What $100M CEOs Taught Me About Growth

There’s a difference between watching someone scale to 8-figures… and sitting at the table with them learning how they did it.

In this episode, I’m sharing a behind-the-scenes look at a recent executive retreat with founders running $5M to $100M businesses—and the raw takeaways that rocked me.

You’ll also hear a mid-retreat coaching call where I challenged my community to make a public declaration (and follow through).

If you’ve ever wondered what really happens inside high-level mastermind rooms—or what it takes to grow from where you are to where you want to be—this one's for you.

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

[00:00] Discover why being driven by purpose—not just outcomes—is the key to joyful, sustainable growth.

[01:16] A personal vow made in 2007 becomes the foundation for sharing knowledge and building community.

[03:02] Unfiltered thoughts recorded mid-retreat—no filters, no framework, just truth from the heart.

[05:05] How a simple 30-day challenge sparked momentum—and why public accountability makes it stick.

[07:06] Even the most successful business owners face the same doubts and challenges.

[08:13] A powerful mindset shift that will change how you view progress and growth.

[09:16] An inside look at how proximity to powerful conversations can accelerate your journey.

Listen to Related Episodes:

• Gary Vaynerchuk’s Growth Accelerator Program: My Experience and Key Takeaways (So Far)
• The Framework You Need When You Pivot with Sam Parr
• I Learned How to Race a Rally Car: Here’s What It Taught Me About Business

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For full show notes, visit jasminestar.com/podcast/episode597

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Transcript

Jasmine Star 00:00:00  When you're driven by results, that's okay. But when you're driven by the why? You continue to push on until you get the results in a higher vibration, in a more joyful state, and with a lot more intentionality. This is your chance to be in the room, in a room with entrepreneurs that have businesses ranging from 5 million to over 100 million. I'm asking you to join me for an inside look at a recent executive retreat, kind of like a version of a mastermind that I experienced, because I want you knowing what types of conversations we had. I want to show you what forward momentum looks like and how to build it, and what it really takes to grow. Welcome to the Jasmine Star Show, where I empower seven figure entrepreneurs to scale their businesses to eight. And today we're going to be talking about growing your business in ways that you might not be expecting. Okay, so let me begin with the why. Why am I creating this podcast in this way? So number one, I think it's very important for you to be in the room, even if you haven't built a five plus million dollar business, because as you see what it takes to run those businesses, you could start making the decisions in your business now to get you to where you want to go.

Jasmine Star 00:01:16  Number two, the year was 2007, and I made a promise to God that if I ever had the chance to build a successful business, that I would share everything I knew to help other people. So this is me living in that commitment to God. Number three, I want to show you what it means to add a chair to the table. I'll get more into this in a second, but I have to tell you, when you go to these events, there are smaller tables, and sometimes people like to sit at the same table with the same people. And what does it take to have like a honeys? The chutzpah, the nerve, the drive to bring a chair from another table and add it to somebody else's. And lastly, I create these podcast episodes because I want to normalize the journey. I think it's very common, at least for me, to think that I'm going through something that other people haven't, that I am wondering how to do something. And nobody else ever wonders that because everybody knows how to do it.

Jasmine Star 00:02:10  And so what I want to do is I want to normalize the version of business and normalize the journey of business. Okay. But first I want to show you a real raw look of how I was acting and behaving, how I was feeling at that event. Okay, so what you're about to see is a video of me. I had taken a break from the event to go and do a coaching session on the inside of consistent 10-K. Normally I would not be showing that because it was raw and it was unpolished. I literally ran from the event into my hotel suite, sat down, went into class, and I thought to myself, I knew that I was going to create a podcast about that event. But what you see here is like the polished version of what it's going to be, and I'm going to have frameworks and reflections and I'm going to pontificate. But this video was me.

Susie 00:02:56  In the moment on.

Jasmine Star 00:02:57  Glorified. A little scruffy tore up from the floor up. We're going to get into that right about now.

Jasmine Star 00:03:02  I am in Austin, Texas. I came to a founders retreat. I invest in masterminds and I'm coming off an event. The event isn't over quite yet, but I wanted to make sure that I was here for coaching. And so I think that what happens is when I invest in myself, I have this big moments of metamorphosis and inspiration, and I am feeling like amazing. Now, the people who usually feel the after effects, the ripple effects of this, you know, dopamine high is the team. And they're always like when Jasmine gets away, when she comes back, it's like, everybody just better be prepared because I have like a thousand ideas and all the things you want to do. And then my husband is always just like, okay, this girl can't sleep at night because her brain is going. And so what y'all get is this unrefined, un distilled, pure 24 Carrott. I am on a business high, so if I come in a little bit sideways, prepare your hearts. Because normally people on the podcast or social media get the I've thought about it, I've processed it, I put a framework around it, I'm ready to teach it.

Jasmine Star 00:04:08  I am none of those things today. So I don't know if you're ready for this version of me, but I am coming to serve and I'm coming in real hot. So please understand. I feel so excited and lit up about you. And every time there was a question, every time there was something I always thought of. How am I going to share this in the community? How am I going to share this in the community? So thank you for being here. And I'm going to say something that we just did as an exercise. So to get into this mastermind, you have to be doing about $5 million in your business. And I'm learning how to host events and ask questions. And so now what I am excited to do is to give you a little bit of what they gave us about 25 minutes ago. I'm on my lunch break. I'm coming in here at the end of that. What they had said is making a public declaration to yourself. We've become very accustomed to saying something to ourselves and then not doing it.

Jasmine Star 00:05:05  Anybody here? Anybody here? Okay, I know, thank you, Susie, for keeping it real. That's a hand raised. Okay, well, this is the thing, you guys. Regardless of the size of your business, we all struggle with this. I was sitting in rooms of people who were doing over $100 million. And they're raising your hands along. All of us. We as entrepreneurs have more ideas and more passion than we do time. Does that make sense? Okay, so the exercise was for us to write down what we're going to do in 30 days. Okay. And what then happened was that we had to become tethered to each other. Now in this group, we are supported by some of the most incredible people and coaches. Two coaches who made their debut inside of the community. Today you are going to get to know very well. Now, what I want to make sure that happens is our directive today and inside of this group had said in 30 days, well, guess what, we do this weekly coaching.

Jasmine Star 00:06:08  So at the end of our class, I'm giving people plenty of time because what people tell me is, Jasmine, you just move too fast. I don't have time to think, okay, this is me hearing feedback, giving you about 56 minutes head start. Is that okay? So what I'm going to ask of you, because science and studies have shown that when you make a declaration to other people, they hold you to it. When you make a declaration to other people, you're actually embarrassed not to do it. So what I'm going to ask for us at the end of our session today is for you to tell me the one thing, and we're going to get specific that you are going to do in regards to this program in one week. Do we understand? I'm going to call everybody out one on one here. And don't get off this call like at the 45 mark and be like, oh, I gotta go. If that's you, do you have to go? Anybody here has to go to the 45 mark, because I'm gonna make it go right now.

Jasmine Star 00:07:06  Great, great, great. Wow. We're coming in right at the top of the hour. So, like I said at the beginning of this call, energetically, I woke up a couple nights ago and I texted it. I didn't text Katie. I sent her a slack message and I was like, I woke up. And in my dream, I had to be on the coaching call on Tuesday. I am not supposed to be here because I'm on a lunch break from an event, but I knew I had to be here on this call, and part of the reason I had to be here on this call is because as we sojourn on this journey, it's hard. But I just came from a large group of people, and I'm coming in to tell you it's the same thing, y'all. It's the same thing. $10,000 a month, $10 million a month, it's the same. So if we know it's the same, let's build our toolkit now. So when we get to where we want to go, we say, oh my PR, my personal best is now my warm up, but I still have to use the same tools to overcome the limiting beliefs the nose, the silence, the question marks and the iteration.

Jasmine Star 00:08:13  I am here to tell you. I sat with a group of 50 people. Same dang thing. So if it is the same, may I just be saying thank you to you for coming in and doing the hard work? Very few people do. This will be the foundation to what it is you do in the future. If you think that this is your end all, be all for business. This is a wake up, your PR, your biggest lift right now is next year's warm up. If you don't stop. That's what we do every week we show up. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Blessings. We'll see you guys real soon. And community by y'all. So clearly the event had a powerful effect on me. So I'm a part of Hampton. It's an executive community for founders and CEOs. I have been in it for now three, three and a half years now. They also host retreats. This is an exclusive virtual meetup. So you join this community.

Jasmine Star 00:09:16  It has like thousands of people in it. And then you're assigned what they call a core group. I have been with my core group now going on three and a half years. I love these guys. I think they're the best. We have gone on solo trips, just our small group of people. And Hampton also hosts large scale events for anybody who wants to join. That's what I went to. They called them their retreats. I went to a retreat in Austin, so I normally shy away from in real life events because I'm kind of awkward. Now I'm just, like, a little bit awkward. I'm not, like, fully awkward, but I am just awkward enough that I can see myself outside of myself being awkward and being like, please stop talking. No, just back it up. No, no. And I feel like the words come out before I actually stop them. So it looks like a real live trainwreck happening in real life. And so I'm going to give you two examples of my awkwardness just to get us on the same page.

Jasmine Star 00:10:08  So on our first day, we all sat at a circular table and we have this reflection point. I'm going to show you about what these reflection points are all about in a second. But this guy had said yes. My wife and I worked together, we owned three businesses and she does this in the business and I do this in business. And then another guy at the table and said, oh, so how long has your wife worked for you? And he blinked a couple times and he says, oh no, my wife's a CEO. I work for her. And then I said, that's so funny. He just assumed that she works for him. I look around at the table and the guys are just sitting there and I'm like, Oh God, did I say that out loud? Did I? Did I just say that out loud? I totally did say that out loud. And nobody else thought it was funny, but I was like, oh, look at this, this assumption that the CEO is always the guy.

Jasmine Star 00:10:58  Yeah, nobody else left. And I was like, Jasmine, just stop. Just stop. Another slightly awkward moment is I actually don't know how to approach groups of people. Normally what I would do, because this is just my default mechanism, is I'll bring up my phone and I'll create content. Number one, it's because I'm uncomfortable. Number two, it's because I'm literally insecure in social situations. And number three, I was a professional photographer for 16 years, and my camera was the thing that helped navigate me getting out of my shell. My camera was a passport. When you hold a camera, anybody opens a circle up to you because they just assume you're there to take your picture. And so what I normally do is I'll bring out my phone and start taking content. And I was like, don't do that, Jasmine. That is a default mechanism. Be a different person here. Step into your future version. This is all my internal narrative, which sounds great until I approach two people who are talking.

Jasmine Star 00:11:47  And it was like I was like an alien. Hello, can I join this conversation? Like that was my lead in there talking. I come up to them, they turned to me and I was like, hello kind human, can we have a conversation? I was just they looked at me. They were very nice about it, but it was awkward. And so that is why I shy away from in real life events. I'm much better by myself in front of a camera that I can delete all the awkward parts out later. Okay, so I went because I really had two clear objectives. When I go to an in-person event, I want to know why I'm going. I'm very driven by outcome. And so I had two clear objectives. Number one, I wanted to get a very good read on the state of the industry of paid ads. So what I see the Jasmine Star brands, all of the businesses. I do believe we're going to make a very strategic moves on paid advertising and demand generation.

Jasmine Star 00:12:43  And I wanted to know what are people seeing and what are the patterns. These are people who are doing. A lot of them are spending over $1 million a month on ads. So when you're doing that type of volume on ads, you have very different data insights, the type of testing that they're doing. And so I went in and I said, I want to know the state of the industry for ads and how it applies to my business. There's a lot of agency owners who were there as well. So I wanted to ask. They represent a lot of different businesses. They have very keen insights. Now, the second main reason I wanted to go to this in real life event was I wanted to hire a consultant for our COO, and so I believe our COO has so much capacity. I think she is a scalpel. She is the best thing to ever happen to my business. She is a person who can deal it to me straight. She knows my idiosyncrasies, she knows my weaknesses, she knows my strengths.

Jasmine Star 00:13:31  And at the end of the day, she fully trusts the direction that I'm taking the business, even if in that moment she doesn't quite agree. She trusts it. And so I know that I want to go deep in that relationship. But I also know that what we're planning on doing in 2026 is scaling a lot of the arms of the business in very big ways. And she came to me and said, listen, I want to get so much better at financial forecasting. I want to get so much better at comp plans, and I want to know how to better systematize as we expand the holding company. Okay. Number one, all great questions. And I was like, that's way out of my pay grade. I don't know how to do that. So I know that by going to events like this with businesses who have much larger organizations and even consultants who attend on their own business side, I went in with the intention. I'm like, I'm going to just start asking questions. I'm going to see, number one, if there is somebody there.

Jasmine Star 00:14:17  And number two, if somebody there know somebody who might be a really great fit for a CEO. So those are my intentions. So now let's turn this back to you. When you are going to an in real life event, it could be at your local chamber of commerce. It could be at a small conference or a big national, big organization or conference. What are your objectives? If you have a goal, you're much better at hitting it than not going with anything at all. Now, what do I do to prepare to go these types of events? Now, I am telling you that I feel really like silly telling you this type of information, but people have responded and send me DMs and they're like, we like hearing about your events, but like how what's the nitty gritty of you going to the event? I have never thought that that was interesting, but this is just going to be a little bit of a test. If you like this type of insider, look on how I prepare to go to these events and how I establish objectives.

Jasmine Star 00:15:02  Let me know and I can add them to future episodes. So DM me at Jasmine Star on Instagram. That's my primary form of contact. We can connect there. Okay, so how do I prepare to go to these types of events? Well, my executive assistant will book airfare, hotel and a rental car. I do about 99% of my traveling with JD and Luna. So she knows by now that with the rental car, we have to get a booster seat with that. Then she added all of the details to my calendar, being sure that she added them to the time zone that I was in. Second thing that my executive assistant did was she got the event itinerary, and then she added every single event from the itinerary to my calendar. So I was getting calendar notifications of where I needed to be on property when. So she added all the times, the locations and she also added the attire. So at this particular itinerary they told you what to wear. It's like we're in the morning.

Jasmine Star 00:15:54  It's casual athleisure. At lunch, wear something comfortable with closed toed shoes. At dinner, it's going to be a little dressy. And so she added all of those details to my calendar. Then, based on all of the attire, I packed my own bags. But because I only travel with the carry on, I got all of my outfits and I placed a post-it note on each of them like this was going to be Monday morning, Monday afternoon, and Monday evening. And so got all of that organized, packed it up. I shovel with my carry on, as well as a large carry bag that goes over my shoulder. So then they gave us a list of the 50 attendees who would be there. They sent that list to us in advance. So what I did with a list of 50 attendees is I made a list of people that I wanted to meet with based on my objectives. So of the 50 people that were there, I obviously wanted to meet all 50, but there were six who I felt were very clear in alignment to my objectives.

Jasmine Star 00:16:43  So once I found those six people who I wanted to connect with, I created a list of 2 or 3 questions that I would be able to ask them. Now, if you think that this is really weird and creepy, I probably agree it probably is. But what I have learned is that when I have specific questions to ask specific people, it allows me to connect in a real way and keep that really awkward tendency that I have at bay. As I mentioned before, I travel with JD and Luna. We try to travel about 99% of the time together, and the reason I do this is because oftentimes I'm always focused on what is it that I want, right? Like what outcome do I want? I don't want to build a business for building a business sake. So I had to identify success. What does success look like for me? And being able to have something without JD and Luna at my side is not success, it's me being busy. So my definition of success is to be able to experience the world with them.

Jasmine Star 00:17:39  And so if I know that's my version of success, then I'm going to try to do everything I possibly can to have all of us by each other's sides for as long as we can do that. And so I also want my daughter to see how big the world is. I did not travel. I didn't go on vacations growing up like we went to, like small, like local places, let me tell you, like the Holiday Inn in Solving California had this pool. My sisters and I just spent all day in that pool. We thought we were like, in nice, France, okay? We thought we were living the high life that was as big as the world got for me. And so I want to show my daughter at an earlier age what it would be like to experience the world. And I also feel much better and stronger as a business partner. So yes, I love JD. He's the guy that I married in my high school sweetheart and he makes me better. But that's deeply rooted in feelings.

Jasmine Star 00:18:28  The fact is, as business partners, we are better together. And so people always ask, well, what's happening with your daughter in school? And so when it comes to plans like this, I'm part of a homeschool co-op. So we are homeschooling Luna. But she goes to this co-op for a few hours Monday through Thursday. But the good thing about this like really crunchy granola like peace love type school is they don't believe in homeschooling. They believe in world schooling. So as long as you want to take your child around the world, they think that's the best schooling there is. And I was like, sign me up. I love that branding. We live in worlds going, yes, you do. Okay, so let's go back to this trip. We arrive in Austin and we're staying at the Commodore Hotel, and we arrived and then we went to Austin Library. It's one of the coolest libraries we've ever experienced. There's like an entire two floors dedicated to kids. So we crafted with Luna.

Jasmine Star 00:19:19  We read books to her, and to me, that was my version of success before. I am away from them for large parts of the days at this conference, I'm going to be deeply rooted in creating these types of experience. So we went and had, you know, smoothie bowls, and we just walked around Austin and experienced what it was like to travel and talk about our dreams. The event began on Sunday afternoon. So Sunday morning we did brunch. We hung out, we worked out, and I thought I was going to this event for business growth, as one might think, for an executive business program. No, I was wrong. What I learned was that this event, and I did not learn this until I was there, was 100% mindset and personal development, which I can only say this in retrospect, was exactly the thing I needed unexpected but needed. So just imagine this. It's Sunday afternoon. There's pre assigned seats so your name is assigned to a table. It's a circular table.

Jasmine Star 00:20:10  At this there's about anywhere from like 6 to 7 people seated at a table. And we had guest facilitators there called The Tempest two. They came in from London and they were talking about their experiences in life and choosing adventure. They believe that choosing adventure builds your resilience and your resilience also makes you a stronger entrepreneur. And I thought to myself, that's great. But for a girl who classifies herself as indoors, I was not sure how this adventure mindset personal development trip was going to fare out, but I said I am going to be open. So they talked about how they decided to sail like they're in a boat, they're rowing. They rowed across the English they rowed from, I think it's the Atlantic. They they rowed across the Atlantic. This is a feat that very few people had ever done. They didn't have any experience. They trained for three months and then they said, we're off. And so they did it. And they were making pretty good headway until they ran into a hurricane, a legitimate hurricane that threw them off course and kept them stuck and threw them off course, like for about a week.

Jasmine Star 00:21:14  And so they were talking about this and how they said, it's very normal for people to be undergoing and enduring hurricanes in their personal life and business. So as they share this story, they were captivating storytellers. And they asked us, everybody seated in the room, what hurricanes did you overcome that made you stronger? So because I want you in the room, feel free to pause and simply ask, or even just write down what hurricanes have you overcome to get you to where you are today. Okay, then what they did is they said in a group or 2 or 3 share what hurricane you overcame. So all of a sudden, I'm sitting there in a group of people who are strangers. I didn't know a single person at this event. And you're really sharing something that's highly personal, like, this is a hurricane. Like, this is the thing that you thought was going to kill you. And then all of a sudden, immediately five minutes later, these two strangers at my side, I felt like I knew these guys.

Jasmine Star 00:22:04  And I was like, man, I get it. What were they actually doing? They were creating connectivity around founders story and normalizing that. Everybody goes for hurricanes. I hope you feel the same. Question number two. They went on and they told a story about how they climbed El Capitan like they've never done rock climbing. And they decide that in Yosemite, one of the hardest rocks to scale. They're like. We're going to do that. And so they talked about the minute they got to the top, they could look down and say, what used to scare them didn't scare them anymore. Then they turned to the group and they said, what is something that used to scare you that is now normal? What is something that used to scare you? And so then they had people get up and move in the table, and you had to sit with another new group of 2 or 3 people. And I will tell you the thing that used to scare me and what I've spent a lot of time talking about here on this podcast is pivoting.

Jasmine Star 00:22:55  Every time I pivot. I used to think like, this is the end. I'm not sure it will work. And now I look at pivots as just an opportunity, like I look at. The more often I pivot, the bigger the opportunities have become. So do I have the courage to do something that I didn't have to do then? And I also I forgot to mention that the hurricane, the thing I listed, was starting a tech company. I literally was like, there's just no way I can ever do this and ever do it successfully. And now when I look back at it, I'm like, oh my gosh, I can now look at tech companies with a deeper understanding. And if I had to ever do it again, I would do it better and I would do it faster and I would find more joy in the process. Now I want to pause and have you have an opportunity to answer what used to scare you that doesn't scare you anymore? Then they broke us into the last question, and they were talking about the reason why we choose challenges as entrepreneurs is they said that they believe that entrepreneurs are adventurers because an adventurer goes on something they've never done before that scares them, and at the end of it, they end up wiser and better for it.

Jasmine Star 00:23:57  Hello, that is entrepreneurship. Have I ever heard it? So they said, what is your purpose for choosing the harder path? What is your purpose for choosing adventure aka entrepreneurship? And so then they paused and they have music going. And you're very in your fields and you're talking about your reason why. And so right now, because I want you in the room with us. I want you to pause this and simply write down 1 or 10 sentences of why are you choosing the harder path? Because if you don't know why you're choosing the harder path, resentment bubbles up because you feel lost and you feel like you're not getting the thing that you want. When you're driven by results, that's okay. But when you're driven by the why, you continue to push on until you get the results in a higher vibration, in a more joyful state, and with a lot more intentionality. Okay, so the goal here is to act like you're in the room until you are in the room. If you want to be in these rooms, the founders of 5 million plus over 100 million, then why don't we start acting like it right now? Okay, so then I changed my clothes for dinner.

Jasmine Star 00:25:06  And as a side note, people are like, well, give us the insider look. I don't drink too much in general. Like, I like, like a Friday cocktail or a glass of wine or something like that. But at these events, I don't do any drinking. Why? Well, number one, I want a very clear mind. I think that these people, it's like. It's as if I was playing tennis and all of a sudden I had this opportunity to do a warm up with Venus and Serena, like, do you think I'm going to be like, hold on, let me sip on some champagne before I go out on the court? Of course not. Like I'm going with these entrepreneurs who are like gangsters. I want to be the best I could possibly be. And alcohol is never your friend in those situations, even if you are, you know, very nervous. Alcohol makes me even more awkward. You already know, like your girl is awkward. I don't need any help on the on the awkwardness scale.

Jasmine Star 00:25:46  So what I'll do is I will immediately go to the bar line because I don't know how to approach people. But when you're stuck in a line for the bar or the bathroom, it's a great opportunity to find people to talk to. So when I get to the front of the line, I order sparkling water with a wedge of lime so that I walk around with what looks like it could be a drink. Because the thing I learned is, when you walk around with a bottle of water and everyone is drinking, people always ask, well, why aren't you drinking? And whenever one I know who I am, I don't care what people think, but I don't also don't like to make people uncomfortable. So I walk around my sparkling water and my lime, and I do my dang thing because I'm always on the lookout for Venus and Serena. Okay, so at this point in time, I walk away from the bar. I have my drink. I am no longer in line, and I kind of sort of panic.

Jasmine Star 00:26:25  I don't know where to go. And then across the way, just a tiny bit. Did I also mention that in April of 2025 I had Lasik surgery? I have like, bionic eyes? Okay, I saw this guy's name tag from like 20ft away. I was like, Lasik coming in hot on his nametag. I remember he's one of the six people I wanted to reach out to. All of a sudden, I took a deep breath and I'm like, okay, I'm going to him. I went to him and I was like, hey! And then I said, I'm so sorry to interrupt, but your name is blank. And he said, yes. And I said, I know about your business, which I then repeated his business. And he's like, oh, hey, thanks. What did we just do there? We soften the relationship and expectation. I gave him a compliment. I knew what his business did, and then I asked him a question about his business as it pertained to something I want or needed.

Jasmine Star 00:27:10  That was so incredible because the other two guys that he was standing with, then we all kind of, you know, had a conversation, and then the four of us conversed until dinner actually happened. So follow my awkward friends out there. You're welcome. Okay, so here's the takeaway I had pre-planned the person I wanted to speak to. I had done due diligence and research on his business. I asked him a question about the business, but a real question, that it was pertaining to the thing that I needed and found helpful in my business. Okay, so the next day at 6 a.m., there is a group workout. At 7 a.m. there is Holo Tropic Breathwork. If you don't know what that is, neither did I. So I have done breathwork before, but Hollow Tropic is a very specific type of breathwork and I'm going to model it for you right now. So if you're listening, it's two quick breaths in and two quick breaths out, and you are doing it through your mouth the entirety of the time.

Jasmine Star 00:28:07  I think I just spit on my mic, but listen, listen, I'm taking you into the moment and while you think that sounds or looks ridiculous. It probably does, but it results in you feeling like you are high, like you're on some drug. Now, I say this because Nancy Reagan told me, just say no. And I have always said no, I have no. I have no judgment about people doing drugs whatsoever. No judgment like y'all, do you? I've never done drugs. But for the first time in my life, I was like, oh my God, this is why Nancy Reagan said that. Do you guys remember that commercial? You guys probably don't. It's like this black skillet and it's and it's like it's hot, it's piping. There's like a little bit of butter and it says, this is your brain. And then you crack like two eggs. This is your brain on drugs. It's like frying eggs that I had fried egg brain at this moment because I'm sitting there and I'm like, what in the world? So at this time it is 7 a.m., but it's pitch black in Austin and you are wearing a blindfold and you're doing this breathwork, and she's guiding you through the whole thing, asking you to clear your mind.

Jasmine Star 00:29:10  Don't think about anything, and your whole job is just to focus on your breath. And I will tell you three things nervous central system, regulation, neck level. Like I was doing the deep breaths. And I promise you, I can't even make this up. My hands cramped so that they were folded in as if my fingers disappeared. And despite the fact that I was present and not present because remember, my brain was on like fried egg mode and I was like, try to undo your hands. I was like, I think something's wrong with me. My hands are frickin frozen in these little tiny claws. That was nervous system regulation, a deep subconscious clarity. You were so focused on the breath, and you were oxygenating in such a vibrant capacity that everything is cleared out. And there is a new level of openness to think here. See? Feel things that you haven't before. And I will tell you, we did that for 40 minutes and there were grown men sobbing like wailing, like we're all supposed to be doing these deep breaths in about 20 minutes and people start having very different reactions.

Jasmine Star 00:30:13  Some people are crying, some people are wailing like I am talking about in a group of 50. I am here this.

Multiple Speakers 00:30:19  Hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo.

Jasmine Star 00:30:21  And and you're just like, let it be. Like, let it be. Side note there is just no way I was ever expecting this from like, this executive group whatsoever. Like, I sat there and we got up out of it and I had my journal and I just started writing. I was writing things that I hadn't thought about, that I had never excavated, that I'd never even considered. And all of a sudden I just felt like I was fundamentally shifted. Then we went into cold plunge group cold plunge. You guys, this is like this is like a meme. This is like a Silicon Valley like meme. Like, hello Tropic breathwork. Then we do Cold plunge. It's like later in the day there would be jumping out of a plane. I'm not even lying. Okay, so do the cool cold plunge. Then we go to breakfast.

Jasmine Star 00:31:09  Then you quickly change and you go into the rest of your day. Half the group went to jump out of a plane. Half the group went into mindset and meditation. Okay. Remember how I said I was in Dorsey? Do y'all think I'm going to jump out of a plane? Like never in a million years. So it felt like about 25 people went to jump out of a plane and 25 people went to meditation. So we're sitting there in our athleisure in a big circle, and there is like a, you know, a bowl. And I'm like, great. And there's no time set on this. So we sit down and the facilitator says, welcome to mindset and meditation. We're going to be here for four hours. And I audibly laugh. I was like, ha.

Multiple Speakers 00:31:48  Ha ha ha.

Jasmine Star 00:31:50  I look around, nobody's laughing. He was serious. I was like four, four. Okay, number one, I like meditating, I meditate. I have never gotten close to four hours of meditation, and it's a very specific type of meditation.

Jasmine Star 00:32:05  The name slips my mind of what type of meditation, but it's the kind where you just sit on a pillow with your legs crossed and your hand in like a diamond shaped over like your lower abdomen. And your eyes aren't closed, but they're almost closed. So about three fourths closed. So you're just staring at the thing in front of you. And he set a timer. We come in. He talks to us about like hour. We're sitting on the floor with a pillow under our tush, and he's like, our first round is 20 minutes. Let us begin.

Multiple Speakers 00:32:31  Bing bing bing.

Jasmine Star 00:32:34  And I was like, oh Lord, I normally do guided meditation. I'll do music, meditation, I'll do tea, meditation. We can talk about the different types of meditation I do. I've never done silent. I'm like, this is going to be the death of me. Finally it gets to 20 minutes.

Multiple Speakers 00:32:49  Bing!

Jasmine Star 00:32:49  He comes back. He's like, welcome. What do people experience? And these guys are like, I'm five four on a great day, okay? And a lot of these guys are well over six foot and they're not flexible.

Jasmine Star 00:33:00  I'm like is everybody else like kind of dying and like nobody's.

Multiple Speakers 00:33:03  Like.

Jasmine Star 00:33:04  Saying how uncomfortable they are. And I'm like, it must be me. It is me. It is me. I am the problem. And then he's like, great, this is the feedback. This is how we do it. Now for another 40 minutes I was like.

Multiple Speakers 00:33:16  Oh, Jesus.

Jasmine Star 00:33:17  One guy tapped out, one guy left, and I was like, okay, well, when one goes, I now have the freedom to do so. But I said, no, I came here to become a different person. So I meditated in silence for 40 minutes. And y'all, I am telling you, I did every trick in the book I was counting. I was like, I'm breathing in blue. I'm exhaling red. Oh, I close my eyes. No, Cole, keep the eyes open a little bit. No. They're flickering. Why am I staring at brick? This brick haven't been clean. How many people have sat on this pillow? No.

Jasmine Star 00:33:46  Come back, come back clean. Mind y'all. It was a hard 40 minutes. Then we hear the.

Multiple Speakers 00:33:50  Ping.

Jasmine Star 00:33:51  And he's like, you know what we should do? Let's please all stay in silence. I'm going to open the side door and you're going to walk with your eyes mostly closed, barefoot outside until you hear the gong again. I was like, we are barefoot, walking in the grass in about a hundred degree heat in Austin. Okay, okay. Now if y'all remember back at the end of 2024, I did a barefoot walk with a cowboy in New Mexico that was part of the Modern Elder Academy. I was part of Gary Vaynerchuk mastermind called Vive, and a cowboy called to me in the distance as we're doing this morning hike. And he says, Jasmine, take off your shoes. And everybody thought he was joking. And I took him seriously. He was walking barefoot and I walked barefoot. Had I ever like you guys? The bottom of my feet are supple, okay? Like I.

Jasmine Star 00:34:38  I lotion an oil at my feet at night. I will sleep with socks on my feet. People are like, that's disgusting. Who could ever your girl? Because I have soft and supple feet. I walked on the New Mexico dirt and I was like, I am not made for this. But it was like the process. You guys, I am willing to do whatever it takes for me to step into this next version and to me to be exposed to new things. So I was like, okay, walking on grass is easier than walking in New Mexico desert barefoot. So we did it and I did it, and I was hoping that some enlightening would come. And then he bing. And then we took a lunch break for 30 minutes, and I went to lunch and I was like, I'm so exhausted. I'm so exhausted. So much so that I texted JD and I said, I think I might leave. I don't know if I could do this next, this next round. He didn't respond, thankfully.

Jasmine Star 00:35:21  So I was like, look, pick up your big girl pants. You're going back and meditating. You wanted the change. Be the freaking change. So we went back. We sat for more meditation. Then he brings us to and he says, what we're going to do is have a shift in all of my mind and my thank you, sweet baby Jesus in a manger, a shift I will take any shift until he says we're going to practice Nikon, a Japanese style of journaling. Okay, number one, I love journaling. Number two, I journal at least a little bit every single day. It's super freeing and cathartic, and one of the best forms of therapy I could ever get into, except for the fact that there's about two hours left for us together in this four hour adventure. And he says, here's what you're going to do. You're going to be barefoot. And I'm going to give you three questions for you and go to journal. You will not take your phone. You will sit under a tree.

Jasmine Star 00:36:13  And if you journal for all two hours, great. And if you journal for 20 minutes, you're just going to sit and.

Multiple Speakers 00:36:20  Be.

Jasmine Star 00:36:21  Under a tree for the rest of the time. You will not be looking at anybody. You will not be talking to anybody. You will not be distracted. And I was like.

Multiple Speakers 00:36:30  I want to meditate. Can we please meditate? Like I can't.

Jasmine Star 00:36:33  So welcome to Nikon Japanese journaling. Here we go. Journal questions. Remember I want you in the room. I want you in the room. So we're going to sit. And you're going to do this journaling practice. Because you're going to act like you're in the room until you're in the room. Question number one from whom and what have I been given today? From whom and what have I been given today? Question number two to whom and what have I been given today? To whom and what have I been given today? And number three. What trouble have I caused? And so I will tell you that I walked out and I started journaling.

Jasmine Star 00:37:11  And normally I have a pretty strong gratitude practice. I'm very thankful for a lot of things in my life, but they're very broad when when it forced us to say, from whom and what have I been given today?

Multiple Speakers 00:37:22  Whoa.

Jasmine Star 00:37:22  It got like super granular, because I was very specific around what J.D. had gave me that day. That Monday was very specific around what Luna gave me that day. And then all of a sudden, I was very specific around the cleaning lady, like what she gave and what the chef had given me and what the event organizer had given me, and what the gentleman from valet had given me, and what the team had given me, and what the comments on DMs on Instagram had given me. I mean, I just started listening all the things that people pouring into me. And then what I noticed was like, to whom and what have I given? I realized that that was a smaller list. I got really insecure about that because I was like, wow, cake eater.

Jasmine Star 00:38:00  He seemed to be getting a lot from other people. You're not giving as much. I really got in my head. And then the.

Multiple Speakers 00:38:05  Third.

Jasmine Star 00:38:06  Question was, what trouble have I caused? And I'm going to tell you.

Multiple Speakers 00:38:10  I.

Jasmine Star 00:38:10  Did it wrong. Or maybe I did it as I was supposed to. When I heard this question, what trouble have I caused? I actually told myself, oh, this isn't going to be fun because I am a self-identified troublemaker. I love actually going in and doing things differently and shaking things up and causing a little bit of ruckus to be like. It doesn't have to be always the same way. I like doing things my own way. And so I sat down and I started listening. Like the trouble that I had caused in different industries and different rooms, asking questions, saying things that probably other people wouldn't say troublemaker in that cause. And then it hit me. What trouble have I caused? And I kind of struggled with what trouble I had caused other people trouble when I worked too much.

Jasmine Star 00:38:53  And I don't unplug trouble when I pull away from friendships that get too heavy. Trouble for white knuckling. Trouble for being stubborn and scared to stop. Trouble for keeping people around too long. Trouble for talking. Too much trouble for not asking for help. Trouble for wanting my way or no way. Trouble for not stopping. For rushing, for bulldozing. I wrote a few other things. But what it all came back down to was. This is the trouble I've caused myself.

Multiple Speakers 00:39:21  It was so.

Jasmine Star 00:39:23  Eye opening that the greatest amount of trouble I have caused for anybody has been for me. When we came back into the room, we had this opportunity. Everybody had to go around and share, like their biggest takeaways from each of the sections. And what I really discovered was that, number one, the entrepreneurs in the room, very successful people, were loved and supported in unexpected ways and not necessarily from family, but they were love and supported in inordinate ways because they were doing very big things and it required that level of support.

Jasmine Star 00:39:53  Number two, entrepreneurs have a tendency to get more than they give. I wasn't the only person in the room that was just like, oh my God, this was a wake up call. And then number three, half of the entrepreneurs said that they couldn't identify any trouble they had caused. They were like, I don't know, I didn't cause any trouble. And then the facilitator had said.

Multiple Speakers 00:40:15  That's.

Jasmine Star 00:40:15  Very common for entrepreneurs. We walk around and we think.

Multiple Speakers 00:40:19  I'm.

Jasmine Star 00:40:20  Never the troublemaker. I'm the idea maker. The trouble is you not being able to understand. Now for other people, they had caused trouble in different ways, but for me it was very clear. This was the trouble that I had caused myself. So the event, as it draws to a close, I hear from my mentor and she texts me and she says, have you found the event worth your time? Because it's not just the the amount of money I paid to go to the event. My time is ten x the amount of valuable than the amount that I spent to go to the event, and I said it wasn't what I expected.

Jasmine Star 00:40:51  It was what I needed. And it was powerful. And regardless of the business size, I realized that I needed to build these tools. So as I scale, I won't have built a $100 million business. Having done it the hard way, white knuckling fighting my way, not expressing appreciation. And so I believe that sometimes we can be our own worst enemy. I believe that we can also build the tools now to overcome what could be our greatest limiting beliefs. And so then after the the meditation and everybody came back from skydiving, there was two hours to network. And I'm going to tell you I was like, I need a break. This has just been too much at one with myself, like, I can't, so I couldn't make small talk. I went back to the room and I went to the pool with JD and Luna. Just hung.

Multiple Speakers 00:41:41  Out.

Jasmine Star 00:41:42  Enjoyed the sun and I decompressed. I think I've probably said it before on the show. I am a very big introvert, so being around people is a lot of energy and just being able to be quiet in the pool with my daughter, who's not so quiet, was great.

Jasmine Star 00:41:54  My daughter loves to talk. Oh my God, she's a complete opposite. This girl can talk about talking, and I just sit there and I just soak it all in because it doesn't require anything for me. And I just think she has this huge imagination. And she met these girls in the pool. And literally, she's so dramatic. I have no idea who she gets it from. And she looks to me and she looks back at them and she says, by ladies girlfriends, you're the best girlfriends I've ever met at a pool. And then we walk out and I was like, bro, I was like, JD, you made her this dramatic. anyway, then we went to dinner, and after dinner there was a party and I didn't go to the party. I felt like I had accomplished my objectives. I'd spoken to agency owners. I had spoken about the landscape of ads. I had found somebody there at the event. I already messaged her. I already messaged her. The next day I sent her a message and I said, what does it take? What does it look like to take on consulting in a very specific time frame for a very specific objective, and I'm waiting to hear back from her.

Jasmine Star 00:42:43  So if that works out, heck yes, I'd be two for two. The party would have been great. It just wouldn't have served me. I don't do well in parties and I don't do well in small talk. And I like sleep. So I went back to the room and I feel like I went and I got what I needed, and what I needed was more than enough. I created this episode because I wanted you in the room with me, and I want you to act like you're in the room until you are in the room. I believe you can get in the room. We got to get out of our own way. And even if it requires us doing things that are a little atypical, I don't think that four hours of meditation is anywhere in my near future. But do I think that longer meditations by myself outside are? The answer is yes, and I believe that when I allow space for clarity and I can go deep, I can listen to my inner wisdom, my knowing of based on experience, based on intuition, based on a knowing and trust that I'm going to be okay because the future version of me is speaking to the current version of me, telling me this is not the time where we give up, and this is not the time where we play small.

Jasmine Star 00:43:39  So let's do the work. Let's build a bridge and get over our fears and get the work done. I want to say thank you for watching and listening to the Jasmine Star Show.