Turning Down Revenue: When Intuition Outranks Logic in Business

There’s something that feels almost criminal about saying no to a good opportunity, right?

It looks great on paper, it’s in alignment with your goals, the money is forecasted, the deliverables are clear, and you’ve even mentally committed to it… but something inside you says, “This isn’t it.”

That happened to me recently, and in this episode, I’m pulling back the curtain on the decision I made to walk away from a highly aligned opportunity—and why.

Let me be clear: this wasn’t just any opportunity. It was one we’d already factored into our 2025 revenue plan. It was a perfect fit on paper, and I’d been expecting (and prepping for) the call for months.

But here’s the thing… when it came time to sign the dotted line, I couldn’t do it.

It made no logical sense. And my COO? She was stunned.

But as I explain in this episode, I believe our bodies are pattern-spotting machines. And sometimes what we call “intuition” is actually our brain detecting something off—even when we can’t articulate why.

So here’s what I did: I sat with that feeling, but I didn’t stop there. I forced myself to go find the facts to justify the feelings.

Because while I don’t believe in building a business on emotion, I do believe in using intuition as a prompt—and then using data to make a final decision.

Inside this episode, I’ll walk you through:

• The opportunity I turned down and why it was so hard to say no
• The process I use to reverse-engineer my intuition into facts
• How I define “productive vs. busy” in my daily work life
• Why trusting yourself is the best business strategy you’ll ever invest in

If you’ve ever felt torn between logic and gut instinct—or wondered how to tell when an opportunity is right—this episode is for you.

Your goals don’t require you to say yes to everything.

Sometimes the most strategic move is walking away.

Click >>PLAY<< to hear all of this and:

[00:01] Why I turned down a forecasted, on-brand, high-revenue opportunity

[03:00] The conflict between logic and intuition—and how I handle it in business

[05:15] What intuition really is (spoiler: it’s your brain spotting patterns)

[06:45] The moment I knew something was “off” and how I investigated it

[08:30] How I flipped my gut instinct into data to justify my decision

[11:00] Why being productive doesn’t always mean being busy—and how to tell the difference

[12:15] The gift of saying no, and what it makes space for

Listen to Related Episodes:

• 10 Ways To Avoid Getting Stuck in Business
• Five Things My Team and I Do to Stay Productive and Reach Our Goals

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For full show notes, visit jasminestar.com/podcast/episode536

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Transcript

Jasmine Star 00:00:00  Saying no to good opportunities is hard. It's very hard. But every time you listen to your intuition and you focus on your top five list, you trust your ability to take what is in front of you and make the most of it. Today we're focusing on how to figure out what to say no to, and sharpening your focus on what actually needs to get done. So have you ever gotten to the end of your workday, and then you just felt exhausted from all the work that you did, and then you find yourself asking, what did I actually get done? Like, you felt busy, but were you truly productive? I'm going to be sharing a few recent examples of things to which I said no. To which let me start off by saying it makes no sense to say no to, but I knew I had to. And how they helped me stay focused on my goals. Before we do that, I want to highlight a note from a recent podcast reviews. It starts with the title air.

Jasmine Star 00:00:56  The Jasmine Star Show is so annoying. End quote. Okay. So then I want to read more. What I saw from salamander P, and she left a five star review and wrote, quote, every time I listen, I get so inspired and motivated I accidentally believe in myself. How dare she? And don't get me started on how actionable her strategies are. Honestly, it's exhausting being this uplifted after every episode. End quote. Okay, salamander, I'm just going.

Jasmine Star 00:01:24  To keep on annoying you.

Jasmine Star 00:01:26  Thank you for living review. They truly help us grow the show and the impact our business is. And so for people who are leaving reviews. Thank you. Now back to the show. In November 2024, I was approached by an organization to serve as a strategic marketing partner. Now, I'm not going to get into the specifics to respect their privacy, but there are three things I want you to know. One, we had forecasted this partnership and added it as a byline in 2025 for our projected revenue.

Jasmine Star 00:01:54  Okay, so let me explain that a little bit. We have time to plan our quarterly revenue cycles. And so we had put this opportunity in that revenue cycle we had planned for it. It was part of the 2025 revenue. The second thing you need to know is this opportunity was in direct alignment to my personal brand expansion and goals. So a little bit more of an explanation here is we plan specific projects throughout the year to create content and give freely, like free content education. We want to create goodwill and trust with people. And for me, education has been the best way for me to accomplish this. And we thought like genuinely, that this project would align with those goals and create synergy by creating free will, amazing content and push it out there. We saw that in alignment. So the third and final and rather vulnerable thing that I need to share is that I didn't want to do it. So back in 2024, I suspected that this company was going to reach out, and I told myself to gratefully accept the opportunity, even if I felt resistance to that commitment.

Jasmine Star 00:03:08  When they sent over the contract in December and then they asked me to finalize the details, my CEO asked to amend the contract and update things that I didn't really feel I was all that excited about. Like deliverables, timeline, compensation. And then they agreed. And yet, when January 2025 rolled around and I had to sign the contract, I just couldn't do it. It made no sense at the time. And quite honestly, it shocked my CEO when I said, I don't think this is it. And she wanted to know, like, why exactly? I was going to say no. And here's where I'm going to get very real with you and let you know that what I had was a feeling like a resistance, if you will, to agreeing to the project. But I've always said that on this show. You've heard me before, that I don't focus on feelings. I focus on facts. I have always said to you, and I've always said to my team that I don't depend on my feelings to guide decisions.

Jasmine Star 00:04:09  I depend on data and analytics and logical reasoning. Feelings change. Facts don't. So all right, so if you can imagine why I couldn't just simply tell my CEO, well, I have a feeling we shouldn't do it. Like what? That's duplicitous. So what I decided to do was find facts to justify my feelings. So I want to say that again. If I want to ground my business in logic, facts and data, then I also need to use that to rationalize my intuition. Okay. Now hold on. This is the part in the show where you might roll your eyes and you're gonna be like, no, I'm gonna pause this. Or maybe you're just saying, like, oh, I know, right? Intuition. I'm gonna be very honest. It's like a woo woo Woowoo word, and it's not something that can be felt by other people. Your intuition is your thing, and my intuition is a me thing. I couldn't simply tell my team that had a projected revenue stream that was also in alignment with brand expansion, that it wasn't something I was going to do based on a gut feeling.

Jasmine Star 00:05:16  That's not the language we use. That's the terms we agreed to. My team doesn't know if my gut feeling was something tangible, or if I just ate refried beans the night before. You know TMI too much. I'm still not going to. I'm still rolling with it. So I took a step back, and I reminded myself that intuition is the body's language of pattern spotting. The brain looks for patterns. I will also come out and say that my brain is good at finding patterns. In fact, the brain is a predictive machine. So the more a pattern appears like someone entering your office and the pattern is that they say hello, Or the pattern being that your mailman comes every day at 2 p.m.. Well, the more the pattern appears, the brain begins to predict what happens next. But what happens when things go against the pattern? What happens when somebody walks into your office and doesn't say hello? Well, your brain immediately fires off a signal. Hey. Something's off. Are we certain? Are we irrefutably sure that something is wrong? Because.

Jasmine Star 00:06:22  Pause. Right. Every day somebody comes into the office and says, hello. Good morning. Hello. Good morning. Hello. Good morning. That person comes in and doesn't say anything at all. We say our brain says, Something's off here now. Are we sure? Are we certain? Well, no. But our intuition, aka our pattern spotter, signals that something might be. Now, some people regularly ignore the signal, but I've learned to get curious when my intuition is telling me that something might be off. I just start asking questions. Here are three simple questions that I ask myself to challenge my intuition. Pause. Why am I sharing this right now? Remember how I told you I had an opportunity that was in alignment for revenue? We had already projected to be in 2025, and I was like, something's just not right. I am saying this because in business, you will have opportunities that seemingly go and follow a pattern. And when there's a pattern interrupt, I don't want you to say, oh, I have a feeling.

Jasmine Star 00:07:21  I want you to say, okay, let's ground this feeling. In fact, how do we do that? Question number one has there been a pattern in the past that appears similar to this pattern? So you might be able to predict an outcome. For example, my intuition was guiding me away from this project because when we planned our projects for 2025, quarter 1st January through March was beyond crazy for me. We were launching your biggest launch ever. Then I was going to be teaching that live for ten weeks. I was facilitating my seven figure mastermind and I was facilitating a live event. I had speaking events around the United States. I was creating my podcast with guests. I'm meeting with companies that I am an advisor for, and I was slated to begin content creation for an exciting new offer dropping later in quarter two. Right. So just looking at my calendar made me think twice. It made me dizzy. But I had been here before. I recognized previous patterns of calendar chaos in my intuition was reminding me of what it could mean.

Jasmine Star 00:08:30  It could mean overwhelm, pushing at all cost, and burnout. The second question I asked to challenge my intuition is, has there been a pattern in the past that appears different to this current pattern, so that you might be able to predict a different outcome? For example, my intuition was guiding me away from this project, because when I saw the pattern of empty space on my calendar pause, I saw a pattern of calendar chaos and it led me to overwhelm stress. Then I saw the pattern of empty space on my calendar. And what did that lead me to? Having more time to think, plan, and build into a bigger vision. When I had time to work on the business and not in the business, that's when I saw massive growth spurts. My intuition was guiding me away from this project and pushing me towards creating pockets of space to focus and not fill every moment with things that are good. But they keep me from what could be great. So let's review. Before we move on into the last question.

Jasmine Star 00:09:36  Our intuition is less woo woo magic power and more of a predictive part of our brain looking for patterns to match similar outcomes. If my intuition is sending me a signal that something might be off. Let me pause and ask questions. I'm going to ask myself question number one. Has there been a pattern in the past that appears similar to this pattern? So you might be able to predict a similar outcome? And question number two, has there been a pattern in the past that appears different from this current pattern, so that you might be able to predict a different outcome? The last question I challenge my intuition with because remember, we're challenging our intuition to route our feelings in facts. Question number three does this pattern leave you energetically inspired or drained? When I looked at the amount of time content travel teaching that this partnership required, I was energetically trained. I absolutely did not want to do it. And here's the craziest part. It wasn't the time, content, travel, and teaching that drained me. It was doing it on behalf of another business that did.

Jasmine Star 00:10:44  Because I want you to understand I am still spending time creating content. Traveling and teaching? Yes. Doing the exact same thing I was contracted to do elsewhere. But now I'm doing it for a business I own, or other businesses I have equity in, or other businesses that I am an advisor for on my terms. I am doing and creating content just like this for you. I am creating this podcast for no other reason than goodwill. I want to build trust with you and I want to create a relationship with you. And when I just see that, like when I say like, hey, I am doing this because I freaking love it. I freaking love connecting with you. That lights me up. Just saying that out loud. It makes me feel honored because let's be real. Just because it energetically invigorates me doesn't mean that it by itself alone rationalize my decision to say no to a contract. It did, however, give me the words to use to my SEO to explain using data in fact, why I did not want to pursue it.

Jasmine Star 00:11:51  In fact, one that I shared with my CEO when there was a similar pattern of calendar chaos in the past, I was frustrated, I was overwhelmed, and I was resentful. Creating that chaos isn't good for the business. Fact two when there was a pattern of empty space on my calendar, I spent time focusing and building into the bigger vision for our company. Creating space and focus is good for the business. Fact three When I'm energetically inspired creating content like this podcast right now, it's best for the business. I promise my CEO that saying no to the proposed project would allow us to say yes to bigger and better projects, projects that we owned outright or had equity in. I simply told her that I needed to make the courageous decision to say no to the good, to leave space for the great. I needed her to believe with me that something better was coming, but we needed to allow the space for it to be developed. Now, another excellent framework for deciding which projects to avoid is the Warren Buffett 25 five rule.

Jasmine Star 00:13:01  Now, this emphasizes focus by forcing entrepreneurs to ruthlessly prioritize. I want you to say yes to your yeses and no to your nose. How do you do that? Step number one. Write down your top 25 goals. List the most 25 most important goals for your business. Maybe your goals, projects, whatever you want and that you say I want to do all 2525 is so important that you want to accomplish in your career or business. Okay. Let your brain roam free. Literally write down everything you want to do in your business in the next 1 to 3 years. This step helps you get very clear and get a clear view of everything competing for your attention. These could include launching new products. Scaling your operations. Personal development goals. Partnerships or anything else on your radar? You're just saying these 25 things are going to push me forward in life and business. Cool. Step two circle your top five goals from the list. Identify the five goals that matter most to your success and your long term vision.

Jasmine Star 00:14:05  Now these are those five things. They're your absolute priorities. I want you to think about alignment with your long term vision. Does this get you closer to that potential return on investment from your time, your energy, your money? I want you to look at your top five things and make sure that there's a level of strategic importance to your business growth. Those top five things those matter most. Step three is to categorize your top five list. So there are goals or projects that you're going to commit to and you're going to pursue with your energy and focus. If it is not part of your top five list, you must put it in the avoid at all costs list. Ooh, like. Yes, I am drawing a line in the sand. The remaining 20 goals become your do not touch list, even if they might seem valuable or tempting. Sexy. Fun. Eye boggling. Okay. They distract you from your critical priorities. Your critical priorities are going to be the thing that are going to push you forward.

Jasmine Star 00:15:05  These are projects or goals that you are going to deliberately set aside those 20 I am deliberately setting aside there I look amazing, fun, wonderful, amazing opportunities. I'm going to put them aside, even if they seem valuable. Back in January, I was contacted by a relationship that I had been cultivating for a year. I love this organization and I think the founder and I, I think we can do a lot of great things together. When their president reached out to me to propose a joint opportunity, oh, we I wanted to jump on this. I was like, yes, let's go. It felt like a no brainer. It felt like a win, remember? But feelings are fleeting and feelings change. Facts don't. Everything was in alignment. But my intuition was signaling that right now might not be the right time. I began challenging my intuition. And when I still struggled to decide, oh, then I reviewed Warren Buffett's 25 five rule. That venture, no matter how awesome it seemed.

Jasmine Star 00:16:09  And it was, it was just not on my 2025 top five list. As much as it hurt to say no. My focus remained on my top five to ensure that I had my highest leverage strategic goals in alignment. So why does this work? Well, the genius of this framework is in the fact that recognizing the biggest threats to focus are not meaningless tasks. The biggest threat to focus are seemingly important ones that dilute your energy. You could say this is important. It's amazing, but it dilutes my energy by consciously avoiding those middle tier projects. You know those top 20. You free up time and resources to excel at your top five, to excel at the most impactful ones. Now, in case I wasn't clear enough, let me slow down and let me say it again. Saying no to good opportunities is hard. It's very hard. But every time you listen to your intuition and you focus on your top five list, you trust your ability to take what is in front of you and make the most of it.

Jasmine Star 00:17:15  You trust your ability to take action and you give all of your attention to the great ones. Thank you for listening and watching The Jasmine Star Show. Thank you for sharing it with friends. Thank you for your kind words. Thank you when you share it on your stories. Thank you for the reviews. Any small action that you can take on behalf of the show is an encouragement, in a way, for us to continue growing and producing these shows for you. Thank you again from the bottom of my heart.