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The Episode You Need to Get Unstuck: The Only 4 Words You Need · The Jasmine Star Show

• 0:13
  Welcome back to the Jasmine Star Show, a show about business, pursuing life on your own terms, and getting creative as you pursue what your purpose is.
• 0:23
  My name is Jasmine Star and I am your host.
• 0:26
  And every week I have the opportunity to connect with you.
• 0:30
  So thank you for being here.
• 0:32
  A couple weeks ago, we walked to the campus and imagine a collegiate experience.
• 0:38
  There are people playing sports in the background and sounds of people running and biking past you and sounds of laughter and crunching, leaves and wads of people being thrown up and discarded in nearby trash cans.
• 0:51
  And every step that my daughter took with her tiny feet, you would hear a leaf crunch underneath it.
• 0:57
  And we were wearing matching sweaters and we had the university logo and blazed on our chest.
• 1:01
  And yeah, it's a little weird that I like to dress like my daughter, and you wanna know what?
• 1:06
  I love it.
• 1:07
  I had her tiny hand in mine and I pointed to the bell tower and I pointed to the fountains and I pointed to the business school where I would be taking classes.
• 1:16
  I was accepted to Stanford University's Latino Business Action Network.
• 1:20
  And this is a whole program that focuses on scaling for entrepreneurship. And so I took my daughter to walk the campus with me.
• 1:29
  And this is probably a time where I admit that when I applied to the three month program, I wasn't sure I could actually manage all the additional work they had said it would be in about an extra 10 to 12 hours of classwork per week.
• 1:45
  And when I heard that number, I have to tell you all, I was like, I'm barely making it now.
• 1:51
  You know, being a wife, a business partner, a mother being a ceo, trying to have a semblance of a social life, all of it, all of it has been a lot for me.
• 2:05
  And so when somebody says to find another 10 to 12 hours a week, I'm like, that's impossible.
• 2:12
  Except the fact that every time in my life I've looked at something and I really wanted it.
• 2:17
  I found a way to make it work.
• 2:20
  I think we all do, but I felt, could I do this perhaps?
• 2:25
  But it wasn't just about me, it was with my husband and it, it was about my daughter and my husband and business partner, jd. He said, Jasmine, pursue this opportunity.
• 2:35
  You have been accepted and I don't want you doing this opportunity just for business education.
• 2:43
  He looked at me and he said, I want you to show Luna what's possible.
• 2:48
  So during kickoff weekend, it's September and 85 Latino business owners are gathered, and we're gonna study and we're gonna learn from Stanford professors, and then we'll get paired with a mentor.
• 2:59
  And then we do these weekly classes and we read a bunch of books and have a lot of homework.
• 3:04
  And lo and behold, here's a crazy thing, the day before the in-person event happens, so this is back in September, I get an email and it making an introduction to a gentleman by the name of David, and they give a brief bio of David and they said, David is your mentor and you should email him before the event and set up the cadence in which he won't be mentoring you.
• 3:25
  So our mentor sessions happen once a week for an hour.
• 3:28
  And so we email and he said, Jasmine, I'm from the Bay Area.
• 3:32
  I'm actually gonna be at Stanford for kickoff weekend.
• 3:35
  And I was like, I would love to meet you there.
• 3:38
  And that's what we had decided.
• 3:39
  Now, if you know anything about the Stanford campus, I didn't know anything until I arrived.
• 3:44
  It is massive.
• 3:45
  And the business school is equally as impressive.
• 3:49
  And so the day before when Luna and I were walking to campus, we went to the business campus, but I actually didn't figure out where exactly on the business campus grounds the classes were gonna take place.
• 4:01
  I just thought, oh, I'll figure it out.
• 4:03
  Except for the fact that we're driving into Stanford campus now we're driving into the campus properly, right? So it's lined with these beautiful, beautiful old trees and palm trees and a large, large terracotta like arc to triumph.
• 4:19
  And it has a big welcome to Stanford sign.
• 4:21
  And my daughter's sitting in the backseat of our rental car and she insisted that we listen to Moana.
• 4:27
  Now, there's a song in Moana if you know Moana and Moana has the courage to go face the ocean and pursue Maui, and it's such an empowering song.
• 4:38
  So talk to me why we are listening to that Moana song as we're driving into the Stanford campus.
• 4:44
  And I'm like, wow, the timing of this is really incredible.
• 4:47
  My daughter is singing in the back and my husband is holding my hand, and he looks at me and he says, you're gonna do great.
• 4:53
  So we drive through campus, he drops me off in front of the business school, and it's a weekend and it's empty.
• 5:02
  So there I am walking and I don't know where to go. So I kind of meander for like five minutes.
• 5:07
  And then across the way I see a gentleman ascend from a parking structure, and I look at him from a distance and I'm like, is that David?
• 5:19
  So I walk closer to this gentleman and he has a quizzical look on his face, and he looks at me almost as if saying, are you Jasmine?
• 5:26
  So I wave and like worst case scenario, it's a stranger.
• 5:29
  And I'm like, hi, I'm Jasmine.
• 5:32
  And he said, what a coincidence of all the people to meet at this particular time on this empty campus at this moment.
• 5:39
  It's you.
• 5:40
  So there I met my mentor, I was completely alone.
• 5:44
  And there we were on this big campus and we spent five minutes walking and talking and getting to know each other.
• 5:51
  Now he's a former IBM intrapreneur.
• 5:54
  So I love this term intrapreneur because David has the mind, the passion, the hutzpah to be an entrepreneur out on his own, doing his own thing, running his own business.
• 6:05
  But what he decided to do was to apply his entrepreneurial skills at ibm.
• 6:11
  So when you're an entrepreneur, that means that you're an entrepreneur on the inside of another organization. Now, as a ceo, I love entrepreneurs.
• 6:18
  Entrepreneurs are the kind of people that could absolutely run and have their own business and be successful, but what they wanna do is get their big vision and put it inside of somebody else's bigger vision.
• 6:31
  Like as a ceo, you need to have such a big vision that highly qualified candidates can fit themselves in there and say, I could be out on my own, but I would prefer to do it with a team.
• 6:42
  Okay, so he worked at IBM for like 20 years and he developed revenue streams worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
• 6:49
  Like he's the kind of guy that took a flailing department, spent some time asking questions on how to turn it around.
• 6:58
  He knew that when he got into this position, massive leadership role, he knew that the department was going to get cut if he didn't make massive changes.
• 7:07
  And he had nine to 12 months to make the first massive change to prove that the concept in it and of itself would work.
• 7:14
  So yeah, I mean this guy, he knows his stuff.
• 7:18
  So I had a mentor session with him.
• 7:21
  So we met, we went through the weekend, and I should probably not skip over that part.
• 7:25
  L a Latino Action Business Network has been transformative.
• 7:29
  It has opened my eyes to seeing business in a new way. I feel wildly supported.
• 7:35
  And this program is worth tens of thousands of dollars, and it's subsidized by other organizations who really wanna see Latino business owners succeed.
• 7:44
  So the out of pocket cost that I paid to attend this program was $2,000, but it's well over worth $20,000.
• 7:52
  It's a three month program.
• 7:53
  You're paired with a mentor, you get all of your educational resources included, you get weekly webinars.
• 7:59
  I mean, there's so many things that are included and involved.
• 8:02
  And the reason why Stanford made this big initiative was because the amount of new businesses done by small business owners comprise 44% of the small business market.
• 8:14
  44% of new businesses in the United States are starting off by Latinos, and yet they have the hardest time succeeding, or they, I should say, we have the hardest time succeeding in the business space.
• 8:28
  So Stanford saw this as an opportunity to really push the American economy forward by the largest demographic of people who are starting businesses and teaching them how to think bigger.
• 8:39
  Okay, so during one of our weekly mentor sessions, kind of just led out a deep sigh.
• 8:46
  I was like, and it was the si, like the size of a trash bag.
• 8:53
  No, I should actually, it was the sigh, the size of a trash bag with cinder blocks inside of it. And so David looked across the screen and he said, care to talk about it.
• 9:06
  And I was just like, yeah, I really would.
• 9:09
  I would love to talk about it.
• 9:11
  I explained it.
• 9:12
  There's this dichotomy between loving what I do and I love the business I created.
• 9:17
  And then on the opposite side of his very wide spectrum is the deep desire for more.
• 9:24
  I can't shake this thing that there's more, more what he asked.
• 9:32
  And I responded just more.
• 9:33
  There's more desire, grit, growth.
• 9:36
  It's like deep inside of me and I'm trying to figure out how to get it out into the world.
• 9:42
  This faceless, nameless, this idea, this energy, this percolation that I know in my gut is more.
• 9:50
  And I told him it feels like I'm ready to sprint, but I'm not quite sure if it's the right direction.
• 9:57
  In fact, I'm not quite sure it's the right thing.
• 10:00
  And he looked across from me and he said, four words, get creative, stay curious.
• 10:09
  And then he went on to explain that I should stop asking questions for answers and start asking questions for insights.
• 10:17
  He says, oftentimes business owners, you're looking for an answer.
• 10:21
  So you ask a question in a way that gets an answer. He's like, I want you to ask questions for insights.
• 10:29
  He said, you need a deep understanding, not of what you wanna create, but the value for somebody else.
• 10:39
  I mean, the guy knows his stuff.
• 10:42
  He knows that there is a difference between being a creator and a creation and being an artist, an artisan versus the difference of being an entrepreneur.
• 10:54
  An entrepreneur is less about making what you want to make and more about making something that somebody else finds valuable.
• 11:04
  And I wanted to share this idea of value with you as business owners.
• 11:07
  You and I we're not meant to create in a silo like just by ourselves, for ourselves as business owners.
• 11:15
  No, we're meant to present offers to somebody that finds them deeply meaningful and solution driven.
• 11:22
  And he said, Jasmine, you need to understand what the goal is.
• 11:27
  He says, you must always start any new venture, any new business, any pivot, any reset.
• 11:32
  He's like, you must start with the goal.
• 11:36
  What is your goal?
• 11:38
  And what does a customer find valuable that I was really interesting and then I responded, that's great, but if I don't actually know what that thing is quite yet, what my goal, like how do I define the goal?
• 11:57
  And he says, I'm gonna share three things with you, just three.
• 12:01
  And so I'm gonna share them with you because David's really smart. And if you're at a spot where you're deeply satisfied with your business, or maybe you're not, if you're at a spot in your life where you feel like you're called for more or maybe not, if you feel like you want to think or dwell about possibilities of the future, or maybe not if one or all three of these apply to you, I'm gonna share these three questions because it open a pathways for me to distinctly question and assess how to create value for somebody else in relation to a goal, even if I don't know what the goal is.
• 12:43
  So question number one, who do you want to help?
• 12:47
  He says, get very clear.
• 12:50
  And it's crazy because y'all know like if you've listened to this podcast before, that is the first question I tell anybody I consult with.
• 12:58
  This is the first question.
• 12:59
  When you are a part of social curator, we always ask first and foremost, well, who's your ideal client?
• 13:05
  That is the same way that David had asked me, who do you wanna help?
• 13:08
  If you don't know who you wanna help, if you don't know who you're creating value for, if you don't know what they want, if you don't know what pressure point you're relieving from them, here's a really hard time being in business.
• 13:21
  So he repeated back the number one question, I know we must always ask question number two, ask, what is the experience I have?
• 13:33
  Now? This is where he said, you must be honest.
• 13:34
  Like what is it that people see or experience as your expertise? And so he waited for me to outline what do I think people see as my expertise?
• 13:46
  And then he said, the larger the magnitude of your expertise, the more opportunities to create value.
• 13:52
  And he said, Jasmine, you and I have been speaking for a few weeks and you have around 15 years of entrepreneurial experience.
• 14:01
  He's like, of all of that experience, he's like, you just listed a few things and there's a common thread.
• 14:06
  He's like, but the larger the magnitude of things that you can do and have created it now opens more opportunities for you to create value because people can see you as a thing over 15 years to do the thing that they themselves might want to do.
• 14:23
  So question number three, or actually before I get to question number three, it's not about me.
• 14:29
  This podcast is always about you.
• 14:30
  So the question then becomes for you to answer what expertise do you have?
• 14:35
  And you might be saying, well, I'm just started, or I've started a couple businesses and they never took off.
• 14:43
  Or I'm in the messy middle of my business.
• 14:46
  And to that, I want to add a caveat and let you know that that is okay.
• 14:51
  In a previous podcast episode, we interviewed R Vaden and he had said that your content becomes your credibility.
• 14:59
  And the content that we create is for the former version of yourself, where you were last year, where you were two years ago, for you to create and add value to somebody.
• 15:13
  It is okay if you are not the Oprahs of the world, it is okay if you're not as seasoned in your business as you would like, it is, okay if you're not making as much money as you would like or have a small waste or drive the car or go on fancy vacations, that is entirely okay.
• 15:28
  You can have an expertise that is just a few steps of somebody else who wants to be exactly where you are.
• 15:36
  Question number three, what do I have fun doing from questions number one and two? So when do I have the most fun working with that type of person?
• 15:51
  And when do I have the most fun exerting my expertise?
• 15:56
  Wow. I mean, we got real psychological in this conversation and he said, you know that it will bring positivity to the thing that you're creating when you focus on, Hey, I really like working with this person.
• 16:10
  I really like doing this thing that I've experienced in.
• 16:13
  And then all of a sudden the energy that we inject in this new idea, this new business, this new opportunity, it becomes a byproduct of who we are and what we create in happiness and positivity.
• 16:25
  Our customers, our clients then feel that as well.
• 16:29
  And so I said, okay, well, you know, can you give me an example?
• 16:32
  And he is a consultant.
• 16:34
  He works with other business owners.
• 16:35
  And so he's like, sure. He's like, I was talking to a person who said that they wanted to work with a ceo and what is the role of a CEO when talking about leadership?
• 16:46
  But the person who he was coaching wants to work with a CEO who has a very small business who might not even yet consider them a ceo.
• 16:54
  And so he said, okay, well if this coach wants to help a CEO with like a three person team and maybe they're making $200,000 a year, then our goal as this coach would be to say, how do I get my client where they wanna go?
• 17:11
  How can I forecast a future?
• 17:13
  Two years later, they're making two and a half million dollars and they have 12 employees.
• 17:19
  It's like once you know what that person wants.
• 17:23
  And then you have to ask yourself, do I, can I build the framework?
• 17:27
  Do I know the information to get the person who's making$200,000 a year with a three person team to two years later getting them to 2.5 million with 12 people?
• 17:36
  Do I know how to do that?
• 17:38
  And if the answer is then yes, then what you must do is build a framework on how to do that and then position yourself as an authority to do the very thing.
• 17:47
  But you could not do that unless you knew what, who you wanted to work with, what your expertise was, and then embedding fun along the way.
• 18:00
  So if you are like me at this point of loving what you do and understanding that there's more, I'm gonna repeat the advice that David gave me.
• 18:13
  Get creative, stay curious, stop asking questions for answers and start asking questions for insights.
• 18:21
  Y'all, you and I, we both know that we need to have a deep understanding, not just of what we wanna create but value for someone else. I hope that after this conversation, you will like me ask questions for insights and not for answers. In the process of getting creative and staying curious, I believe that we are going to uncover our unique value proposition so we can grow our businesses in new ways.
• 18:53
  Luna and JD and I will, we're gonna return back to Stanford for the graduation ceremony.
• 18:59
  It's happening in December, and my hope is to walk across the stage, accept my certificate, and then I'm gonna have my daughter sit in my lab and I'm gonna lean over it, and I'm gonna whisper in her ear, baby girl, we did it.
• 19:16
  Thank you for letting me work at night and in the darkness of the morning.
• 19:21
  Thank you for being patient.
• 19:23
  Thank you for singing to me, thank you for being the first thing I think of in the morning.
• 19:29
  And the last thing I think of at night, I believe that I had a deep desire to create more.
• 19:38
  When I met you, my daughter shifted things for me.
• 19:47
  I loved the business I was creating.
• 19:49
  And then I looked at my daughter and I thought to myself, how can I become the person who she could look to and think that there are no such thing as limitations or possibilities.
• 20:00
  We just have to craft a unique way of pursuing the thing that we want.
• 20:03
  And so I hope that the desire for more isn't rooted in vanity or the sheer desire for more, but simply as a way to show her what is possible in her life.
• 20:15
  And so I hope she's two and a half.
• 20:19
  I hope that she will maybe perhaps remember seeing her mom walk across the stage, and I hope that she'll remember those trips to Stanford.
• 20:27
  And I hope that she'll remember the afternoon spent with her dad as he walked her around the campus and bought her a Stanford little stuffed animal.
• 20:34
  And I hope that she remembers the parks that he took her to while I was in class.
• 20:38
  And I hope that she remembers the dinners that we went to where we raised a glass and we thought, my God, these opportunities.
• 20:46
  Thank you for listening to the Jasmine Star Show.
• 20:49
  I hope that you find a little bit of yourself in all of our collective stories.
• 20:53
  For those of you who share on social media and who tag me in poster stories.
• 20:59
  Thank you, thank you, thank you.
• 21:02
  For those of you who leave reviews for the Jasmine Star Show, I've said it a thousand times before, but I really do minute.
• 21:07
  When you spend 30 seconds to write a review, it has such a massive impact on what we could do with the show for those of you who take those actions.
• 21:15
  Thank you.
• 21:15
  And for those of you who will take those actions, oh yes, you will.
• 21:19
  I'm go.
• 21:20
  I'm gonna call it into existence.
• 21:21
  I'm thanking you in advance.
• 21:23
  I hope you have a beautiful day.