pages. Exactly . But you know, it is really important that we do. Oftentimes when I do the group coaching on the inside, I am telling people that this is a membership. If you decide to leave the membership, the resources are behind the people membership and people I write , Oh, I did it. I said, you have plenty of time to download all of the resources, but when you unsubscribe, it's like going to a gym. You don't stand outside of your gym after you stopped paying your monthly membership. It's like, it's like, so I mean I think that that's what was really surprising is people become very irate. Even though we try to be as clear as possible in the terms of services .

Speaker 3

Some of that too, I always encourage my clients to, you know, say on their sales page or say in their webinar or whatever, wherever else they're marketing some of those key terms. But you can't talk about everything and there's just too much. That's why the terms conditions are long. Exactly . Exactly . But yeah, but if there are key things like your refund policy or like you said, like that you're going to lose access after you're got some of these things you think like, come on, this seems really obvious

Speaker 2

you would think , but I was really surprised. Yeah .

Speaker 3

That's awesome. So what, since you've kind of got some benefit of being an online business for a long time, what would you recommend or encourage someone who's just starting out to think about when they're setting up their business

Speaker 2

legally?

Speaker 3

Are there like things you would recommend? They definitely think about maybe they other things that they could wait on a little bit.

Speaker 2

I went to the best of your ability, ask trusted peers what contracts they have in place and see if it's applicable to your business and do the best of your ability , see what they have. Use it as a framework but then hire. So what I've noticed in autumn you could probably see things differently. When I first start my business, I didn't have money to hire a lawyer. I didn't have money for a contract to be drafted up from start to finish. What I did have was when I was looking at other photographers, their contracts in place, I would get an aggregate of the contracts at once. I had one in place. I then paid an hourly rate to a contract lawyer to review that instead of having something drafted up from scratch. Like I said, just a girl from the hood trying to make it work. And so I still believe that that is a very feasible way if you're just getting started. But now that we have the [inaudible] , it's

Speaker 3

better than nothing. It's like I would rather you using a contract that is missing some things then not using a contract at all percent,

Speaker 2

but now that the business is can't substantiate proper legal considerations. I do invest in it. I really, really, really do.

Speaker 3

Yeah, and we have, I'll give a shameless plug. We have contract templates that are really on the blank that are very easy that will , you know, like you said, get you 99% of the way they are . Or if you want to take them to a local attorney, have them give it a look. It's only going to take them an hour. It's not going to be like the 10 hours that if they tried to draft it from scratch that it would take,

Speaker 2

I would love, I'm big proponent of have templates, contract templates, but huge proponent. Yeah.

Speaker 3

Yeah. That's awesome. So Jasmine, if you can think of anything, have there been any hard legal lessons that you really learned from that either helped you build your business or helped you maybe get over something that was tricky?

Speaker 2

Yeah, I mean I'm going to say something that's like really embarrassing. I hate even bringing it out because it's like resurrection .

Speaker 3

Sorry that I'm making you embarrass yourself so much

Speaker 2

because you make so many mistakes.

Speaker 3

We all do. Yes.

Speaker 2

And so I'm just like, I might've just been forthcoming with them because I'm like, let my mistakes be what not to do. I was in a mastermind when I needed a , I needed a contract and the lady in the mastermind, her husband was a lawyer and he drafted a per contract and our businesses , our business models were virtually identical. And she says, just get this on your site now. Just take out my names . You review it. And her business name was probably listed somewhere like 78 times. Right. And I didn't remove one of them and on my website and then, Oh, I got lit up and forums everywhere. Jasmine is a plagiarizer. She didn't ask for her permission and then, and then somebody took that same like clause or get at clause my website and copied and pasted it and put it into her. I didn't know who this was ,

Speaker 3

like down the line.

Speaker 2

She left like my friend's name in there. So messy. I was so embarrassed and people are just like, you're plagiarizing, you're rooting her. I was like, I had her permission. Anybody will just ask me. I had her permission. It was my stupid fault. I mean it just turned into something. So like, yeah just we're going to use somebody else's stuff. Have somebody else review it so that the other name isn't listed domestic .

Speaker 3

I always appreciate another set of eyes cause I miss that stuff too. I know. I always feel terrible about it.

Speaker 2

I know. Well you'll live and learn. There you go.

Speaker 3

Well that is something that's interesting Jasmine. So as your profile has risen, are you finding it's like there's a much more critical eye on you and how do you deal with that? Do you ignore it? Do you just try and

Speaker 2

you know there's criticisms and there's critiques I love and appreciate even if it hurts, I love and appreciate when people give me a critique cause a critique is saying, you did this wrong, but here's how to do right by it. Or here's how to do it better. Here's how to fix it. A criticism is just this is bad or your dumb or anybody knows this, like that does nothing for the human psyche and it just tears other people down. So how I deal with it is I ask myself, is this a criticism or if this is a critique, if the critique hurts my feelings but makes me better, then you gotta do right by it and you have to own up. You have to really own up to , did I, did I offend somebody, did I not do somebody right? And if it's a criticism that hurts my feelings, but it's still, I still maintain to choose to run my business this way, then I let it go. And in all of those situations, I still feel like I keep my sanity intact, my integrity intact, and then also try to do right by people. If I might have offended or you know, maybe didn't set up the best business structure for us to get into. So I have to own it too.

Speaker 3

Yeah, that's a great filter though. Is it a criticism or is it a critique and I have much lower profile than you , but I do even find, you know, I have old friends or people who are not in online business who will sometimes kind of jab at me about marketing on social media or you know, some of those things. And I do let it get to me sometimes, but that's a great filter. Like is this, is it helpful or is it just they see me doing something different and they're just kind of coconut the bear and I can ignore that. Yes.

Speaker 2

We're talking about if we're talking about that level of criticism or critique,

Speaker 3

like the petty, the really petty, the petty

Speaker 2

of me don't pay my bills. So if you want to have an opinion that doesn't push my business forward or doesn't take my business down, you can keep it to yourself. But if you are going to say, spell my name right.

Speaker 3

Hi . That is fantastic. Well Jasmine, as we're starting to wrap up, I would love to hear what is one practice, either like a habit or maybe a mindset or something that you would credit or you think has been really helpful in you achieving this incredible level of success that you have found in online business. What's something you could share?

Speaker 2

I'm going to break this up into three different stages of my career, if that's okay. Cause I know like so when I would, so it'll be beginner, intermediate and more at like present day. I love it. When I was first starting a photographer by the name of Mike cologne said, Jasmine jump and the net will appear and I know that he was quoting somebody else. I don't know the exact origin of that quote, but it was so empowering to me because my entire life I wouldn't give myself the permission to jump because I never believed that the net would appear. And you know, I'm 25 years old and he says jump and the net will appear. And I started jumping and lo and behold, I never needed the net . And then I think in this kind of like an interim , like an intermediate, when I first encountered James Wedmore, he has become like a mentor turned friend, turn like personal Yoda. And he had said that success [inaudible] is not an outcome. Success is the decisions we need to achieve the outcome. Like who did we have to become to get the results that we wanted? Because if we're looking at results as the marker of success, but we lost ourselves in the process or we arrived to that end result, unhappy, dissatisfied, wildly stressed out, is that truly success or who we became in the process to success or who we became in the process of the outcome is the success and

Speaker 3

more like the personal, it's the personal growth along the way. Yeah,

Speaker 2

absolutely. Absolutely. And I think present day, the thing that I tell myself on the regular is who am I not to ask or want or get the things that I desire? Because even years in the game, it's the imposter syndrome. If I could wear a varsity jacket, I would wear the I S varsity jacket. I like, you know , I've lettered four years in a row. I just feel like there's always that nagging voice in the back of your mind is what if I get discovered ? What will they say? Am I a fraud? And you have to put those things to bed because even if that is true, who am I? What if I get discovered? What if people think I'm a fraud? Even if it's true, who am I not to stand in a boardroom and ask for the things that I want? Who am I not to audaciously dream ends ? What kind of looped this all together? In the mid point of our conversation, I had said that we live in the 21st century and the internet provides us opportunities to dream up of something. I was driving on the five freeway from San Diego, California up North towards Newport beach and I was home and I was crying and I was frustrated because I just belt stuck. Even when we had been met with so much success in creating online courses, I still felt sad . I felt like I was wearing a jacket that was far too small for me, so my husband asked me if you could do anything for the rest of your life, picture your dream job. And I said, well, I really want to create marketing plans that are tactical and intangible people. I still want to be a photographer. I want to create videos. I want to InStyle your people. I don't want to make people feel good. I want to move them to taking action that changes their light and he said, okay, let's build that. And social curator came, or I am still a photographer. I am making videos. I'm still empowering people to believe I'm creating marketing plans and I am a living Testament that you don't need to have all the tools and you don't need to have all the answers. You just need to have the humility and the grit and the hotspot to do the freaking work.

Speaker 3

That's where I'm at, girl, bass rum . I love that.

Speaker 2

Thank you for giving me the space to share this. It came together so clearly. Thank you for that. Thank you.

Speaker 3

No, that was , that was really wonderful. It's funny, I've watched a lot of my clients go through similar journeys and I'm kind of still in the beginning journey from I think I can do this. I'm not sure I can do this. I can't figure this out too. I was really born to do this and that is what is so incredible to watch and to support that. Like there's nobody better, nobody better to do this work. So thank you for sharing that. And I, I'm so glad to just get to watch and see all the things that you're sharing

Speaker 2

when they were old.

Speaker 3

Yeah, you're an inspiration Jasmine,

Speaker 2

you mean the space and time?

Speaker 3

Yeah, so as, I hate that we're almost out of time, but that's life. Tell me what you are really excited about in your business and life and in anything. What are you working on or what's coming up for you?

Speaker 2

We're really trying to find deeper ways to connect with our members of social curator and we closed enrollment, which was like the first time that we've done it. So again, not another pitch. And so we're really focusing on serving our members really well and going deep with them and some people on the outside like when we, we closed two massive revenue streams in our business in 2019 and people were like why? Like what are you doing? And I just figure, I feel like when we hone in on something smaller we could find ways to scale it and so 2020 is for me is we build up the systems to scale. In 2019 we've closed registration for 2020 instead of scaling at this moment I need to have a very clear idea of my customer journey path, how to set them up for success and so people on the outside can be bop, bop, balking . I'm like, I have a vision so much bigger than anybody can see if it doesn't make sense to you is you're not vibrating on my level who just trust me because I'm going to show up until I blow up. What am I excited about autumn? I'm excited about doing the work. I'm excited about keeping it small so that we can make it one day big. That is what I'm excited about.

Speaker 3

I love that. Where did you have to scale back your business as you were scaling back those revenue streams and kind of focusing now that's incredible.

Speaker 2

With the inverse, I feel like we, because honestly when you build out a course you could do it with a smaller team membership. It just, there's so much more customer support. There is so much more ongoing content creation that like we literally tripled our team size in 2020 and we closed up revenue streams. People were like, that's crazy you do that and I don't have to make sense to anybody but myself and my business partner and we're laying the foundation to offer white glove service to small and medium , medium sized businesses who otherwise would not be able to afford to do so. That is my market. That is my sweet spot. That is who I'm serving come hell or high water and we're going to be doing big stuff. I have a vision.

Speaker 3

I don't even know how we're going to get there. I really don't. You don't have to. I mean, that's the amazing thing about being an entrepreneur is that you can hold the vision and figure out how to get there.

Speaker 2

Yeah. Yes. And amen. So December 31st, 2023 our dream is to have empower 10,000 business owners to be making over six figures in their business. I believe that if we impact 10,000 business owners to make over six figures, we've changed their lives and we've changed their community and we've changed our outcome and we've made people believe that impossible things are possible. And that's exactly what I'm , what I'm going to be a Testament to in the future.

Speaker 3

Well, I can't wait to check back with you in 2023 and hear about it.

Speaker 2

You're all and watch. I have always said it's going to be okay and it's going to be bigger than you think. And I hope that that's the say stays true for 2023

Speaker 3

that's amazing. We'll tell people where they can find you, where they can find out more about social curator. Love on you. Find all the things.

Speaker 2

Thank you so, so much. And all social media. You can find me@jasminestarandalsoatjasminestar.com and@socialcurator.com if you want more information about what we do and who we

Speaker 3

serve, and that is trademark . So don't try and copy the desperate stuff and you know, I love it. Thank you Jasmine.

Speaker 2

Thank you for tuning into the podcast today. My little dreamer, my little hustler. You brilliant, gorgeous soul. You okay? I can go on all day. I can call you my hut to Molly . I can call you my sweet thing, my booboo haunted child. Okay. If you enjoyed this interview, I'd love to invite you to rate and review the Jasmine stars show on iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcast. Because here's the thing, you probably have listened to more than one episode on this podcast and if you have gotten just one thing that really opened your eyes or inspired you or light the fire and your bomb or got you to take an action or you found yourself talking about the podcast. Well, can you talk about the podcast in a review? Because this podcast, I know it's a small thing for you, but it's a huge thing for us on the team because your reviews help more people find out about the podcast. And we want to empower people who are fearlessly chasing their wildest dreams just like you. So what I'm asking you to do is to leave a review, and when you do, imagine me giving you a big bear hug to express my gratitude, or maybe just an internet high five if you're not the touchy feely type. Until next time, friend, thank you in advance for the reviews, the kind words, and hit me up on Instagram. I want to say hi, should I not

Speaker 1

[inaudible] .