How to Persevere in Life and Business with Joel Huculak and Crithicca Samuel from Motiversity

23:37I just really want to show like who I was. I was a person for 365 days who said, come hell or high water, I'm going to go all in. I want to look back on my deathbed and said, you gave it everything you had. So I stopped being a lot of social. I didn't do extracurricular activities. I woke up earlier. I went to bed later. I don't think that's a permanent lifestyle, but at the time that I gave myself 365 days, I, there was no more messing around. There was no more excuses. So there's like a thousand times. I remember my husband coming home from work. He was working with a startup. We didn't have very much money at all.

24:09And I had spent all day. I am talking about eight to 10 hours in a single day going through photography blogs and photography forums. And I, in a very dramatic state had just finished dinner. And it was like, I was timing everything so that he knew the severity of how I was feeling. He comes into our apartment door and I'm stirring a pot. I tossed down the wooden spoon and I'm like, you have to just come here. He makes me follow in our tiny apartment so that I can fling myself on our bed face first to say, it's been the absolute worst day. I am never going to get to where I want to go. If somebody, if I just had a mentor, they would see my talent.

24:39I was looking for somebody else to save me, but the best stories are when the princess saves herself. And that's what I had to do. It's like, get up. So he just stood in the doorway. He looked at me and he's just like, okay, so what are we going to do tonight? we have dinner and then we can make a plan or you could stay here and cry. And I love that about my husband. He's not my business partner. He's been my business partner since, Oh goodness. Like 2009, he went full time with us, like full time with me in the business and has always been the case. And that is why I think I'm so madly in love with him.

25:05It's like, he just, he loves me, but he doesn't give any space for wasting time and it's always been like a good thing. I love that. Yeah. That's a great thing to have in a partner, especially a business partner, but also partner in life as well. Absolutely. I really liked what you said earlier. I was going to touch on that. Just some or other people's opinions of you don't pay your bills. And I found that really powerful. What a powerful quote because so many people are just influenced by other people's beliefs, right? Your parents' beliefs, your friends' beliefs, the beliefs you see on social media even, right?

25:39And following people like you, the advice you get is just so great for where that can really just help people get out of the spots they're in now. Thank you. All right. So we've got the second half of questions here. Even though the first part was incredibly motivating and passionate, I was just like, wow, okay, captivated from beginning to end. Oh, thanks. Yeah. So if you want to please continue that throughout these questions here. But again, this is all advice. Sorry, I didn't mean to turn you off. Yeah, no, we put a note looking for conviction and emotion in your answers. And you're already doing that.

26:16So like by far, I think you're delivering extremely well. And it's all great advice as well. So let's go on. So the first question is, what advice would you give to your 20-year-old self? To take bigger risks. You know, as the daughter of an immigrant, as a first-time business owner who didn't have any sort of like resources or wherewithal to get questions answered. I was always trying to hedge my bets. And so there is, I'll never forget. I actually wrote about this on like in a blog post is I was sitting in my friend's car. So there's a gaggle of girls in the back and I was sitting in the passenger seat and her dad in his Astro minivan was driving us.

26:57And he asked me what I thought was a really odd question. He turns to me while all the girls are in the back and he says, Jasmine, how would you eat a hamburger? And I thought to myself, well, that's a really odd question. I was like, well, I would eat a hamburger the same way anybody else would. I would eat half of the hamburger and then save the other half for when I knew my next meal was coming. And when I knew my next meal was coming, then I'd eat the hamburger. And he kind of slowly nodded. And then later he ends up telling my parents that response. I didn't think anything of it. And now that I am an adult, I clearly understand the way I was hardwired as a kid.

27:27Because we lacked money, I was always looking for ways to keep and maintain what I had if I thought it was going to disappear. So I took that mindset going into starting businesses. I was always trying to be like, how do I keep or maintain? But what I wish I can go back to do in my twenties was take all the risks and be unattached to the outcome. Because when somebody would say, take all the risk, I'd be like, you're crazy. I made half my hamburger until I know my next meal is coming. What I wish I would have known is be unattached to the outcome. I was so attached to the outcome. I was so fear driven of never getting to where my parents were financially that I stopped myself because like, oh no, that's a little too risky.

28:10If I had just said, hey, keep what you need to feel safe and everything else, take a calculated risk and make them bigger because you always have found a way to win.

28:25Um, what was, what is your best business advice that you would give someone else? I'm going to give the advice that I heard my third year of business. I was sitting with a group of other photographers who were farther in their career. And I had always found a way, even though I couldn't afford to get educated specifically in the photography realm, because there was like very high ticket experiences. I would find a way to leverage what I thought I was good at in exchange. I'm a firm believer in bartering. Bartering is my favorite thing. And so I realized that while I'm not necessarily a copywriter, I wouldn't classify myself as like a writer.

29:01I had a blog at the time. I still have a blog, but at the time I was blogging every single day and other photographers started noticing the quality of work that I was doing. And so I found a photographer in my area. I was living in Los Angeles at the time. And I said, Hey, would I be able to go to your event and write a few blog posts about your event? And in addition to, if you let me come, could I also write your bio like for your website? because I gave like a little preview. I was like, his bio was just like great photographer, love my camera. And I kind of wrote just like the first paragraph of what could be his bio based on things that I had read about him on the internet.

29:30And he was just like, yes. So I got into this room and what he said, I felt like it just pierced my heart. And this is the thing that I will tell everybody again and again. He said, jump and the net will appear. And it was the first time in my entire life that I had ever heard somebody speak so brazenly about taking a risk. Again, And who I am now as a risk taker is so different than who I was when I began. And the way that you strengthen that risk muscle is by taking risks. And when he said that three years into it, I realized, okay, now is the time for me to start taking those risks. I wish somebody would have told me that sooner.

30:08And this is always the advice I always go back to jump in the net will appear. Yeah, I totally believe that too. I think like I'm a strong believer, like, you know, you jump in the universe will catch you. So I'm very much all about that. But here's the thing, like, this is the thing I just like, let's just be real, right? Like people hear that jump in the net will appear, jump in like the universe has your back and we love it. We're like high-fiving because we've been on the other side, but like there've been plenty of times where there was no net and like the universe was just like, I see you, I'm not putting my arms out because you needed to fall on your face.

30:38And like, I've just realized that as many times as I have gotten back up, I was supposed to fall. I was supposed to face plant. And the less time I spend groveling in the gravel, the faster I find my next success. The biggest difficulty is that people fall and then they stay down. The greatest entrepreneurs are the people who understand that falling is part of the process. So if we just said, I'm going to fall now and I'm going to fall probably another 175 times before the end of my career. If I look around and say, this is normal. And every entrepreneur faces this, then yeah, it sucks. And yeah, I took the jump and yeah, I didn't end up where I wanted to, but do I have the courage and wherewithal to get up again?

31:25And if the answer is yes, you're going to be in business. And the answer is no, you're going to go back to your cubicle and live a very predictable life that is not as fulfilling as you once hoped. 100%. Like failure is progress, no matter what, right? You just got to get up. Yeah. Yeah. And every successful person that you hear about their success story you hardly ever hear about all of their failures right because no one writes about the websites that didn't work all the brands that you tried all the things you posted that don't take off the youtube channels in our case that didn't work out a long list but we've got also now a long list of ones that have succeeded and yeah i love that yeah there was a one piece of the story i want to go back to which was so you were a top 10 wedding photographer in the world and then you shifted away from that.

32:09So why did you shift away? How did you, was it just taking the risk or was it income coming from another, your social curative business? Like how did you make that shift and why? It was one of those moments all over again, where it's science, like a study I read that our body regenerates, like our cells regenerate like every seven years. So every seven years you become an entirely different person. And I have seen that ebb and flow in my business so distinctly that the minute that something was complicated and difficult and impossible and then decided to go after it, like I thought it was impossible or difficult to ever position myself as an authority to be a consultant.

32:50That was impossible. That was impossible to ever create a course, much less create revenue streams of multiple seven figures in the back of courses. Then I thought it was impossible to create a membership. And then I thought it was impossible to start a tech company. So the earliest part of my career was I want to become a photographer and then I want to become a successful photographer. And then all of a sudden the game got really slow. I could predict my income. I could predict the publicity. I could predict the resources. I could predict the connections. I could predict the publications. And when I predicted it, I loved it and I appreciated it.

33:26And then I just didn't want it anymore. And if you don't show up in your business, loving what you turn over for your customers or your clients, your business is in decline. And I thought I must show up a hundred percent for the people who hire me. And if I am not, my time has come. And that's when I started to make shifts in my business. You have to be passionate about it. So passionate, right? Absolutely. Because why else are you going to get up in the morning and go to work, right? We're not here for a nine to five. Absolutely. One other thing I hear you talk about often, I've been listening to your podcast lately is consistency.

34:03So how important is consistency? Well, I have a hard time coming out and like putting like big daggers in the sand or drawing line and it's like, you're this or you're not. To me, I am only speaking to the people who are unqualified, unfunded, uneducated, unconnected. I'm only speaking to the people who haven't been fed with a silver spoon. I'm only speaking to the people who don't come from a legacy of business owners. I'm only speaking to people who don't have trust funds. I'm only speaking to the people who have had life kick them in the arse and then they found a way to get back up. I'm only speaking to those people.

34:40And of those people, when you are distinctly at a disadvantage based by your gender, how you grew up, the color of your skin, your religious beliefs, whoever and whomever and however. I am only speaking to that person. I am speaking to the person who is underrepresented in every boardroom and underrepresented when it comes to funding. I am speaking to the people who are traditionally overlooked and marginalized. If you are not of those people, then do not listen to the thing I have to say next. What I am saying is that for those people who are traditionally underrepresented and overlooked, you have to play a different game.

35:14I hate saying it, but it has just been my truth. I will only speak my experience and my truth. My truth and my experience has been, I have to jump higher. I have to show up earlier. I have to be the first person to turn off the light and the last person to turn off the light. I have to make sure that every number is correct and every T is crossed and every die is dotted. The way that I show up is by being consistent, so consistent that people cannot doubt your capacity to succeed. You have to work harder than the average person. And if you accept those terms, you cannot complain about those terms.

35:47I have only known success on the back of consistency. Do I think you could be a success without being consistent? Perhaps if you have other resources and tools that I was never given, but coming from where I am, my perspective has only been consistency and the discipline has been everything that I have ever gotten on the back of doing it again and again and again it is what I teach it is what I preach is what I believe but it only believe it for a small group of people who perhaps have never been the people to been on the front side of benevolence legacy money things of that nature yeah and you talk about that too a lot right like your target audience how important is that for uh someone who's starting out to have a target audience versus, you know, making content for everyone.

36:33Good question. It is always and only ever been who I believe is your ideal client. So whenever I go into a brand new venture, the first thing we always do is define who our ideal client is, our ideal client or ideal customer. This is for us to identify that even though we are going to attract other customers and clients that are marketing, our messaging, our content is drilled down to one specific person. And this kind of like jacks up a lot of people when they think about this, because like, it feels like you're making too much of a commitment without knowing enough. And I'm saying you will never be able to change your opinion or iterate or expand your business without clearly knowing who you serve to begin with.

37:14Think of this as like the target logo in the center is a concentric circle of bright red. That is exactly who you are aiming to hit every single time. And as the business succeeds, another concentric circle expands thereafter. So a similar yet different audience. And then once you build your street credibility with that audience, you're then able to expand thereafter. Oftentimes people are trying to hit every concentric circle and your messaging falls flat and people don't know what it is you do or how you serve. The idea is to go after one person, clearly speak to their needs, clearly speak to the transformation, solve their problem in such a clear way that they then begin to speak to you, to speak about you and or your business to other people who are not, maybe not related in that industry, but based on their endorsement, your business ends up getting to grow.

37:56Yes. So aside from consistency and taking more breaths, is there any advice you would give an entrepreneur starting out? Ask for help. People don't know how to help you until you ask. And so the first barrier that I see quite often with entrepreneurs is like, I don't know if they would ever say no, or people have a very hard time with somebody just not responding or saying no, because they take the no personally. Like if somebody were to ask me like, Hey, can I get help here? Can you become my mentor? And I say no, then oftentimes what people think is it's about them or it's about their business without ever taking into consideration.

38:36Like I have a two-year-old, I have multiple businesses. I might just not have the time or the wherewithal to make it happen. So they make it about themselves and they immediately begin to doubt. So if you can be okay hearing no, and then if you could choose to tell yourself a different story as to why you would ask for help and it wasn't given to you the way that you had imagined, if you're okay with those terms, then the second thing comes around. And the second thing about asking for help is that people don't ask for help because they don't know what question to ask. They want to be told what to do.

39:08I had a mentor years ago who told me that the quality of your life and the quality of your business is dependent on the quality of questions you ask. And oftentimes people don't know what questions to ask. They want to be told what to do. But when you are told exactly what to do, your business looks like everybody else's, which means you have a hard time competing, if at all. The reason you want to ask better questions is to find a way how you can uniquely solve a problem and give a solution in your own unique way. But that takes so much more time and so much more effort and so much deep dive self-analysis about what your quality offer then becomes that people are like, no, no, no.

39:43Just tell me how do I make a million dollars? And it's like, baby, the only way you make a million dollars is by knowing exactly who you serve, how you do it, what your promise then becomes. And do you have an offer surrounding that? And is that clearly communicated? If you're not willing to do that work, you have a very hard time getting to where you want to go. Yeah. Asking questions is something that I've been delving into more lately because I keep looking for the answers, uh, just hoping someone can tell me the answers, but they've been asking me questions back. And then I asked them a question and I almost know the answer when I ask that question.

40:12I start to think about, when I ask someone the question, I actually start to think about the answer myself. There's a good chance that they don't even know the business that we run or the exact challenge I'm having in my life, but they can maybe give some advice. But in a lot of cases, asking the question is helping guide me to myself to the answer. And that's a really powerful part of actually just like the last two weeks for me. So yeah, I find that that's really helpful. You got into that a little bit. You talked about your morning. I would love to hear about this because my morning rituals and routine is intense, but I feel like yours is a thousand times more intense than mine.

40:48So we want to hear what are your daily habits and morning rituals? Well, I feel like it's going to be a total letdown after that. I am very predictable. And now when I say this, I always have to have like a prequalifier that I don't think that this is like a benchmark for success or I don't think that people should be doing this in general. I think that we're all created differently and separately. And there are some people who just thrive at different times of the day. My circadian rhythm is I get the most done. I am at my peak creativity. I am at my peak focus in the morning. I am built for the mornings.

41:26And so I wake up every day at 4.30. It's like my eyes just flutter awake. That's what time I wake up. Kind of like I had already mentioned, like I hug my husband, I kiss him, I say a prayer over him. And then I go when I start my day. I start my day with prayer and meditation and a little bit of reading. I set aside around 30 minutes for all of that to happen. And then from 5 to 6.45, I am working. I'm writing. I'm thinking. I'm ideating. I'm outlining. I wake my daughter up at 7 a.m. We sit together. We do our morning routine, 7.45. I am changing, getting ready to go to the gym at 8. I set aside 75 minutes a day to work out.

42:02I come home. I shower. I sit my booty down and I work all day. That is a hundred percent how it does. No, my work days all look very different. I do segment my days according to when I am podcasting, when I'm creating content, when I'm planning out my content, when I'm writing scripts, when I'm writing newsletters, but it's very, very, very cyclical in order for us to produce the amount of content that we do. It has to be streamlined. I had a conversation with my husband, business partner yesterday, and I'm like, I feel like I'm more now a creator than I am a creative where earlier in my industry, I mean, excuse me, early in my career, I was able to just do a lot more creative endeavors, but in order for us to do the volume with the size of the team, we have a really small team with the size of the team, I'm getting more into create the content as a creator and not just like dilly dally.

42:44And like what creative next venture could I do? I think that's going to come in a later point in my career. Again, things kind of go through cycles, but right now strong creator and discipline throughout the day.

42:56what's next for you in 2023 the goal would be to give back to the community i just want to over index i want to spend a full year of just creating content that i wish i had not when i started my career but when things really ramped up in my career i've spent a really long time really serving like that newish beginning entrepreneur like the mindset to get out and to start and to continue showing up. And like who I think I really can have big results would be for a six figure entrepreneur, like really gunning for their seven figure business or multiple seven figure business. And for me, all I want to do is just experiment in that zone.

43:35I want to create the content I wish I had when I was at that point. So that's a hundred percent where our index is for all of 2023. And it makes me really excited. Nice. We're excited for you. Yeah, that's awesome. All right. So next segment is called rapid fire questions. Okay. So, uh, yeah, just answer it as they come. Okay, cool. So first question is when you think of the word success, who's the first person that comes to your mind and why? My husband, because success for him is not dollars and commas. success for him is a state of flow and he chooses to be so intentional with his time, with his endeavors.

44:15And when he speaks to you, he makes you feel like you're the only person in the room and he can leave any situation and find a reason to be successful in it. So inspiring. I wish I was like him. I'm nothing like him. I absolutely love it. Okay. I love that. Uh, what is the book you recommend the most? Oftentimes I really, really, really am recommending do the work by Steven Pressfield. It's very short. You could read like one page is one chapter and he's all about the discipline and consistency. So it kind of like speaks my love language. What is something that you believe that other people may think is insane?

44:50Okay. So people often think that I am outgoing or that I'm an extrovert and that couldn't be farther from the case. On a scale of one to 10, I am a level 12 introvert. And I believe that introverts have a competitive advantage when it comes to networking or being in business situations is that oftentimes they're the quietest in the room. They watch the dynamics and they listen to what's being said in between the lines and they're able to leverage that and personalize conversations and pitches based on watching and not just being the person who's always talking. I've heard you say that before and I'm like, no way.

45:22I know. You know, like this last week I went to, I went to this event and it was like mind body wellness. And somebody went up to the founder of the event and said, you know, I follow Jasmine on social media, but I'm not going up to her because she just seems so much more quiet. She's nothing like how I expected her to be. And I'm like, yeah, because you saw me out in the wild. You saw me in my natural state. You didn't see me on the back of social media. So yes, I'm a hundred percent introvert. Now this will make crossover with your other questions, but do you have a quote that you live your life by or think about often?

45:52It changes all the time. I'm a big believer in like post-it notes. But the recent mantra that for me that I've really focused on is what is meant for me will find me. And oftentimes I think as an entrepreneur, it's easy to look around. I mean, I would a hundred percent admit that you look around and you're like, man, when is my time for that? Or why have I not gotten that? Or I feel like I'm showing up and applying and it's not working the way that I want. And I think to myself, I'm always reminded that what is meant for me will find me. And if something else finds somebody else, my entire objective, and I mean this with all sincerity is to clap that person up with so much happiness, understanding that when my time comes, it was perfectly suited for what I needed at that time.

46:27And I'm going to want other people to support me in the same way that I am supporting other people. What's the worst advice you've ever seen or heard being dispensed in the world? I mean, I feel like I'm going to get a lot of heat for it, but I just, I see a lot of people talking about like manifesting, like dreaming it into reality. And I believe that I believe that you can't create what you have not thought or dreamt of, But the biggest gap in the misnomer is that it should, in my opinion, always be supplemented and counterbalanced by that's just the first step. Manifestation alone doesn't bring out results.

47:07It's the manifestation and then the actions combined that will help you meet your aspirations because your actions must map your aspirations. I believe that manifestation is the key component. It is the impetus. It's the thing that gets us started. But then people are just like, well, I'm dreaming and it's just not happening for me. I'm like, no, no, no. It does not happen for you, you must happen to it. And so the misnomer is that like you dream it up and it will happen. I'm like, no, no, you dream it up and then you work like hell to make it happen and it will happen. Completely agree. Yeah.

47:34Great. That's the rapid fire questions that we have. We're just going to take a quick pause. If there's any other questions that we have that comes to mind, or is there anything else that you would like us to ask Jasmine? No, you guys have done a great job. Like, I feel like all of us is segmented. I'm like, I see where this is going. So I think the last thing we've got to finish on is where can people find you? For those of you who are interested in getting more information, I'd love to go deep and spend a little bit more time on the Jasmine star show. You could find the podcast anywhere you listen to podcasts.

48:06And it's such a great opportunity for people, not just to get business advice, but really to get the mindset shifts that's needed and also find a way to balance the thing that you love along with the people who you love and finding time to do and balance it all. You can find me on every social platform at Jasmine star. And for more information and free goodies and resources at jasminestar.com. Yeah. I mean, last thing is just a thing. So thanks for joining us on the Motiversity show. I think there's lots of tons of valuable advice, lessons, things that you've said in this interview, this on this episode for people.

48:39And I think it's going to be a hit. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Wasn't that inspiring? I hope you realize that you have everything you need to build the successful business that you deserve. If you'd like to learn more about Modiversity, you can find them on Instagram at Modiversity. Thank you so much for listening.