When You Should “Break the Rules” in Your Business

0:0010 years ago, I made the decision to build my personal brand that was elevated, yet approachable, and reflected who I was, not just what I did. I created my website with ShowIt because it's true drag-and-drop freedom, so you can easily build and update your site. Plus, their real human support team, game changer. Want to try it for yourself? Head to jasminestar.com forward slash showit for a 14-day free trial and first month free when you subscribe. They saw that somebody who wasn't the best or the most qualified or the most talented could legitimately show up like a broken gangster and do the damn thing.

0:36That is what they saw. And then on top of that, they saw somebody making magic out of beans and being a luxury photographer on top of that. Welcome back to the Jasmine Starr Show, where we discuss business mindset and today, breaking the rules and taking risks in business. Okay. So to be very, very, okay. I want to start off here. I grew up in a very conservative home. Like we had rules for rules. We had a rule for how we should answer the phone. Thank you for calling the Wattis household. How may I help you? Yeah. We had a rule for how we behaved when guests came to dinner. The kids cleared all of the plates and then we set out coffee and creamer for after dinner drinks.

1:16We had a rule for what we were allowed to watch. Basically, as a rule of thumb, if it wasn't on PBS, it was basically off limits because all the Smurfs practiced witchcraft and Scooby-Doo had too many ghosts. And Saved by the Bell showed promiscuous teenage relationships. Even though, as I pointed out, as a kid, I'm like, promiscuity? Since when is kissing promiscuity? in my conservative household, it was. So as you might imagine, I broke almost every rule, not because I was a troublemaker, but because mostly if the rule didn't make sense to me, I would challenge it. I challenged rules with so much frequency that my mom would start almost every conversation with Jasmine.

1:54I don't want to hear a peep from you about this. So you just listen without a single word. Legitimately, that was her script. So there were so many times that I challenged the rules that my parents, they just came to expect it. But one time I talked back to my mom so much that while she was sweeping the kitchen, she got so angry. She lifted her broom like she was going to swap me, but I like juked. I ran away. Like literally I sprinted. And then I noticed that she was running after me. My mother chased me out of the kitchen, out the front door, down our gravel driveway past the neighbor's house until she like realized that she was standing on the sidewalk in bright pink sweatpants and she was barefoot and her hair was in a rat's nest and she's holding a broom and I was like oh god she finally like I'm running and I turn back and my mom is like red in the face and she yelled down the street just wait until your father comes home And I was like, oh God.

2:55So I remained a challenger through high school. And then later when I announced that I was going to go to law school, my parents are like, yeah, obviously. So even to this day, I challenge rules or norms that don't make sense. And this is exactly why in this episode, we're diving into my healthy rule-breaking framework that I put together for this episode. We're also going to be covering a theory called the rule-breaker mindset. and one of my favorite stories about someone who built a legacy, breaking the rules. And then finally, we're going to end this episode with an action step that will help you start embracing your inner rule breaker so that you can build a business that stands out in your own way.

3:36Even if you're not a natural rule breaker, maybe you love following the rules. Cool. Embrace a little bit to start seeing things in new ways. So I want to make sure that you stay until the end because that's where I'm going to be giving you a very specific action step to ensure that you break rules that benefit your long-term growth. Now, before we dive into the rule breaker mindset, let's have a quick conversation about the role rules play in business. I like to think of rules in business like training wheels on a bike. They help keep you steady as you learn foundations and processes, but eventually you got to take them off, right?

4:12And that's where things get good. That's where they get juicy and fun. And it's where you learn tricks and find your own style, your own secret sauce, your sabor, you know, you do it your own way. I do believe that rules can be beneficial, but I also believe they can be kind of limiting. So here are two of what I am sure are many reasons why. Number one, rules can stifle creativity. Have you ever heard someone say, which might be the worst phrase ever, well, it's just always the way it's been done. I don't know if anything can shut out new and innovative ideas faster than that one sentence. So this is a real life example.

4:53My husband and I took our daughter for the first time to Hawaii a few months ago. And we love, oh, we just love waking up early. Well, he doesn't really like waking up early. I love waking up early. I love going and getting us coffee. And I like returning to the room. Saying good morning. Coffee's ready. and then I sit out, out on a balcony, and I watch the sunrise or feel like the sea balm air floating through my hair. And there's one morning I go down and the resort had complimentary coffee, as long as you poured it before 7 a.m. Not very many people were there, I have to tell you. But the coffee station, I just went through the coffee station thinking, okay, this is a little bit weird, but I didn't think anything of it.

5:38Well, the following day, JD was ever so sweet. he woke up, he went down to the coffee station and he noticed that there was a line of people who were waiting. And then one guy, while there was a woman who was kind of cleaning or updating the coffee station, he had said, can I, can I offer you a piece of feedback? And she turned to him and she's just like, sure. He's like, do you notice that in a self-serve coffee station, normally there's not a line of people waiting, but here there's a line of five or six people waiting. And he says, if you notice, you have the cups, the creamer, sugar, and lids all on the right side of the station.

6:16He's like, so what happens is somebody goes, they get their cup, they move down the station to the left where they pour their coffee, but then they have to go back to the right to get their sugar, creamer, and lid. He said, if you were to put the coffee cups on the right side of the station and the creamer and sugar and the lids on the left side of the station, the line would move so much faster because everybody's moving in one direction. To which she replied as she looked at him and said, but it's always been done this way. And he said, oh, well, who created it? And she's like, oh, well, and she mentioned somebody.

6:51We'll just say Cynthia. Cynthia has been doing it this way for 16 years, but she retired two years ago. To which he like looks befuddled and responds to her, wait, are you telling me that you've been keeping in a system for 16 years built by somebody who's no longer here when it actually doesn't make sense. Just like, I'm going to have to talk to my manager to see how we can do to make this change. So JD knows, like, we're just that weird couple. Like we talk about like efficiencies and we talk about business and we talk about strategy in our free time. Y 'all, we're on vacation. So at breakfast later on, he tells me, he recounts a story and I look at him and I said, you want, like, I bet, I bet like 99 % sure the guy who had that suggestion was a business owner himself.

7:30like period the end. Only business owners are like, how do we make this more efficient? These rules of like building out this coffee station don't make sense. Okay. So we talked about how having rules stifle new ways of thinking. Well, it's just the way we've always done it. The second way that rules can prevent is adaptation. The business world and the marketing world, y 'all know, especially in social media, it's constantly changing. Rules that worked yesterday might not work tomorrow. So adaptation is so important in business. From what I've seen, the companies that embrace experimentation are the companies that they just win.

8:05So what's the answer? Healthy rule breaking. Now, what's the key difference between healthy rule breaking and reckless rule breaking? Well, I'd say it boils down to two things, intention and consequence. Think of it this way. Healthy rule breaking is more like bending the rules, and I feel like it's often done with good intentions. Think of it like bringing a birthday cake into a restaurant that has a sign outside that says no outside food, but it's for your sister-in-law's birthday and it's a cake. Now, reckless rule-breaking, on the weak other hand, would be like sneaking in a whole pizza into the restaurant.

8:39There are different types of rule-breaking with intention. Now, I actually want to share a real-life example who's somebody who brilliantly defied convention and transformed an entire industry by using healthy rule breaking. And it's a story of Coco Chanel. Now, here's a side note. This is a story that is literally in one of my daughter's books called Little People, Big Dreams. For parents who are listening, I highly recommend this entire book series. It's so amazing and beautiful. And I really love this historical story, especially because Chanel wasn't born into privilege. She grew up in poverty, which a lot of people didn't know.

9:14and she had this fire inside of her and his skill for thinking outside of the box. Chanel believed that fashion could be about comfort and elegance and above all, freedom. Now keep this in mind. This was the 20th century in France where women were wearing corsets and frilly dresses and basically the only clothes that they were wearing was like, oh, is this appealing to a man at the time? So what did she do? She started designing clothes that were simple, sleek, and stylish. so no more sucked in ribcages just clean lines and timeless elegance and let me tell you the whole world took notice but Chanel didn't stop there she went on to break even more rules she chopped off her hair into a short bob which was unheard of at the time she rocked menswear inspired outfits and she even dared to use jersey fabric in women's fashion y 'all Chanel's a gangster but Here's what I want you to take away.

10:11Those, you know, double Cs, those two Chanel Cs that you see on those luxury black and white bags, they represent fearlessness, innovation, and doing things your own dang way. Chanel's proof that sometimes the best way to succeed is to break the rules and take some risks. So as we dive deeper into the topic of breaking rules in business, can we please embrace our inner Coco Chanel and revolutionize the way that we do business? Can you think of rules that govern your industry and simply ask, why? Why are we doing this that way? And then can you consider if you're willing to break a rule as a test?

10:46And I kind of think it's better for us to think and act like a Chanel than act like Jasmine running away from her mom in pink sweatpants and a broom. Okay. So now that we've talked about healthy rule breaking, let's dive into the rule breaker mindset and how you can adapt it. When you've embodied this particular mindset, it means that you're embracing change, embracing uncertainty, and embracing the overall opportunity to make a difference by challenging the rules in some instances that hold businesses back. It means like doing things in your own way and refusing to be constrained by the limitations that somebody else sets.

11:22Somebody who doesn't know you, they don't know your business and they don't know your ideal client. Like they have set this, all of a sudden you're gonna like say, okay, that's the way it's done. Heck no. So how do you embody this mindset? Well, here are four steps that you can take. Step one, question everything. Now, I don't want you to throw out whatever the rule book in your industry is. I don't want you to throw it out entirely, not at all. But I really want you to think critically about why a rule exists, even if it doesn't serve your business. Like, don't worry, in a few minutes, I'm going to tell you exactly what questions to ask so you can make the best possible decisions.

11:56Step two, Think creatively. I want you to challenge yourself to look for unique or never been done solutions to problems and be willing to experiment with new ideas. I've always believed that creativity thrives when you're open to new perspectives and unafraid to take risks. Now, when I think back to like, oh, what was the time that you actually did this, right? Because it's one thing to be like, take some risks, put yourself out there. But it's a different thing when you can actually use an example. So we had a launch a few years ago and we wanted to spark new attention and engagement. So I hosted an Instagram live where I taught thousands of people how to create a reel in real time.

12:36Like we were saying, I know that making a reel is hard. Let's all do it together. So people were watching me on Instagram live create a reel. Now, we thought creatively and we got so much attention and new interest for what we teach on the inside of Social Curator. Like there were literally, to the best of my recollection, over 5 ,000 people at one time watching and creating a reel alongside of us. 5 ,000 people on an Instagram live that we didn't broadcast. We just said, hi, I'm going to make a reel. and then people really started engaging and then they're like, I want to do this with you. They would bring out their other phones or they would have their friends be doing it with them.

13:19And all of a sudden, in front of 5 ,000 people, we got new attention from people who were completely unfamiliar. And then I pitched on the live to join Social Curator and we got even more sales during that launch period. That was doing something by taking a risk because when you do something live, all bets are off, right? Like you're kind of nervous, you're worried. What are people going to say? How is it going to think? Is it going to make sense? Are people going to actually do it? that was breaking the pre-existing rules of, well, the pre-existing rule that we had said was people say, keep the best stuff for what's behind a paywall.

13:49And I thought to myself, well, what if we show some of our best stuff for free and say, if you want more, it's on the inside. Okay, let's get into step number three. What we wanna do in step three is embrace experimentation. And this is my love language. I have to tell you, the game changes when you make a shift from being afraid to try something different to loving and being excited that it's different. I wasn't always like that, but once I started embracing and becoming a different person, I realized that's what winners do. I want you to remember that some of the biggest breakthroughs, the best businesses, the most groundbreaking products and services derived from challenging the way that things were done.

14:28And this brings us to step number four, take calculated risks. This means researching new ideas, testing them on a small scale, and being prepared to learn both from successes and failures. It also means, hey, I got to weigh the odds and I have to make informed decisions. If you think something is going to benefit your business, but you're worried about, well, like what other people might say or think or do. Okay, fine. That's normal. Analyze the pros and cons and trust your instincts. So I was invited, this was back in 2009, 2010. I was invited to teach the first ever live five-day course on CreativeLive.

15:07Now, for people who are not familiar with CreativeLive, this was and is an online creation education hub. But I was the first person ever to teach a live class on the internet over five days. Now, it doesn't seem like that's a big deal now. But if we go back to like 2009, nobody was broadcasting live on the internet. You needed so much technology and bandwidth that just didn't exist at the time. Now, at the time, there was something called Ustream. Now, Ustream was used to broadcast live events out on the internet. So I flew up to Seattle. I said I was going to teach this class and they pitched me.

15:48They said, have you ever considered teaching a wedding live? And I'm like, well, what do you mean? Like a live wedding and then teaching during it? And they said, yes. And I'm like, I think that's the craziest, most risky idea I've ever heard of. To which they replied, if we created the wedding and it was real, would you teach how to do it? And I was scared out of my freaking mind. And I was like, heck yes. I said, heck yes, quite honestly, legitimately in less than a day. Because I knew that something unique and different was here. It was challenging the norm. It was giving people insights to just what didn't exist.

16:28and so I taught for two days then we did a live wedding of a live couple in Seattle and that was broadcasted now you could watch for free creative live the whole thing for free and if you wanted to buy it and re-watch it then you could and you would be able to stream it when you wanted at a later point in time what we didn't expect was that event went viral and I mean like viral viral like we were trending on Twitter. We exploded on Ustream. So we were the most popular thing on Ustream for three days in a row. We had people who had no interest in wedding photography watching this because it was literally watching a reality show in the making where I'm on a wedding day and I'm shooting photos and I'm talking into my mic.

17:16So this is where I'm metering. Now, do you see his reflection? It started raining on the day. Where do we go in the middle of the day? there was a time during the reception that there was kind of like this dead kind of lag like during reception people are eating like there's not a lot of action so what they did is they created this little like side hub for jd and i it was like a little tiny black box like it was if i was being honest it was like very simple like this is the first days of doing it so they created just like a pipe and drape so it's like probably four feet by five feet and i'm in there and i'm in the process of culling going through all of my images and i'm making a same day slideshow so while people are eating.

17:50I'm going through the highlights of the photos, pulling out my favorites, making a slideshow, and then they're recording me do all of this. Then out on my laptop, I put out this slideshow and then they're broadcasting out on the internet, the behind the scenes of what's going on to producing and doing this wedding. We shot that day, I think, my God, for like 14 hours. Then the next day, woke up, taught again live. I went through and I showed every single image that I had taken on that day. We shot, we were, the wedding itself was about 10 hours, but we did two hours of pre-production, like two hours after.

18:24And I showed everything. I showed every single photo and walked through and explained, well, why did I choose this as my favorite? What am I doing with this narrative? And on day four, the internet was abuzz with how much I sucked. People were like, whoa, I can't believe she showed all of her photos. like, oh, she was overexposed on this part. And there's going these things. And so I had showed a completely unrefined look of a gallery. Then I showed the selection that I was going to keep. And that night in the hotel room, we were going to be editing the photos to show what the client would get.

19:05Never before has somebody shown everything. Open the kimono to the most dramatic, awful parts of your business. On the morning of day five, I was reading what people writing on the internet. And in the hotel room, I started to cry. Like I was on the floor of the bathroom and I was like, I think I just ruined my career. I think I raised my hand to show people the inner workings of a business. And I feel like I'm being fried alive. And I told JD, I don't want to go back to day five and teach again. This is the most painful, excruciating experience that I've ever gone through. And I think that by taking a risk and challenging the norm and breaking the rules, and the rule is we don't show all of our trash on the internet for us to have an opinion.

19:52We only show the best. We show the best as professionals. And then the rule was broken that you show everything. On day five, I go in, I start teaching, and I addressed it openly. And he said, a lot of people have had an opinion about what the work looks like behind the scenes. What I am about to show you is after I've edited all night and have a gallery of 900 images, you will see what the client gets. And the way that the narrative shifted was so freaking crazy. I went from being persecuted. I don't want to say persecuted. That sounds like a lot. It's not persecuted. I went from just, people were mean on the internet, okay?

20:32Whatever you want, however you want to call it. They were very mean. And then it went from, I can't believe this. This is so incredible. The clients are going to be so lucky. And I think to myself, well, yeah, the world sees and cheers the highlight reel without ever seeing the blooper and the behind the scenes. I put it all out. And what I didn't expect at the end of day five was that people saw themselves in the story. They saw that somebody who wasn't the best or the most qualified or the most talented could legitimately show up like a broken gangster and do the damn thing. That is what they saw.

21:13And then on top of that, they saw somebody making magic out of beans and being a luxury photographer on top of that. The feedback from me being on the base of the floor in the bathroom thinking I made the biggest mistake of my career ended up being the best move on my career. Because I say, if you could do, if you can make a career and make millions by not being the best, they won't stopping you. Then that became like a mantra for every business and every iteration of my business thereafter. All right, let's get into step five and that is to stay resilient. This should be a step just about in every framework.

21:52You know what I'm saying? But you've got to understand that breaking the rules mean it probably won't always lead to success. And the chances are there's going to be setbacks and challenges along the way, but it's really important to stay resilient. What does resilient mean? Getting back up and persevering. Breaking the rules isn't just about, I am here to break the rules just because. No, it's about learning who you're becoming and what you're learning in the process. Now, a lot of times we expect like every time we break the rules, even with the best intentions, we should be rewarded for being the Joan of Arc of these decision-making in the business world.

22:24But in every case, that is not what happens. But here's the thing. Playing by the rules guarantees you won't get the changes that you want or get an outsized return. I've embraced that breaking the rules, or let's just say doing things my own way, is the only way to leapfrog growth and get massive results. So what am I really saying? Learn from your failures, adapt, keep pushing forward towards your goals. So now let's chat about the right rules to break. Remember, step one in the Rule Breaker Mindset Framework was to ask questions. Well, here are three questions to ask yourself. Now, these questions will help you assess if a rule should be broken.

23:07Question number one, what's the rule's original purpose? Was it created as a safety regulation, a legal issue, or is it an outdated practice? The reasoning behind the rule can help you determine its impact. So here's an example. A golden rule in social media marketing seems to be never post anything controversial on social media, ever, never do it. Now, if you've ever watched The Last Dance on Netflix, there's a scene where a reporter asks Michael Jordan why he never talks about politics. And then Jordan famously replied, because Republicans wear shoes too. Now, in the 90s and in the early 2000s, appealing to the broadest audience was key.

23:47But times have changed. Discussing controversial topics depends on the business. It depends on the ideal client and the company's vision and mission. Okay, so let's say you're a women's marketing coach who specializes in faith-based businesses. Your ideal client might be a Christian entrepreneur who wants to integrate their faith into their marketing strategy, even though religion can be classified as a controversial topic. This is where strategic rule breaking comes in. It probably isn't the best interest of the coach to break this quote unquote rule. Breaking the rules actually helps for business.

24:25So question number two, what is the risk and is it worth it? Could it create harm, damage your reputation, or lead to legal trouble? After you answer those questions, compare it to the risk against potential rewards. Now, we don't want you breaking rules that get you into legal trouble, clearly, right? But beyond those big things that could change your business, How does it really impact you? Okay, so for our women's marketing coach, the risk of discussing faith-based topics on social media could be alienating potential clients who don't share her religious beliefs or sparking negative comments or online debates.

25:01But let's weigh those risks against the potential rewards. The rewards could be deeper connection and trust with her ideal clients, standing out in a crowded coaching space by offering a unique faith-based perspective, or increased engagement, trust, and loyalty from her target audience. None of those risks are detrimental to her success, and I honestly think the rewards of connecting to her ideal client on a deeper level will outweigh those risks. So now, she can move on to the question number three, which is, is the rule still necessary? Does the rule still address the original issue, or has the situation changed, making it not so relevant as it once was?

25:41In this case, the no controversy rule in social media, it has changed. Back in the day, the focus was on casting a wide net and appealing to the largest possible audience. Today, social media is about targeted marketing that strategizes and appeal to one very specific person. Now, even asking and answering these questions, if I'm being totally and completely honest, you'll most likely experience fear and resistance with breaking the rules. You're going against what is considered best practices. You're venturing into unknown territory. It is natural to feel anxious or hesitant. But I also want you to remember, growth often happens outside of your comfort zone.