Stop the Busywork and Start Scaling

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.

0:32I can't wait to see you there. Be prepared when you're going to be walking into something where you know like, oh, this is going to be challenging my focus. Commit to mantras that you know to be true that will help you stay focused and keep you understanding that while that looks better, shiny, sexier, it's also a distraction from keeping the main thing the main thing. Have you ever had a thousand things vying for your attention? Have you ever been doing something and then you just feel tempted to stop because you're not sure it's going to work? And so then you go and you start something new. What if I explained a different way and perhaps a better way?

1:05What if the real solution is to believe that doing less leads to more? Welcome to the Jasmine Starr Show, where I empower seven-figure entrepreneurs to scale to eight. And normally on the show, I have a big focus on marketing and sales and branding. That's kind of my jam. And today we are going to talk about focus. Yes, the F word. Okay, so I believe I wrote some notes. And I wrote my notes based on like a belief that I have. A belief that I have is focus can be your best friend if. Focus is your best friend if you keep her number one at all times. And focus is going to be your best friend if, too, you decide to stay monogamous with this best friend.

1:46And you have to be determined to keep focus at your side the whole time, every day, all day. Now, focus can also be your frenemy, right? Your frenemy, if you don't adhere to her stipulations, if you don't keep her number one, if you are not monogamous, and if you are not keeping her at your side all the time. Now, I understand that as business owners, we want to focus. I know you do. But there are things that we need to do. We need to respond to that email right at this very moment. We need to doomscroll Instagram. We just need to because it's market research. We need to catch up on a lot of busy work that we've been putting off.

2:26We need to address the pile of laundry that's sitting in the room. We hand to heaven. We really need to focus on the business, but there's another business that I'd really like to focus on because focusing is really great and fun when focusing becomes a little too hard on something that might not be working. Is anyone? Is this just me? Does anybody else struggle with focusing? It has been, not to get super meta, but focus has been my main focus for the past two years. And I want us to all realize that you're not alone. In fact, as I was struggling with my focus, I did a little bit of research.

2:59The Harvard Business Review wrote that most entrepreneurs experience attention residue due to wearing multiple hats, which is directly impacting sustained focus. And a zero study said 77 % of business owners feel burnt out and have difficulty focusing. That was from a 2022 study. Okay, so I've experienced this before, but I wanted it to stop. So for the last two years, I have focused all of my attention on focus. And I started it with one thing that you're probably going to roll your eyes and you're absolutely probably going to hate. I began to hone my focus by doing a time audit, a time audit.

3:41And what a time audit did was basically go about and chronicle everything I was doing, not just in a day, but I did it over a two-week time span. And yes, it was annoying. And yes, it took extra time. But I have to tell you, understanding how I was spending my days and then understanding what I was spending time on that took a lot of time that didn't actually move a lot in the business became very revealing. I started asking myself, is this actually proportionate with what I was working on, proportionate to where the business was going or just simply keeping the business in its current spot? It was eye-opening.

4:14And it was so eye-opening that the second thing I did to hone my focus was to ask the team to do a time audit. So we asked all of our W2 employees to do a time audit over two weeks so that we would be able to understand where are they spending their time? And is it reflective of where the business is going, not just where the business is? I heard the same feedback from the team that I experienced myself. They were wildly underestimating how some tasks that were like small or menial, how long they were actually taking them. And they wish they had more time to do bigger, higher level thinking for the other projects they wanted to pursue.

4:52So after that, I began the process of working myself out of a job. So number one on Honing Focus was to do a time audit. Number two was to have the team do their time audits. And then number three, I wanted to work myself out of a job. What were the jobs within the organization, within my business that I didn't want to do anymore that were no longer serving the future version of the business? And in order for me to stop doing and being in the business so that I can work on the business, I had to work myself out of the jobs that I was doing. I had to earn my right to sit as CEO and visionary and not get caught up in the weeds.

5:27So once I created systems and once I turned over elements to other team members to be responsible for, once I stopped going to meetings that were not really serving me in the big picture, I noticed on my calendar I had pockets of open space, of blank space. And I have to tell you that over the last two years, that blank space has been the most agonizing and the most rewarding thing that I have done in my business. I have never been the type of person who could just sit and be. I'm never the kind of person who's just like, I just love pontificating. It makes me very uncomfortable to be alone with my own thoughts in my own ways.

6:05It makes me feel very responsible to cast a vision of where we're going. And sometimes that responsibility makes me feel uncomfortable because there are so many people who depend on what this vision is. So once the blank space opened, I started asking myself a few things. What was I good at? Number two, what did I actually want to build? Not what I thought I should build. Not what the market was saying. What do I, as a human with a purpose and a vision for my future, what do I want to build? And lastly, what was the market looking for after years of so much change? I will tell you that in 2025, the general sentiment for people who are creating digital components to their business, they have seen a pretty significant downturn in what the digital offers are yielding in comparison to previous years.

7:03So what I was able to do by stepping out is that we saw these peak years of 2019, 2020, and 21. When we look back at what was happening in the digital space in 20 and 21, where people were at home, they had extra money to spend and they were looking for ways to dive into digital communities. Like we saw this massive spike of growth. And then what happens is like there's been a trickle down effect and there's been a loss of trust in people who are selling and creating on the Internet. that. So in 2024, I'm looking and saying there is a big gap here and things have fundamentally shifted so that when we moved into 2025, I realized, oh, I saw the writing on the wall and I started building towards the future, not what the high days of the past.

7:48That wouldn't have happened if I actually hadn't taken time to assess what do people want? Where are we going? What do I want to build? And what am I actually good at? When I answered those three questions, I could not help but focus because it became very clear that what I had been and what I had built was great for the time it was, but for who I am now and for who I want to be in the future and for where I think the business is going to be in the future, I needed to change. And change was going to require me to hone in a new level of focus that I had never experienced before. Once I did that, then I created.

8:23And I think that it's very different than other things that I've done in the past. It was like, I am a creator. I am a generator. I can come up with things and I'm moving quickly and fast and I loved it and it served me well, but it's not going to serve me as I step into the next iteration of my business. I want to go deep and I want to go very high. And that takes time. It was after I answered those three questions, then I created. And if it was part of my focus, part of my vision, then I was doing it. And if something else came as a beautiful, shiny, amazing, sexy distraction, I was not going to touch it.

9:00And that was very hard because as business owners, we are not lacking for opportunity. People who know how to make money, people who know how to create content, people who know how to create trust, people who know how to make an offer and people buy, you're not lacking for opportunity. In fact, it's death by opportunity because you say yes to this opportunity and yes to this opportunity. And all of a sudden, and you just realized I've built like a hundred short ladders. I've done that. I'm at a point in my career where I'm focusing on one very tall ladder, regardless of how long it's going to take for me to build it.

9:35So if it was a distraction and wasn't pointing me to the big goal, I stopped doing it. So in 2024 and up into this point of 2025 at recording, I have done less speaking. I've done the least amount of speaking that I have done in years. I am done the least amount of podcasts. I'm not guesting on podcasts right now. And I have done the least amount of media, interviews, writing, submissions. I'm just focused on keeping the main thing, the main thing. And those other things are just a distraction. I don't need amplification as I'm building. I need to build, then I want to amplify. So I've been doing a lot of working and building behind the scenes.

10:14I've been sharing some of that on the podcast. I probably am my most real and my most authentic and my most, okay, this is the real ugly on my podcast and on social media. It's just keeping things going and keeping people engaged. Small little tidbits and peeks into it, but that's just the real, real. So we privately launched the consistent 10K in August of 2025. We started off very small and we started off with intention and we started off with a foundation. Now we started with a wait list of just a few hundred people. We have hundreds of thousands of people on a newsletter and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.

10:53And we decided, nope, we're building the foundation and we're setting the intention. So once we launched Consistent 10K, something that we've been working on since the end of 2024, we went from creation to iteration. So what does that mean? That once it was out there, we had to learn those lessons and we wanted to learn them as fast as possible so that we could change and serve people extraordinarily well. We were not looking for scale at the outset. We're looking for results, testimonials, and success stories so that it becomes proof of concept for a new way of doing something in the market. And the truth was we actually couldn't anticipate how fast we needed to learn these lessons.

11:33But I mean, this is the real, real, I'm going to tell you, it was not for the faint of heart. So this is what we did. We segmented our wait list. Remember, this wait list was not big. It was just a few hundred people. It was less than 600. We segmented it from going to 600 and we said, okay, we're only going to be emailing people at 150 people at a time. And we're going to measure their open rate, the click-through rate. We're going to measure who's setting up calls. And then all of a sudden we realized, oh, we need to segmented again. We had too much inbound volume to actually sustain the demand.

12:05So we segmented, we segmented again, and then we delayed sending out other emails because we needed to build that foundation. We needed to make sure that people were coming in at the right time. And I think there's this temptation, this temptation to say, oh, we're moving too slow. The old version of me that really struggled with focus would say, we're moving too slow. We need to do more. This new version of me with a very honed focus and said, shut everything out and do it in a particular way. That version, oh, she was here and she was not playing any games. So when we realized that we had too much to do and too many people to serve, we said, okay, we're going to designate our focus.

12:44So I had a designated focus and my designated focus was going to be marketing and sales. I needed to understand the cadence. We had not even put anything outward facing, But how are we going to market to the small segments of this list? And also on sales, how are we going to hire the right team? How are we going to cultivate? And what kind of feedback were we giving them? That was my honed focus. Now, my co-creator, my partner, a woman who's been at my side for six years in every iteration of the things that I have created, her name is Katie, her main focus was the community and building out coaches.

13:15So we had to build that whole system for coaches. We had never done this to this capacity before. And she was also focused on community. So community and coaches were going to be her main focus. So in the beginning, Katie and I were taking five to six sales calls a day. We needed to understand who was coming in. We needed to understand our message and we needed to focus on their needs and align our offer. Where was it hitting on all strides? Where was it missing? What could we be tweaking? And we quickly realized, okay, we have product market fit and this is great. How much can we begin to scale?

13:49But here again, we said, what are we going to focus on? So we were going to be focusing on updating our scripts. We were going to be focusing on updating our data, how quickly people were signing up, how much time each coach was going to be spending per student. We were literally cataloging everything, how many people logged in in the first week, in the second week, in the third week. All we were doing was tracking the data to make sure that we understood scale and how quick we would have to expand a sales team as well as a coaching team to get people those results. So we were also focused on increasing our close rates.

14:20We knew we were going to be the pace setters. We knew we were going to have very high standards for who our closers were going to be. So we said, we're only going to ask you to do what we have already proven. Here again, focus. So then we began onboarding those new students. It was exciting. It was inspiring. After months and months of hard work and recording, and I think I had mentioned on other podcasts that I was creating these lessons at like four o 'clock in the morning. I was staying late at night. It was just a sprint in regards to knowing that this program was going to change lives. And I knew what I wanted to do with it.

14:53And I was willing to make those sacrifices. And in the beginning, I kept on telling the team, you guys, we're going to be unrolling slowly. I kept on saying slowly, slowly. And that word was grating against me, not only because I hate the word slow, it was also grating on me because it didn't feel true. I don't think we were moving slowly. I think that we could have gone so much faster, but it would have taken away our focus. So instead, I made the intentional decision to say, we're not moving slowly. We're going intentionally and we're building foundationally. And every time I was like, okay, well, it feels like it's too slow.

15:26No, no, no. It feels like it's intentional. Great. That felt like so much of a better word. And that only happened on the back of really honing in on what we were focusing on and understanding our focus is our focus until we earn the right to focus on something else. I knew that I had nothing to prove. I mean, this is just real. Like in the past, I felt like I would put out an offer and I wanted to prove something. Nobody was paying attention to me as much as I was paying attention to me. And so I felt like this is like an invisible person who was looking that I had to prove something to. And, you know, when I think about it, I had to prove something to my former self.

15:56I wanted to prove something to my family that I could be successful. I wanted to prove something to my friends that we can make it out from where we've come. I wanted to prove it to the shady business partners who I had. And I just wanted to be like, look at what happened. That served me up into a certain degree. And then all of a sudden I realized that I was drinking poison, expecting other people to have the after effects of it. This offer, I had nothing to prove. I had already done things that I was extraordinarily proud of and that were wildly successful. This, this was for the build. This is for the legacy.

16:29I also knew that we were building foundational because we were testing systems. We had never built our systems with so much specificity and so much acute awareness of every moving piece to it. I look at these systems and I'm like, this is gangster. And I feel really proud and I feel like I could brag about them because the team was the one building the systems. The team was standing in their form of excellence, understanding they weren't moving slowly. They were moving with intention. We were also understanding here again, foundation and focus was how much bandwidth could each coach take? How accountable could they keep each student?

17:03And so we were watching the data for that. So we are watching time spent with a student, our follow-up, all of that was going into the systems and that only happened because of the focused time that I had spent. So when we became really confident with our close rate and our systems, it was time to hire our first growth strategist. So here again, we had focused on the offer, focused on designated parts of it, focused on building systems for each of those parts. And now we're focused on understanding who we were gonna bring on the team. So the first week that we had had this open, our CEO began interviews for our growth strategist.

17:39These are other people who are just taking those sales and clarity calls. and during that first week of hiring, I faced my very first big, sexy, glorious distraction. This is when I felt like my focus was being super charged and super challenged. So I'm gonna pause here. There's a little bit of a backstory. I was invited to meet with a group of eight figure entrepreneurs in Chicago. It was a small group of us, we get together, it's like a peer led mastermind and whenever I get to mastermind with these incredible women, I walk away, I am challenged, I am inspired, I am motivated. I feel like I can just, you know, eat the world with a spoon.

18:15I am ready to dig. I'm ready, on fire, doing all of it. And I usually leave those events with so much to do, like a list of things that I want to accomplish, a list of sparkly new funnels and marketing and all the different ways to doing it. that has been my norm. That was who I was. And this time I would become a different person. And I was a different person, not because I was doing more, but because I was doing less. I was deeply focusing on the main thing. And so when I was flying to Chicago, I literally had my notebook and I wrote down to myself, stay focused. Do not add more to your list of things to do.

18:57resist the temptation to take on an idea and add it in right now because we haven't tested and proven what the thing that we had set out to do. In 2024, my word of the year was independent. And not independent doing it on my own. It was independent doing it my own way. So I reminded myself in 2025 of what I had had to learn the year before. Do it your own way. Don't let other people cloud this right now. Hone in on what you know to be freaking true. So because I knew that, I couldn't get off track. And let me tell you, I was so tempted to get off track because when you are in a room with Amy Porterfield and Jenna Kutcher and Bonnie Christine and Stacey Tushel and Dylan Jarhouse, let me tell you, the temptation is real because, oh, they have these beautiful funnels and they have golden strategies and then they have these amazing foundations.

19:47And I'm just like, oh, I had to tell myself every time they asked a question and every time they brainstorm and every time we mastermind up what these ideas can be and how they can up level and refine them. I'm like, resist, girl, resist. Focus is beautiful and it's real and it's depth and it's richness. So in my mind, I quietly repeated the things that I'd written in my journal. And here are the things I wrote in my journal. You can try it later. You're collecting data. You're in a testing period. you will earn the right to implement these amazing ideas. So I just took notes. I listened carefully.

20:24I did not give myself something to do. I simply said, you are going to be here. You are going to focus. You're going to earn the right to move forward after you've done this. So when it came time for my hot seat, right? This is when everybody asks a question of like, oh, what are things that I can change? Or what are things that I can do? Instead of me asking for another thing to do or something to make better. I was like, no, no, no, no. I'm going to turn to them and I'm going to ask about something that's not related to this project that has yet to be birthed publicly. And so I am looking at these women who are fully set to answer and I resist the temptation to ask about a business model and a business mechanism that these other women have already built.

21:05They have 13, 14,$15 million businesses that they've grown along a very similar model. And I'm like, I'm not going to ask you how you've done it right now. I need to focus on doing it my own way, fixing it and earning the right to ask questions when you've already been there. So I needed to stick to the plan. I couldn't get distracted. And I made those terms and I agreed to those terms before I got there. And let me tell you, this was agonizing. I was like, oh, I feel like a piece of me is dying because of it. So instead, I use my hot seat to get insights on the collections of businesses that I serve on as an advisor.

21:39So I've mentioned before, back in 2023, my husband and I started a holding company. I sit as an advisor and or investors for equity inside of businesses. And I sit and I give insight and feedback on their growth strategies. This has been one of the coolest things I've ever done in my business. And so what I wanted to do is ask these women how I want to strategically position the holding company and my time to maximize advising opportunities. The reason I asked that question is because I loved their advice and insights, but I had already set the foundations. We already had our systems. We already had our operations.

22:17We know our flow. We know what we're expecting. We know the type of contracts that we want for the agreements with these founders. So getting their insights was just icing on top of a cake we had already built. I just wanted to make sure they were understanding those differences. So on the flight home, I journaled again. I said that I was really proud that I had kept my focus. I was proud that I had known that I had changed, that I was in a similar situation and I chose a different outcome. And it confirmed that it was just a matter of time before I am pulling that lever to scale consistent 10K.

22:53It confirmed all of those things. And I only earned the right to say those things because I set time for focus. I established what focus was. I applied focus in each of those areas and I remain focused going into something where I knew distractions were going to come. So here in closing, I'm gonna share three tips for honing focus. But before I do that, if you know of an entrepreneur or somebody in your life who's really trying to focus on accomplishing something, it would mean the world to me if you sent them this podcast. Tell them that you and them are gonna be focusing on focusing. So the three tips to hone your focus.

23:29Number one, if you need to focus, begin by ruthlessly cutting away. Ruthlessly cutting away meetings, cutting away tasks, cutting away commitments. Number two, if you are learning how to focus, declare a season of no. I had to tell my friends, I had to tell my family, hey, listen, I'm doing something new and I probably won't be as available for other things right now. My main focus is this, so that I am building a business that serves my life and gives me the freedom that I desire, not that I'm forever changed to my business. And then lastly, number three, acknowledge the temptation of distraction in advance.

24:07In advance. So be prepared when you're going to be walking into something where you know like, ooh, this is going to be challenging my focus. Commit to mantras that you know to be true that will help you stay focused and keep you understanding that while that looks better, shiny, sexier, it's also a distraction from keeping the main thing the main thing. And as you are preparing for that temptation, you can say, I'm going to absorb this knowledge and I'm going to save it for later. Everything that I learned in Chicago to apply my business, I'm saying that's a reward. I get to pursue that once I set the foundations and earn my right to innovate and iterate beyond the things that I have already done right now.