Quarter Four Review: How I'm Building The Foundation For My Biggest Year Yet

0:00If you've been feeling stuck in your business and wondering if you're the reason it's not growing faster, I have something for you. I'm hosting a free, no-pitch, live class called Three Money Beliefs That Made Me Millions. And I'm sharing the exact mindset shifts that helped me go from million-dollar years to million-dollar months. This isn't fluff. It is a surprising strategy that changed everything for me, and I want to share it with you. Like I said, no pitch, no fluff, just you and me talking about how we shift our beliefs around money to make you millions. Save your seat now at jasminestar.com forward slash millions.

0:33I can't wait to see you there. And I told myself, Jasmine, if nobody else comes in this room, you have content. You will speak to empty rooms until the rooms become full. You will make podcasts that nobody else listens to. You will write blog posts that nobody reads. You will send newsletters when people ain't opening email. You will send text messages that are left unread. You will do it until they start showing up, they start reading, they start engaging, and they start responding. Welcome to the Jasmine Starr Show. So I'm going to do another episode called Laying Bricks, and we're just going to hit the ground running.

1:08At the beginning of 2024, I introduced a podcast where I wasn't sure how people were going to respond to it. I called it Laying Bricks because at the time I couldn't think of a better name, and I was just thinking laying the bricks to my future foundation. I think a lot of times people can look at entrepreneurs or look at business owners and be like, wow, it happened so fast for them. And what I'm trying to do with the Laying Bricks episode is to talk about how slow it actually happens. So what are the bricks that I am laying to my current foundation for future success? And so at the start of 2024, and now we're at the start of 2025, we've been doing this a year.

1:45This is my fourth episode of the Laying Bricks. And so I'm going to take you through the end of 2024 to bring us to the beginning of 2025. And I am doing this because I want to share virtually in real time what has been happening and what has been working. Why? Because I'm hoping that it incites you to take action, it inspires you to do more, and then shows you the behind-the-scenes, nitty-gritty, it's not so glamorous that ultimately leads you to where you want to go. Okay, so if you want to listen to all of the Laying Bricks episodes, so you can literally hear everything that I did in 2024, and I'm going to actually share things in this episode that I laid the groundwork for at the beginning of the year.

2:24So essentially 11 months later, something good came from an investment of time, energy, or a relationship. So if you want to listen to those episodes in chronological order, I'm going to link them in the show notes. Okay. So I want to go back to quarter four of 2024, and we're going to be focusing on October through December. So I'm going to take you to the beginning of October. So starting with October 1st through the 3rd, that was my first live mastermind event. We had 20 seven-figure entrepreneurs. And here's the crazy thing. When I started my mastermind, I had this goal and this dream and objective to have a mastermind for seven-figure entrepreneurs.

3:01And what was unexpected to me was all of the applicants were women. And it opened my eyes to a couple things, but there was a need and there was a desire. Now, it also struck me as a little bit crazy because I never said that this was an all-female mastermind. It's just what happened. And if I was being very honest, I took a step back and I'm like, wow, that's crazy that no guys actually participated or became involved. And then I thought to myself, everything is happening as it should and everything is happening for me. Because what I didn't realize was that by getting all of us in the room, it fundamentally shifted the way that I saw needs in an entirely different way.

3:48So let's dive in. Okay. I felt very nervous. I felt very hopeful and I felt excited because while I was planning for the event, we knew we were going to have it in Newport Beach and all the doors seemed to close for venues. Now, this is my hometown. I've been living here over a decade. And I was like, why is this not working out? And then I realized that those doors were closing because I was supposed to open the door to my home. Now, most people would not really expect this of me, but I'm a very private person. I am an outgoing introvert, but I am tenfold as much private as I am an introvert.

4:26So to bring people into my house is a big thing for me, which is why when I get to record these podcasts in my home, number one, it's ticking off that little introvert box. And then number two, I want to bring you into my space. I want to make you feel like we're going deep together, but it's easier to do that in a virtual way, right? But to bring 27 figure entrepreneurs into my home, it was a big leap. So my husband and business partner had this conversation and he said, if you want to do this, let's go. And I was so excited. And so we started off with a beautiful cocktail hour in Newport Beach and everybody met each other.

5:02And I have to tell you, it was a little bit nerve wracking, right? Because people in the mastermind, we had met once before meeting in person. So we connected for like two hours. We spoke, people got to introduce themselves, but meeting online and meeting in person are two very different things. And so we went to this cocktail hour, but here's one thing that I actually didn't expect because I don't normally host events at my house. We needed tables and chairs and furniture to be delivered to our home to facilitate not just the 20 people, but we also had a teammate here, JD. We had two videographers.

5:35I mean, there was like a total of 26 people in our home. And we go to this cocktail hour. I come home. I'm tired, nervous, excited for the next day. And what do JD and I do till one o 'clock in the morning? We're setting up tables. We're laying out flowers. We're organizing chairs. And I was like, this is crazy that I am this amped, this pumped and like so nervous because I think that there's a small part of me is like, well, what are people going to think? What are they going to say? Is this experience what they wanted? Most of the time, I've only ever been parts of Masterminds where we go to like very, very nice hotels and they're coming into my home and weird childhood things coming up.

6:12Is it going to be enough? And so the day before, JD and I sat and we hosted them here in our living room. We had these beautiful tables set out. We sat and we had these custom made notebooks for everybody. And I just said a prayer. I was like, whoever comes in to my door, may they feel totally seen, heard, and supported that I might not have the fanciest of homes or the nicest, most luxurious resorts in Newport Beach. We could have done that, but this was an entirely different experience. Now, I want to share three of the biggest takeaways from this mastermind event because this lame brick episode hopefully is not just for me, but what are three active takeaways that you can take?

6:47Let me share with you the three active things that people took away from this event, having been seven-figure founders. Number one, team structure. They implicitly understood that while they had teams, everybody who has a seven-figure business has a team. But what everybody across the board had said, the structure of our team needs to change or we need to expand the team. So being able to come in and the mastermind is just not about me or my insights. It's about everybody else's insights. It's like, what are you doing? What industry are you in? How does this parlay? What's similar? What's not similar?

7:19And so at the end of the event, 50 % of the people in the room, 10 out of 20 people knew that they had to go home and they had to let go of some team members. Now, letting go of a team member is so difficult. It is really hard. But to be able to let go of team members and do it with a group of people who are checking in and how are you doing? How did it go? What are you learning? How might you improve? What are things that you would change? it quickly normalized what it means to shrink a team with a strategy of growing the team leader. The second biggest takeaway was learning from myself and then learning other people in the room is that the quality of your systems, your business will scale the more it becomes systematized.

8:02If you have a client and you treat them one way and then another client and then you treat or have them onboard or follow through in one way and then another client, if they're all different, you're essentially tripling the amount of time it would take is if you had one system and every client, every customer, every student went through the same thing, you're saving time and you're saving money. Now, the quality of your systems, how good that system is so that somebody can come in, follow the system and deploy in it, the quality of that determines how fast and quickly you can grow and scale. And the last active takeaway would be people are experiencing similar growth patterns.

8:37Is that sometimes when you're growing alone in business, you ask yourself, well, is this normal? Is this how it should be? And so you can easily tell yourself a story. No, it should be going faster. I should be doing more. But when you get into a group of people who are running similar size businesses with similar size pressure points, you're like, oh, this is normal. And if there is somebody who has a bigger business with a bigger team, you can ask them, what did you experience as you were scaling from three to four million? What was the pressure points? What should I be looking out for? I think that that was something that was incredibly powerful.

9:08It was so cool for me to see and experience as a host, but also from an outsider looking in. Okay, that was the first to the third. We're going to go to October 10th to the 12th. I went to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and I went there as a part of a mastermind I am a part of. There were nine of us, and I am the only female in this group, which is fine, totally different. Now, for people who have heard me talk about Hamden, It is this executive group coaching, like kind of leadership program that I'm a part of. They will often ask me questions around what is it like or what do you get? And so I was asked by somebody in the community for a series of questions, and they also asked for a description of how I would describe our group.

9:52And so this is what I wrote. Our ad hoc ethos has become like who we are. No ego, no BS, honesty rooted in empathy, commitment to our monthly calls, showing up for each other, and doing everything you can for homies in the group. We're an eclectic bunch, bootstrapped to VC, concentrated on personal brands to zero brand presence, seven-figure profit to pre-profitability, but we remain stalwart on challenging beliefs, following up with stated goals or commitments, questioning the modes of operation. Lastly, if as a group we had core values, they'd likely be humility, give more than you take, competitive greatness.

10:36Does this help? Please let me know I'm here to support. Knowing what you know now about that group, we rented a home in Jackson Hole, and we walk in, and it is literally cabin style. Big, big, beautiful earth. Earth? Hearth? I don't know. Fireplace? I was trying to be fancy. I don't know. It's like people who have big, big homes with big high ceilings and then a fireplace. Don't call it a fireplace. They call it, I think they call it a herd. I think whatever. I'm not that fancy. I will say that when we got into the house, all the guys were really cool. They were really cool. I was the only girl.

11:10They're like, okay, Jasmine, you'll take the master and the ensuite. I was like, thank you, gentlemen. Yes, I will. I will not be sleeping in the twin beds in the kids room in the basement. Thank you. And they didn't charge me more. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. So while we waited for everybody else to arrive, we ended up at this place called the Mangy Moose. Tell me you're in Jackson Hole, Wyoming without telling me you're in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, hanging out at the Mangy Moose. And so when people are talking about like, oh, how do you get together and what do you guys do? Honestly, we go to these events and there's no structure.

11:38So talk about the juxtaposition that just a few days before I was hosting Mastermind and, oh, there was structure. There was timelines. They were going, they were doing. And then we get to Jackson Hole and people are like, should we like go to the grocery store? We didn't go during peak season. We were there during off season. And so a lot of the town was closed. And so we're like, where do we got to eat? We're just randomly walking around to see what restaurant is open. And the Mangy Moose was where we ended up. But I have to tell you, it's those conversations around a lunch table that really transform how I'm thinking about my business.

12:10Everybody sits there and you just spitball and you're challenging each other and then you're laughing and then you're asking, hey, this is a pattern I've seen. So we've been together as a group for two years. And so it's been really cool to look across the table and be like, listen, this is not the first time you said something like this. What are you doing to change it? And so that level of dynamic has really been powerful for my growth. And so my biggest takeaways from that event was how to create strategic partnerships. You will see me creating strategic partnerships in 2025 if all goes well, right?

12:41This is a laying bricks episode, quarter four, 2024. at the end of the Laying Bricks episode of quarter one, 2025, not recorded, still not even going this. I'm recording this at the top of January right now. And you're going to be hearing this like in a week or so. And so I hope that at the end of quarter one, you will hear me tell you a really positive experience about a series of partnerships that really changed the nature and the outlook of what I'm doing for creating content or not. I'm starting to work now. We'll see. But that kicked off in October, all the groundwork that I needed to do to cultivate those relationships to ask for a partnership here now in January, 2025.

13:20The second biggest takeaway is I am even more convinced of the role of content and how it plays and makes differences in businesses. Here's why. There is this huge, gorgeous, beautiful lake by the Tetons. I didn't even know what the Tetons were. You guys, there's so much I don't know about this beautiful country. I am a city girl. I'm born and raised in Los Angeles. I had never been to Jackson Hole. It is gorgeous. I didn't even know what the Tetons were. I went there and I just all of a sudden was like down this rabbit hole of what is this magical place and how are the trees this glorious? And so we went to this place called Jenny Lake and we were going to be hiking up to a waterfall.

13:59Now, side note, Blake. Blake is one of the co-founders of a company called Boom Pop, where they professionally really organized corporate trips and events for teams to go through. And so we're obviously like, Blake, this is what you do. So hook us up. And so he says, we're going to go on a hike. And he's like, you guys, it's going to be a chill hike, not too long. There I'm back to that waterfall. It'll be about an hour. So I go in my Nike high tops, but not like Nike. I'm going in those old school slides, like the ones with no traction, because I was like 30 minutes, not going to be big deal.

14:32Four hours later, I took no water. I took no snacks. Your girl without snacks for four hours is not a friendly person. You guys, we hiked. And so I'm there and I'm like, okay, I have four hours with these guys. We're going to talk. And so every single person, as we're walking around, I'm asking, what are you doing with content? And we had an opportunity for me to speak into their businesses and saying, there's so much that you are sitting on. Please take advantage because this is pure market differentiation. So I had eight conversations around content and I am still, if not more than ever, convinced that content must be the thing that's going to change the game moving into 2025.

15:11And lastly, when I was there, one of the guys in my mastermind, his name is Adam Schaefer, and he is a podcast host for a podcast called Mind Pump. Now, Mind Pump is one of the biggest health and wellness podcast, period. Like they're the top of their space. And so after two years of being Adam's friend, we were there and we were talking and he's like, hey, I really think you should come on the podcast. And I was like, yes, please. What a win. Now, was I intimidated? Because I mean, no one's looking to me for health and wellness. You know what I'm saying? At least not yet. But being able to go in there and talk about building a personal brand in the health and wellness space and talking about things that people can do to change their lives to betterment, talking about my health journey.

15:51It was a really cool experience. It debuted on Mind Pump, and it was really cool to be exposed to a very large new audience. October 16th and 17th, yes, about a couple days later, in our quarter to laying bricks episode, I had explained that I was a mentor for an event called the Inc. Magazine and the UPS Store Small Business Challenge. So I was a mentor of this, and so I was able to mentor a business to talk about how they might succeed in a short amount of time so that they would be eligible for a$50 ,000 business grant. Well, when I went to the live event in Miami, this is back in quarter two, the editor-in-chief of Inc.

16:28Magazine was in the audience and I had no idea that he was there. So he came up to me, he introduced himself, very nice guy, I said, thank you so much for this opportunity. Well, when they were planning the Inc. 5000 conference, my name was dropped as a potential speaker. So it was very good and lovely that I had met the editor-in-chief. And so as my name was passed around as a potential speaker, I definitely think it was in great alignment. So JD, Luna, and I, we went to Palm Springs for the event. Now, early that morning, I make sure that I work out five or six days a week. So when I'm on the road, I'm working out.

17:08I'm walking to the gym at this hotel, and it's very, very dark. I think it's like 530 in the morning. The sun is not out. and I'm walking and I see a gentleman walking ahead of me. And listen, as a girl who's walking in the dark and nobody else around, and I see somebody else in the front and he's carrying a water bottle, so I'm assuming he's gonna go to the gym. I start walking a little bit closer to him. So my mind, let me get you into the mind of my psychotic. I watched too many Dateline NBC episodes. And I'm like, just in case I have to yell, there's another guy who looks like I'm going in the same direction.

17:36So it's like safety first, like no stranger danger. So I'm kind of like walking a little close to him. And then unbeknownst to me, he turns around really fast. and he's like, whoa, you scared me. And I was like, no, no, no, I can't scare you, bro. You gotta protect me. So we have this like, kind of like short five minute conversation. We walk in and he introduced me to his wife. His wife was already at the gym working out. We said hello. I introduced myself. I thought she was just lovely, amazing, very strong entrepreneurs. And I was like, great, that's it. That's all I said. Well, when we're there, I go back.

18:04I get ready to speak on stage. Let me set the stage because I'm about to step on the stage for you. We are at a large hotel with a very large conference center. They have the main ballrooms. They have adjacent ballrooms where people are speaking. And so they said, Jasmine, this is gonna be your point of contact at the event. So I put on my lanyard, my placard. I walk in, I'm at the trade show floor. I check in. I was like, hi, I'm here, I'm speaking. And they're like, okay, great. They're like, oh, we hope you're wearing comfortable shoes because you have a walk ahead of you. And I was like, oh, okay.

18:33Are we gonna be here in like the conference rooms? They're like, no, you're offsite. And I was like, oh Lord. So I'm escorted out of the conference center, out of the hotel itself, across a very hot pavement to a hangar of Zorists, and there is nobody there. I walk in, and there's three people in the room. Two of them are my videographers, a bunch of empty chairs, and one person sitting in a chair. And you want to know who that person was? the girl that I met at the gym that morning. So shout out to Cindy. Thank you for being the one person who's gonna show up to this event. So this was not in my notes and I debated even saying it, but like, here we are.

19:18I will tell you that as a speaker in a new part of the world, I'm not known as like an Inc. magazine speaker. I was just nervous. I was like, not only am I in this room that's literally a hike and a half to get to, nobody is here at the venue right now and so I think to myself oh this is embarrassing so I actually went up to my videographer I was like okay so the room looks a little bit empty so how about you bring in the cameras a little bit and crop out that I'm not speaking to people so we have a quick laugh whatever it is what it is except for the fact that we went in and I knew that even if not a single person beyond Cindy showed up, I knew that if nobody else showed up, that my videographer was there.

20:08It's my responsibility to create content on behalf of my business, regardless of what is going on around me. And I told myself, Jasmine, if nobody else comes in this room, you have content. You will speak to empty rooms until the rooms become full. You will make podcasts that nobody else listens to. You will write blog posts that nobody reads. You will send newsletters when people ain't opening email. You will send text messages that are left unread. You will do it until they start showing up, they start reading, they start engaging, and they start responding. That was the commitment that I made.

20:44I made peace with it. So we start the event and the chairs in the front were about like half full. And I was like, here we go. And next thing you know, more people show up and then more people show up. and then more people show up. And what I found out later was that people were tweeting and they were putting on Instagram stories that they were enjoying this particular presentation. And so it caused, and they were using the hashtag for the event, and it caused people to walk outside of the venue to a venue that people didn't even know existed to be in the room. We ended up with a full house. And I don't say that for any other reason than saying, if I was there for the full house, I would have been disappointed, but I wasn't.

21:26I was there to create the content until people came to the room. On the 18th, literally the next day, I was on a flight to Scottsdale, Arizona, where I met a woman by the name of Natalie Dawson. Now, she is a co-founder for 10X Ventures. Now, I have to tell you, Natalie and I crossed paths about three or four years ago. I spoke at an event in San Diego, and she was in the audience. I didn't know this at the time. Well, about a year and a half ago, she reached out and said, Jasmine, will you come on my podcast? That is how I met her, And then I ended up having her on my podcast because she's phenomenal and she's bright.

22:00And somebody who I'm just looking to as saying, you're playing a different game. And so in quarter four, I decided to do a deep dive into what is the direction that I'm doing and how am I going to be building? And what do I need to do that's different than what has been? So I'm reaching out to very strategic people to say, what are you doing and how are you doing it? I literally sent her a text message. And I was like, she's not going to say yes. She's so busy and she travels a ton. I'm like, chances are she's going to say no. But I sent it out anyway, and I said, listen, I'm going to be in Arizona.

22:28And I didn't actually tell this to Natalie, but maybe this is my time now. I said, I'm going to be in Arizona, and I'm going to be meeting with somebody whose business I sit as an advisor in. I said, are you going to be around? And she said, yes. Now, I had said I was going to be out there for that meeting, but what I didn't tell her was I had a choice of dates for that meeting, and whenever she was going to be available, that's when I was going to schedule the meeting. I was actually leading with prioritizing her time so I could get a yes. I was like, just give me the date because I could reverse engineer everything else, you know?

22:58And so she said, hey, I'm available on this date at this time. I said, great, I'm there. I literally booked a ticket that day. I reached out to their company. I said, hey, I'm going to be in Arizona. Let's have our quarterly advisement meeting in person. They said yes. Boom, done, locked it in. So I really, really, really went in with one question. I asked to meet because I told her I wanted to put myself out without attachment. I wanted to start building relationships knowing that people were going to say no. And in this case, she didn't. So I am walking up into this building. So I get an Uber.

23:32I'm walking up to this beautiful building. It's large and it's massive. And I'm like, wow, what they're building and what they're doing is so different than what my version of reality is. So we sit down, we make small talk for a very short amount of time. And then we hit the ground running. So I spent with her about two hours talking about the nature of her business. And here's one thing that I really appreciated about her is she said, Hey, Jasmine, I'm available to meet at this time. I said, great. I booked my tickets, no questions asked. And so then the day before she says, Jasmine, I'm able to meet for these two hours and then we can get a quick bite to eat after.