The One Skill Every Entrepreneur Needs to Develop [Growth Challenge: Day 1]

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. Welcome to day one of the five-day growth challenge. This week, the team and I are celebrating the 500th episode of the Jasmine Starr Show. And this is our fifth podcast anniversary. So to celebrate, we have short, like maybe under 12-minute episodes that are going to provide you with strategies for overcoming challenges, achieving your goals, and unlocking your fullest potential. And if you leave a review during the next five days, you're going to be entered to win$500. Today's episode that you're about to start listening to right now will help you develop your tolerance for uncertainty, one of the most underrated skills in business.

1:05And make sure to stay until the very end for your action step. Let's go over the first skill, which is having the tolerance for uncertainty. We're going to start here. The big guns, let's not shy away from what I really believe is a game changer. But what does this actually mean? It means having a tolerance for uncertainty in business is being able to make decisions and take action even when the outcome isn't clear. You know, like you have to make decisions the same way a lot of other business owners make them, which is shooting in the dark. Just yesterday, I was having a conversation with a group of entrepreneurs and we were talking about messaging and identifying your ideal client.

1:41And I was walking through our framework and they had said, well, how did you know? Like, how did you know that that was your dream client? And I realized, oh, it has never been said. When you start messaging for a new offer, for a new customer, you are shooting in the dark. We all make decisions in uncertainty, but we often don't talk about it. We think that we're the only people doing it and other people are not. No, but when you make more decisions quicker in more uncertainty, you get to the answer faster. Now, it's the ability to handle ambiguity. You know, like what's ambiguous? When things are not easily understood.

2:16It is the ability to handle ambiguity, adapt to changing situations, and make decisions even when you don't have all of the answers, which let's just be real, in business, do you ever have all of the answers? No. So if you know it's normal, like we're always gonna be shooting in the dark, especially in the beginning, there will always be a level of ambiguity. We will never have all of the answers. Well, okay, if we know that this is normal, how do we develop a tolerance for uncertainty? Here are four steps. Step number one is to develop a tolerance by simply acknowledging and accepting uncertainty.

2:48I know, it's like, you're like, wow, Jasmine, you're really deep. I might not be, but let me just tell you, simple gets it done. When we acknowledge and accept that uncertainty is a natural part of business and it's totally unavoidable. Okay, well then we can move on to other steps. Like in business, there could be months when you're uncertain if you're going to be able to pay yourself or not. But you must trust yourself enough to push past this and then take continuous action towards your vision. There have been plenty of time that I had been uncertain for a prolonged period of time. And the more I spoke to other business owners who were taking massive leaps in their business, they said, that's the norm.

3:21Okay, step number two for increasing your tolerance for uncertainty is to embrace complexity and ambiguity. Like, instead of being angry, you could look at complexity as an opportunity for growth. In fact, if there is complexity, what we want to do is we want to avoid it like it's an obstacle. And I'm saying, let's look at complexity as an opportunity to learn and flex. And I understand this is a mindset shift. Like, you just have to look at the same situation and choose to see it differently. Because when you start thinking about challenges as necessary opportunities to get bigger, better, stronger, faster, well, when you look at it that way, you win.

3:53You're able to find joy in the unknown. And like, I know that sounds crazy, but when you find joy in the unknown, that makes you unstoppable. Like people can't get in your head. You're literally unmessable with when you just simply say, it's complex, I'm gonna figure it out. Step number three is to practice decision making in uncertain scenarios. Now, I know it might seem a little crazy, a little bizarre, but practicing decision-making and critical thinking by putting yourself in a hypothetical business situation can help you feel confident and improve your overall decisions. Like, I have to tell you right now that sometimes I listen to podcasts with Gary V and he's doing a coaching session with his 4Ds program.

4:30And sometimes I'll pause the podcast and I'll be like, Gary's gonna say this. Or if somebody asked me this, this is how I would answer. And then I press play so that I can hear his answer and I could see if I was like close or if I wasn't close or how did he see it? It was so different than how I saw it. And I'm like, oh, I'm intrigued. Or oftentimes when I am watching YouTube videos, like still shout out that podcast guest, her name is Layla Harmozi. I just like the way she thinks because she thinks so opposite of me. I often think of marketing and sales and she thinks so strictly in operations.

4:57And I think it's fascinating. And so sometimes I will pause some of her, like her YouTube interviews and I'm thinking, how did she apply this? How can I start flexing that muscle? And so I put myself in business situations to see how close my response is, to measure how I'm tracking and thinking with others. Does that sound crazy? I mean, am I admitting this? Like, is this weird? It totally is weird. I know, but you wanna know what? Who cares? So here's an example of a hypothetical scenario for a product-based business. Imagine you own a small bakery, and then suddenly the supplier tells you how there's gonna be a delay in delivering a crucial ingredient.

5:28Like, okay, let's say, oh, shut out. It was gluten-free flour, right? So for those of you who don't know, I'm gluten-free. So this is crucial, okay? So you are a bakery owner. you're not going to get your gluten-free flour. And then, of course, you have a large order to fulfill for a local event where half of the order needed gluten-free cupcakes. Now you have to decide whether to buy the ingredient from a more expensive supplier, which would make your profit little to nothing, or risk disappointing the customer. What do you do? I know, it seems silly, but this scenario helps you practice quick decision-making by weighing immediate costs against potential long-term gains.

6:04I play this in my mind all the time. why is doing mental reps? I really believe that. That's crazy. It's like, what do you do for fun? Imagine business scenarios. Okay, now let's do a hypothetical scenario for a service-based business. You're a solopreneur of a graphic design business and you've taken on two high-paying clients with tight deadlines that overlap. Both clients are equally as important to you and like, let's be real, you need the money, but you're uncertain if you can meet both deadlines without compromising the quality of work. You have to decide whether to negotiate new timelines with one of the clients Then you could potentially risk the quality of both projects or hire a contractor to meet the both deadlines, which would take time.

6:44And that doesn't something that you necessarily have. And it could be hefty and an unpredictable cost. What do you do? This scenario helps you practice making decisions about client prioritization, managing cash flow and effective client communication. OK, so before we move to the fourth step in developing a tolerance for uncertainty, let's review. Remember, we're still in section one of underrated qualities that are so banger for being an entrepreneur. Step one is to acknowledge and accept uncertainty. Step two is to embrace complexity and ambiguity. And step three is to practice decision making in uncertain scenarios.

7:18Now, the fourth and final step is to measure comfort with uncertainty. Now, measuring comfort, I know, it's like so esoteric. It's not exactly easy. It's not like analytics or numbers that you can plug into a chart and say, I have improved my comfort by 32%. No, like you have to get real with yourself and how you feel. So how do you do this? Start by taking about, I don't know, 10 minutes each evening to write down your feelings about the uncertainties you faced that day. And then after you reflect, write on a scale of one to 10, how uncomfortable you felt in each situation. This practice will also help you be intentional and more self-aware how you face uncomfortable situations because you're able to look back at patterns of uncertainty that you now feel, oh, that situation, I proved how certain I could be in uncertain situations.

8:07And then you could see, how did I make that through? And then the best part is this journal will be proof, like come back to this journal in a year. And it's proof that you can be uncertain and still find a way through. So I don't come on the podcast and be like, let's pontificate or let's make up scenarios. At the time of this recording, earlier today, I had a really incredible meeting with an opportunity. Now, this opportunity is a rare opportunity. It is an opportunity, and I'm going to leave it pretty ambiguous for now until we fully locked in what it could be. But it's the first time that I have pitched partnering with a different subscription company to create a resource.

8:44More on that soon. Not right now. But because this is such a huge opportunity, last night, I literally laid down the framework. We had a 30-minute meeting, and I needed to guarantee that at least 25 of that 30 minutes was going to be dedicated on selling them on the vision and pitching them what we wanted to do. So then what I did, as I said, I have 25 minutes. Well, I needed to leave around three minutes for introductions and, you know, like salutations. It's the first time we've ever been meeting via video. And so then I said, I have five minutes to pitch. A total of eight minutes of 30 was going to be not spend optimizing for the actual pitch.

9:23I needed five minutes to lay a framework. Do you think I was going to leave that time just to be like, oh, I just come to me in the moment. Maybe if you're good and confident, I don't know, y 'all, I needed some practice. So what I did was I literally laid out, if I didn't know what I was being pitched, what would I need to see? What would I need to understand? What miracle must I believe in? And when I say miracle, I always look at this from like a business perspective. What must I believe to be true? Even in the impossibility of it, I need to believe that this is true in order for me to be sold on this solution.

9:53And so I said, I need to remove all questions. I need to add clarity. I need to do a walkthrough of a value add. I need to cast the vision and I need to connect the dots before we even get to the pitch. And so I had everything set up in my mind. I just wrote down notes. And so then 10 minutes before the call today, I went through, I queued up all of my tabs in Chrome to walk through demos, examples, vision casting of what we would need from a user perspective. And at the end of the call, now JD was on the other side of the door. he was with Luna. So my office is adjacent to our bedroom. And so he took Luna into the bedroom.

10:27We shut my office doors. And so he had his ear pressed against the door. And then right when we got off Zoom, he opened the door. He like came in, high-fived me. And it wasn't like an after-school special high-five. You know, it was cool. Like he was cool. It was cool. He was just like, got it. Like, good job. Good job. And so that feels really good. But what did I do yesterday? I just wrote down how I was feeling, but it's not enough for me to sit in the uncertainty. I actually had to say, this is going to be your best attempt. And if they say no, hey, at least I know I planned and I put my best foot forward.

10:57Okay, so I know that was a lot, but I want you to be able to build the business of your dreams. And I know for a fact that building tolerance for uncertainty, even though it's underrated, is going to be really, really good in your favor. And that, my friend, is the power of developing your tolerance for uncertainty. Now it's time for your action step. I want you to identify one area of your business where uncertainty is holding you back. Take one small, bold step towards embracing that uncertainty today. And don't forget, if you leave a review during this five-day challenge, you'll be entered to win$500.

11:29Thanks for joining me on this journey. What an honor it's been. And I look forward to seeing you tomorrow for day two of our growth challenge. Keep pushing forward.