The real reason you haven’t started your business isn’t that you’re not ready.
It’s that you’re waiting to feel ready, and those are not the same thing.
Today I’m sitting down with Jasmine Star, entrepreneur, business strategist, and CEO of Social Curator, who has built multiple seven and eight figure businesses starting from literally nothing. We’re getting into how to find the skill you’re already sitting on, why clarity only comes after you take action, how to price yourself when you’re just starting out, and what it actually takes to build something real without an audience, a degree, or a perfect plan. If you’ve been waiting for a sign to start, this is it.
Key takeaways:
You already have a skill worth paying for. You just can’t see it yet
One of the most common beliefs holding women back from starting a business is the idea that what comes naturally to them must come naturally to everyone. It doesn’t. Meal prep, home organization, photography, budgeting, knowing how to talk to people — these are real, monetizable skills that other people will pay for. Jasmine’s three questions to find yours: What could you talk about for 15 minutes uninterrupted? Which of those topics lights you up the most? And who in your life is already coming to you with questions about it? Those three questions will almost always surface something you’ve been overlooking because you’re too close to your own magic to see it clearly.
Every market is saturated. That is not the reason you haven’t started
There will always be other photographers, coaches, consultants, and creators. But we don’t just buy the product or the service. We buy because of the person behind it. Your unique value proposition is you. Your story, your perspective, your specific way of showing up is what makes someone choose you over anyone else. Jasmine puts it simply: we don’t just buy cakes, we buy them because of the baker. The saturation argument is not a reason to stay on the sidelines.
Clarity comes after action, not before it
Before you take action, everything is a hypothesis. You can spend months thinking through every possible outcome, planning every step, and preparing for every worst case scenario, and still know nothing. The only way to get real information is to run the test. Jasmine reframes every business attempt as a test, not a project, because a test gets results and a project can feel like a failure. When something doesn’t work, you’re not a failure. You just know what not to do next time. That is incredibly valuable data.
Stop worrying about step nine when you haven’t taken step one
Jasmine sees this constantly in her Consistent 10K coaching program: people who are completely fired up on day one, then by day 11 or 12 they’re already catastrophizing about problems that are five steps away. What happens if I get audited? What if no one buys? What if I can’t scale? The answer is: you don’t get to worry about those things yet because you haven’t done anything yet. Step three, four, five, and six are what get you to nine. You don’t need to be afraid of nine until you’re at eight. The only job right now is one step in front of the other.
Start lower than you think you should on pricing, then let the market raise it
Pricing is one of the biggest black boxes for new business owners, and Jasmine’s advice is surprisingly simple: start as low as you can go and let demand push the price up. When she started as a photographer, she charged $1,000 for 10 hours of wedding coverage. But every three clients, she raised her price by $300 — roughly a 33% increase each time. By the end of her first year, she was charging $5,000. By the end of her career, $30,000. An untested offer is unproven, no matter how strong your reputation is elsewhere. Start humble, deliver results, raise your price.
Your first business is a bridge, not the destination
Your first business doesn’t have to be the final version of your life’s work. It’s a bridge that takes you to the next evolution of yourself. Jasmine built multiple businesses across multiple industries, and none of them were the destination. They were the thing that prepared her for the next thing. The goal isn’t to find the perfect business idea before you start. The goal is to start something, learn from it, let it take you somewhere, and trust that the version of you on the other side will be ready for what comes next.
The “why” is what keeps you going when everything else fails
Every entrepreneur hits the wall. The late nights, the hate online, the days where you question everything 17 times before lunch. The only thing that actually carries you through those moments is knowing why you’re doing it in the first place. Not the revenue goal. Not the follower count. The real why: what does that extra $1,000 a month actually mean for your life, your kids, your family? For Jasmine, it’s her daughter. For you, it might be something else entirely. But you need to know what it is before things get hard, because when they do, that’s the only thing that will keep you moving.
Notable quotes
“You would not have been given that hope if the capacity to succeed was not already inside of you.”
“We’re all so magical. But the problem is we’re so close to our magic, we can’t see it.”
“When I take my last breath, may I say that the destination was never the business — it was the purpose.”
Episode at-a-glance
00:00 Intro
02:08 What Skill Are You Already Sitting On?
03:05 Every Market Is Saturated — So What?
04:59 Humans Buy from Humans: Your Unique Value
06:28 Treat It Like a Test, Not a Failure
07:38 Identity & Separating Yourself from Results
08:09 Jasmine’s Origin Story: Starting with Nothing
18:41 Why Clarity Only Comes After Action
20:44 The Belief Gap: Do You Think You Have What It Takes?
23:55 Start Small: Build Belief Through Evidence
26:03 Three Questions to Find Your Business Idea
27:27 New Levels, New Devils
30:40 Pricing: Start Low & Let the Market Push You Up
32:54 Side Hustle First or Burn the Boats?
37:48 Your First Business Is a Bridge, Not the Destination
38:42 Common Busy Work Mistaken for Progress
45:18 Entrepreneurship Creates Options, Not Just Income
52:34 The First Step to Take This Week
Thanks to Rocket Money for sponsoring this episode!
Thanks to BetterHelp for sponsoring this episode!
Jasmine’s Links:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasminestar
Website: https://jasminestar.com/
Social Curator: https://www.socialcurator.com/
Visit https://herfirst100k.com/ffpod to grab a copy of our free Side Hustle Skill Finder to figure out exactly which of your existing skills can make you money, and what to do with them first!
RESOURCES:
Looking for accountability and deeper financial education? Join the $100K Club
Register for our free investing workshop: https://herfirst100k.com/secrets
Feeling Overwhelmed? Start here!
Our HYSA Partner Recommendation (terms apply)
Behind the Scenes and Extended Clips on Youtube
Leave Financial Feminist a Voicemail
Financial Feminist on Instagram
Take our FREE Money Personality Quiz
Meet Jasmine
Jasmine Star is a world-class speaker, thought leader, podcast host, CEO, and entrepreneur dedicated to helping you reach your fullest potential. After getting her start in the entrepreneurial world as an internationally recognized wedding photographer, she became a speaker and business strategist for creative entrepreneurs — and spent almost a decade helping business owners across the world take risks and live their lives to the fullest. She then went on to
found tech company Social Curator: a monthly subscription that serves as a digital marketing agency in your pocket, complete with a digital social media manager providing customized marketing content.
As a top podcast host and keynote speaker, her goal is simple: to empower you to change the way you approach your professional and personal ambitions. Her approach is rooted in the desire to help you build the future you want and help you see your own potential — regardless of whatever stands in your way.
Transcript:
Tori Dunlap:
The real reason you haven’t started your business isn’t that you’re not ready, it’s that you’re waiting to feel ready and those are not the same thing. Every market is saturated, every industry is crowded, but let’s be honest, none of that is the reason you haven’t actually gotten started. This might be one of the most important and impactful episodes we have ever recorded because the number one thing I see when it comes to women either waiting to change their finances or starting a business is getting in their own way. And trust me, after this episode, you’re going to lose every excuse to actually do so. Jasmine Starr is an entrepreneur, business strategist, and CEO of Social Curator, and she has built not one, but multiple seven and eight figure businesses starting with nothing. And as you’ll find out in this episode, she means that quite literally.
Today we are talking about how to find the skill you’re already sitting on, why clarity only comes after you take action and what it actually takes to build a business from zero, especially if you have no idea how to start. If you’re someone who has always wanted to work for themselves, always dreamt of entrepreneurship, but just trying to get started, this episode is your sign to stop waiting. Let’s get into it. But first, a word from our sponsors. Jasmine, someone right now clicked on this episode and is thinking, “I want to start a business, but I’m so afraid I’ll fail.” What do you have to say to them?
Jasmine Star:
Two things. Number one, you would not have been given that hope if a capacity to succeed was not already inside of you. You just have to choose to decide that this is the thing that you have to do, stay consistent and not give up. And secondly, I would want you to live a life full of possibility and failure than that of regret. I was 25 years old. My mom was 50 when she had brain cancer and when she was in the hospital bed, she wasn’t talking about the things that she had done. She was talking about the things that she had not done. I vowed to live my life looking back to say, “I did everything I could and that’s why I’m here.”
Tori Dunlap:
Jasmine, there’s a recurring joke on this show of how long it’s going to take me to cry. You might have the record. Wow. That was like 45 seconds in. Okay. When women think about starting a business, what skill are they sitting on that could already be making them money if they saw it clearly?
Jasmine Star:
I believe that everybody has something to share or teach. Everybody. But the thing is that I see a lot of specifically women, they put inside of themselves that they have this belief that because it comes easy to them, it comes easy to everybody else. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. And I’m talking about simple things. I’m talking about meal prep. I’m talking about home organization. I’m talking about photography. You have something that’s unique. And if you were to take a step back and ask yourself, what are questions that people are commonly asking me about? So for instance, when you first got started, people are like, “You’re not living without your means and you know how to budget. Can I sit with you?” And you turn that into a seven figure empire. I believe that there is a seven figure empire inside of every single one if they decide that that is the thing that they want to pursue.
Tori Dunlap:
So let’s take photography as an example. So somebody is thinking to themselves, “Oh yeah, I take really good photos that people compliment me on maybe on a DSLR or maybe I’m on my phone. But there’s a million photographers out there.” What do you have to say to that?
Jasmine Star:
Well, every market is saturated and there is never a lack of competition, but we buy cakes not just because of the cake, we buy it because of the baker. And we just don’t buy photographs, we buy it because of the photographer. And so it’s our job to understand that we are uniquely qualified to serve a very specific type of person. We’re all so different. Not everybody would ever want to sit in front of my camera and not everybody would want to sit in front of your camera. Just because there’s a lot of options, just because there’s a lot of taste palettes around the people that want to work with. So whenever I’m talking about building a business, a lot of it is going to be rooted in your unique value proposition, which is you, which is you. And then secondly, showing up and showcasing what makes you different, like your sabot, your secret sauce. What’s going to make somebody say, “That’s the photographer I want to work with. That’s the baker I want to buy a cake from. She’s the person who I want to learn financial planning and investment with.”
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. I like the metaphor of Christmas songs. Every year you hear, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, you hear that all the time. We’ve heard that song sung by a million people, but you want to hear it sung by your favorite artist.
Jasmine Star:
Absolutely.
Tori Dunlap:
You want to hear it by Kelly Clarkson or you want to hear it-
Jasmine Star:
I think it’s like Bing Crosby, I think. I’m very classic old school.
Tori Dunlap:
Sure, sure, sure. Right? But we never get sick of Christmas songs.
Jasmine Star:
No.
Tori Dunlap:
Or you’re not like, “Oh, somebody rerecorded Jingle Bells again.” It’s like, no, Taylor Swift recorded Jingle Bells and I want to hear Taylor Swift’s version.
Jasmine Star:
I love this. Yes, to all of that.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah.
Jasmine Star:
To all of that.
Tori Dunlap:
You have previously said start with who you are and what you already know. What are the most common skills people completely overlook when they’re trying to come up with a business idea?
Jasmine Star:
Oh, first and foremost, humans buy from other humans. And what we want to do is we want to say that people will logic their way. We like to believe that people will make an intellectual decision about an emotional purchase. More than 90% of all that purchases we make are going to be emotional.
Tori Dunlap:
Totally.
Jasmine Star:
What we want to do is we want to appeal to the buyer by way of logic. I have the best course. I have the best photography business. I have the best cake baking business. Well, right, but that taste is subjective. But what you can put out is, well, here is who I am. Here is why I do it. This is the human I am. So I am a human and you’re a human. Do we vibe together? I have a unique product or service that will serve you and hey, let’s create some magic together. It’s so simple, but if we go back to prehistoric commerce, it was, I do business with who’s around me.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. Who I trust.
Jasmine Star:
And who I trust. It is the same thing today. It’s magnified, but it’s the same thing.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. When you think about that person who is saying, how do I get people to trust or like me or know me when it also feels really scary to put yourself out there, how do you deal with that friction?
Jasmine Star:
Well, first is this the truth? Not everybody will like you. When you post, they say you’re showing up too much. When you stop posting, they say you gave up. If you decide to sit on the couch and eat a pizza or go on a run, they’re going to have a judgment about you. So if they’re going to judge you anyway, then you might as well do something that you love. And so I’m not saying it’s not hard, but I will tell you, posting is hard and running a business is hard. But being poor and broke, that’s hard too. So let me choose the hard that’s going to make me money.
Tori Dunlap:
Choose your hard.
Jasmine Star:
Choose my hard.
Tori Dunlap:
Yep. How do you choose which skill to act on first without overthinking or trying to find the perfect idea?
Jasmine Star:
A big mindset shift for me is I started calling them a test. This was a test.
Tori Dunlap:
A hypothesis. Yeah.
Jasmine Star:
And over time I started calling them a quick test. How quick can I start the test? How quick can I kill the test? What result am I trying to find out? Because oftentimes you have to test a lot of things. And if you look at it as like, oh, this is an attempt, then you look at it as a failure. And when you look at it like a test, you just get a result. It might be a result you like, so then you do more of it. It might be a result you don’t like, so then you do less of it. But a test gets results. A project is a failure. We don’t want to do that. And so to me, getting off to quick action is, “Huh, look it. We did something that got a great result. Let’s do more of it.”
Tori Dunlap:
That is so helpful I think to also take the, I don’t know, the emotion out of it. It either worked or it didn’t as opposed to, “Oh, I’m a failure because this didn’t work out.”
Jasmine Star:
Yes.
Tori Dunlap:
And I think one of the biggest things I’m fighting in my work that I know you are too is that a lot of women have something not work out and rather than it just being a fact, oh, this didn’t work out. It failed. It becomes an identity. Oh, I’m a failure. This thing didn’t work out, so therefore I can’t hack it. And that’s what you’re talking about here.
Jasmine Star:
100%. And you had even said, I had heard you say that your a therapist is helping you work through, I’m a human being, not a human doing. And so to separate ourselves from a test didn’t work, a project had failed, but I’m not a failure. And I don’t actually believe in failure. And I know that sounds super crunchy and woo and warm and fuzzy, but it’s actually just the truth of it. I don’t believe in a failure. I know what not to do again and it’s like a very valuable lesson.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah, it’s the light bulb thing, right?
Jasmine Star:
Yes.
Tori Dunlap:
I had 99 ways not to build a light bulb.
Jasmine Star:
Yes.
Tori Dunlap:
I’ve been following your story for so long. For somebody who is new to you, tell me about the first time that you thought, “Oh, I can do this. I can bet on myself.” But then tell me about the first hurdle where that was tested.
Jasmine Star:
So our origin stories both start at the same place. I don’t know if you know, but I started blogging. I didn’t have money and so I didn’t have money. So I said I wanted to become a photographer and I didn’t own a camera. This was just something I’m like, I just feel like inside of me. So when people-
Tori Dunlap:
Something wants to be a photographer.
Jasmine Star:
And this is why people think I’m crazy or delusional and maybe I am, but when somebody tells me there’s a thing I want to do and I’m unfunded, unqualified, underconnected, undereducated, I’m like, “At it girl.” Great. It’s great. Because so many times in my career that’s happened. And so it’s like I wanted to be a photographer and I didn’t own a camera. And then I set out and I started blogging as a result of that because I didn’t have a website.
So I would take pictures and I was just documenting the process, not documenting me trying to become a business owner. And the crazy thing was being unqualified, getting into an industry or doing a thing that I was completely and totally not supposed to do has been a theme of my career. And if I looked at things isolated and said that didn’t work out or I was a failure, it would have stopped a whole litany of building seven and eight figure businesses. So I started off becoming a photographer without a camera and then I started creating content and other companies were like, “Hey, can you come and create content for our businesses?” So I started doing that until I got tired and totally burnt out. I said, “I’m no longer going to do this.” And they said, “Okay, well, can we pay you to be a consultant?” And I said, “Well, what’s a consultant?” So I go to Google and I type in what’s a consultant and how much-
Tori Dunlap:
The amount of times, Jasmine, I have Googled, what does this thing mean?
Jasmine Star:
And how much do they make?
Tori Dunlap:
Literally, literally.
Jasmine Star:
What is the average pay rate for a consultant in Los Angeles?
Tori Dunlap:
I remember hiring my COO who has now been with us since 2021 and she was like, “I think you need a COO.” And I was like, “Maybe I do.” Went home that night, “What is a COO and what does a COO do?” I was like, “I know what the title is. Could not tell you what it is.”
Jasmine Star:
Oh, and for anybody who is watching and interested, what is a COO? Harvard Business Review did this fascinating article. There’s seven types of CEOs and every CEO will need a COO that compliments it.
Tori Dunlap:
Great. Looking that up now.
Jasmine Star:
But you know how to define a CFO, a chief financial officer. You know how to define a CMO, a chief marketing officer. But if you were to ask for the definition of a COO, probably which is why it was so difficult is because they do different things based on the skillset.
Tori Dunlap:
The kind of the business, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jasmine Star:
So for you, at it girl, you and I Google. We just Google our way to it. So I became a consultant and then I stopped consulting after I realized I really wanted to serve the small business market. And at that time I created at my very first digital course, it was $197. It was on how to use Instagram for your business. That went on to do a million dollars on 197 and then we added other courses when I had never created a course. We created a membership when I had never created a membership. We created a tech SaaS company in 2021 when I don’t know a line of code. And so when people tell me how they want to do something and they don’t feel qualified, I’m like, “Welcome to the club. Buckle up. Let’s go.” We ride at dawn.
Tori Dunlap:
That is the common misconception I think with people who want to be entrepreneurs is they’re like, “Oh, but I need to get an MBA or I need to go to business school. I need to have all of this experience in how to run a business.” And I’m like, maybe for some businesses, but it’s so much about figuring out what you don’t know as you’re doing it.
Jasmine Star:
Absolutely.
Tori Dunlap:
Google is your best friend.
Jasmine Star:
Absolutely.
Tori Dunlap:
And there is the belief that I need to have all of the answers to questions I don’t even know yet in order to take action.
Jasmine Star:
I can’t tell you how often. So we have a coaching program called the Consistent 10K and this is based on hundreds of interviews that I had with people, both established business owners and aspirational business owners. And every single time, hundreds of interviews. The big common theme was, if I could just get to $10,000 a month, that was financial freedom. And so that number became like this benchmark and I thought to myself, okay, if this becomes life changing, then how do we make this happen? How do we get this opportunity?
Tori Dunlap:
How does this become easy?
Jasmine Star:
How does it become easy? Now here’s the thing, everybody starts off a 10 out of 10. They’re ready to go. Their dreams are there. And I tell you, it’s so cyclical. It’s a 90-day program and I promise you, day 11, day 12, this is what happens. Well, what happens if, and they’re worried about step number nine when they haven’t even moved from one to two. So the whole model-
Tori Dunlap:
I got to pause you one more time. They’re so worried about step number nine that they haven’t even gone from one to two.
Jasmine Star:
Absolutely. And so what happens is they’re letting an idea of the future stop them from actions today. When I’m saying, if you trust the process, step three, four, five, six, seven, eight is going to get you to nine. You don’t need to be afraid of nine until you’re at eight.
Tori Dunlap:
Yes.
Jasmine Star:
That’s it. So until we’re there, I don’t want to hear what we’re going to do. We’re going to cross that bridge, but today it’s just one step in front of the other.
Tori Dunlap:
Everybody listening, you’re going to go back five minutes and you’re going to listen to that again. No, I have the same conversations with people who see what I’ve built and they’re like, “Well, I couldn’t do all of that, Tori.” And I’m like, “Well, neither could I five years ago, neither could I eight years ago.” And I’ve told this story many times, but in the early days of me blogging, I looked at our mutual friend Jenna Kutcher and I was like, “I want her business.” I remember very vividly thinking to myself in 2017 like, “Oh, I’m capable of that. Why is this not happening?” And then let’s say a genie magically gave me her business, just said, “Oh, Tori, 23, sure. Take Jenna Kutcher’s seven figure business.” I wouldn’t know what the fuck I was doing. I would have no idea because Jenna’s put in the reps and also I was not trying to get to a place that I was not ready to be at yet. I needed to just figure out-
Jasmine Star:
Good for you.
Tori Dunlap:
… how do I get to step one to two? No, but it took years.
Jasmine Star:
Good for seeing that though. We have to vocalize that, Tori.
Tori Dunlap:
I had the ambition, but I hadn’t put in the reps yet and I think that’s a version of this. But I do think the more common on is what you just said where the question or the constant… Yeah, even in our DM’s like, “Okay, what if I start a business, but then I get audited.” Okay. They’re coming up with hundred different ways that this could crash and burn. The step nine and why are you so… You can’t have those fears if you’ve done nothing. You’re not allowed.
Jasmine Star:
I’m going to argue. I’m going to extend it. You won’t have those fears once you’ve done something.
Tori Dunlap:
Yes, yes, agree.
Jasmine Star:
Because if you do get audited two years from now and you’ve done and you followed what Tori preaches and you have your books in order, there’s nothing to be afraid of.
Tori Dunlap:
No.
Jasmine Star:
Come at me, bro. I’m ready. I’m ready. So that’s the thing, even when that happens, the version of you in the future will be ready for it.
Tori Dunlap:
My friend Mallory, who’s a business coach and one of my good friends, she says, “You’re further from jail than you think.” Meaning like, all of the things that you’re so afraid about, they’re not going to put you in jail. It’s not going to be that big of a deal. And also you’re probably not going to make that mistake because you’ve done all the things that you need to do to prep.
Jasmine Star:
The fact that you’re thinking about it already, it’s already proof that you will not do anything to jeopardize it.
Tori Dunlap:
If someone is thinking and listening, okay, you’re telling me that this is possible for me, but I just don’t have any skills. I don’t have any skills worth somebody paying me. What questions should they actually ask themselves to take an honest inventory?
Jasmine Star:
Three questions. Number one, if I asked you to step on a stage and talk about something for 15 minutes uninterrupted, what would it be?
Tori Dunlap:
Timothée Chalamet.
Jasmine Star:
Okay. Yes, I do know this. You are a Chalamet super fan. As some might say, psycho fan, but we’ll leave that for a different shows.
Tori Dunlap:
It’s fine.
Jasmine Star:
Okay. So a lot of people will often say, “Well, it could be this or this.” And in that situation, if that’s the majority of how people answer, which it is, I say, “Which one lights you up the most when you talk about it?” So if you say, “Well, I could talk about X and Y for 15 minutes, but you know what? Y really lights me up.” Awesome. Now when you talk about Y, who in your life is asking you questions about Y? So what we just did, what we just did is took inventory of first doing and finding something you actually liked because we can get you into, oh, how to become a financial planner, but if you don’t like that, there’s no way you’re going to win.
So we start with, what is something you’re already good at? What lights you up? What do people ask you about? That right there, those three questions all of a sudden, I promise you, because right now they’re watching, maybe they’re taking notes, maybe they’re sitting in the carpool line and tomorrow when it hits you, you’re going to be like, “Huh, I never saw that.” Because we’re all so magical, but the problem is we’re so close to our magic we can’t see it. And it isn’t until we step further back that we say, “That’s a unique skillset.” Something comes natural to me and they want to know about it, how could I share it?
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. And I think about all the time just the random things that people do to… They make businesses out of stuff you never would have expected. I remember seeing, I think it was about a year or two ago, there’s a woman who has a multi-six figure business decorating people’s stoops or their front porches.
Jasmine Star:
Oh, for like Halloween, Thanksgiving?
Tori Dunlap:
Yes, yes.
Jasmine Star:
Yes.
Tori Dunlap:
And they do it in Texas where that’s a big thing and they make 125-
Jasmine Star:
Seven figures.
Tori Dunlap:
Yes. More than that. Yeah, for Christmas, for Halloween, for Valentine’s Day, some people really care about that and they want the decoration, but they don’t want to do it themselves. Boom, business idea.
Jasmine Star:
Seven figures here in Orange County, putting up Christmas lights, putting up Christmas lights, seven figures.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. So all of these things are possible and I love that you’re saying identify the things that you love, but also the things that somebody will eventually pay you for because people are already coming to you for your expertise.
Jasmine Star:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Tori Dunlap:
So we’re talking about how action is so crucial here and you’re very clear that waiting for clarity just keeps people stuck. So why does clarity only come after you take action?
Jasmine Star:
Prior to the action, everything is a hypothesis.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. It’s a hypothetical. Yeah.
Jasmine Star:
It’s just a guess. It’s just a guess. So early on, I would spend most of my life guessing what the outcome could be and the distance between guessing and then taking action, the more I’ve matured as a woman and as an entrepreneur is I guess much less. The longer I wait guessing, the least amount of time I have to take action. So if we go back to the start of this conversation is I take action only because of the test. I’m going to test this. I’m going to test this. I’m going to test this. And I have no attachment to the outcome because the test doesn’t mean anything about me. It means something about the though I have. Sometimes it’s a great thought. Sometimes we need to think different thoughts. And in both those situations, sometimes it’s not great for the ego, but you want to know what? That’s entrepreneurship.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah.
Jasmine Star:
That’s entrepreneurship.
Tori Dunlap:
I think sometimes the only way you figure out it was the right or wrong decision is by making the decision.
Jasmine Star:
Absolutely.
Tori Dunlap:
And it’s like, yeah, you can play out that hypothetical all you want, but you will not know until you know.
Jasmine Star:
I’ve seen death by hypotheticals so many times in my career and it’s just like you get started and then you think about everything that could go wrong and I get that. But in the beginning, now I don’t think about what can go wrong. I’m just like, we’re going to deal with that when we get there, but I’m not going to spend any energy behind it. But in the beginning, I started tethering it by, okay, I can think about everything that can go wrong, especially when I was new and I felt like everything. So I’m daughter of an immigrant, first generation Latina, I’m the first in my family. In my second year of business, I need more than my dad.
My dad has five children and a stay at home wife. That money to me was so mind-boggling that we can go out to a Mexican restaurant and I’m telling everybody, “Order soda.” We’re not ordering water. Get your own burrito. We’re not cutting them in half anymore. And that was such mind-bending money. And I think to myself that we all have the possibility to step into that if we don’t hold attachment to the outcome of our small micro tests.
Tori Dunlap:
The messages I get a lot and I imagine you do too, are this belief that you and I have something that the person listening or watching doesn’t. And if somebody is messaging me, it is a conscious thought, but I think often it’s more subconscious, which is like, I don’t have that in my DNA. Yeah. There’s something about them that they’re able to do this and I’m not. Debunk that for me.
Jasmine Star:
Well, what you believe to be true is. It just is.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah.
Jasmine Star:
And then so I’ve done a lot of work in therapy and I’ve never been the person who could think positive thoughts. I can’t think my way into positivity. I can’t think my way into a different outcome. That’s just not my hard-wiring. So what we’ve discovered is to try on different phrases that might feel enough true to get me to action.
Tori Dunlap:
Do you feel like that’s because of your background of being an immigrant?
Jasmine Star:
Probably. There are people who can easily believe like, “I can become the president.” It’s like that just never-
Tori Dunlap:
White men.
Jasmine Star:
It’s just never resonated with me because I’m like, “No, you probably won’t.” It just wasn’t there.
Tori Dunlap:
What is the second thought after, “Oh, you probably won’t.” Is it these are the reasons or is it more identity based?
Jasmine Star:
It depends. It depends. If we’re using the example of a president, I probably wouldn’t get into the reasons why, but for a long time it was like, “Do you believe you can build an eight figure business?” And I was like, “I’m not sure.” So I spent a lot of time exploring what were the beliefs I had specifically, surprise, surprise, money, money, that I became my own ceiling every single time. I was like-
Tori Dunlap:
Because you were scared of making more money?
Jasmine Star:
I honest to God don’t think it was fear. I think the narrative, if I’m being honest, the narrative I chose was you don’t have what it takes because you weren’t raised. You didn’t know.
Tori Dunlap:
It probably wasn’t shown to you. It wasn’t modeled. So there was no way you could even dream that that was.
Jasmine Star:
I was 25 years old and I never imagined in my life that I could start a business. It never occurred to me. The idea that I would get paid to hold a camera or be a consultant or speak on a stage, that was so foreign. I didn’t believe it. It was like a mind, but you can be an astronaut, you could start your own business. Those were the equivalent. So the ones that actually started to stick with me, I would ask myself like, “Wait, why? What happens here?” But that was after a lot of maturity as a person, a lot of maturity around money stories, a lot of maturity with therapy.
But for me, when we go back to that, I always think to myself, okay, what can you believe about this situation? So somebody’s watching, they’re just like, “Well, they’re just built different. That’s not for me.” Okay. If you said it, you believe it and it’s true. There’s a different story. Maybe you don’t think you can build an eight figure business. Okay, maybe that’s your truth. That’s the limitation you want to fight for. Awesome. No problem. Do you think that you can make an extra $4,000 a month? Because it starts somewhere. Belief is built on history and reputation. Prove to yourself that you can make 400 extra dollars and then 500 and then a thousand and then 2,000.
And the minute you look back and say, “I’ve proven to myself that I can make $750 more off a digital product a month. My children’s lives have changed. I have autonomy. I can take my family out to eat. I could save for the Disney cruise.” You do that, game over. You’ve proven to yourself. But you’re talking yourself out of an eight figure dream because you can’t make eight cents on your own. Start small. What do you believe? Fight for that.
Tori Dunlap:
Also, your path is not going to look the same. My path isn’t the same as yours, yours isn’t the same as mine, but we are living proof that it is possible.
Jasmine Star:
100%.
Tori Dunlap:
So rather than thinking, oh, they have it so I can’t, or that person is a photographer so I can’t be one or they have something I don’t. Think about all of the things that we might have or we might have had when we were starting that you also have. You have the hope and the want to do this. You have a certain skillset. You hopefully will get to at least the belief in yourself. We are living testament that these things are possible. They’re not going to look the same. There are privileges that all of us have that are unique, but it is so easy to look at a dream that someone else is living and go, “Well, that’s not possible for me.” No, it is. They’re living proof that it is.
Jasmine Star:
I always call them frame breakers. Who’s going to break your frame? Because whenever I look at somebody else doing something, you and I were having a conversation before we started recording and a really cool opportunity comes your way. You will be hard-pressed to find another woman to be like, “Yes, girl. You own it. You’re going to rock the room. You’re going to melt their faces off. Let’s go. You’re a way maker and a frame breaker for me.” So I have to find it in me to celebrate this because it creates expansion in my life to be like, she goes first, watch me be second.
Tori Dunlap:
Totally.
Jasmine Star:
But not just in this [inaudible 00:26:30].
Tori Dunlap:
No, but I talked to you nine months ago about something that I was trying to launch that you’ve already done and I had the same thought for you where I’m like, “Oh, that would be really cool. She has a cool thing that I want.” And there is a moment where maybe it’s envy or jealousy and we’ve talked a lot on this show about how actually those are the most powerful tools in your toolbox to figure out what you want. So if you are jealous, if you’re envious, if you’re like, “Oh gosh, I really wish I had that.” And in no way am I like, “Oh, this other person can’t have that because I want it.” It’s more just like, “Oh, I want that too.” Great. It means you want it.
Jasmine Star:
So jealousy is wanting what somebody else has. Envy is not wanting them to have it. So be jealous.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah.
Jasmine Star:
It’s a good thing.
Tori Dunlap:
It tells you a lot.
Jasmine Star:
It’s a good thing.
Tori Dunlap:
Tells you a lot.
Jasmine Star:
It teaches you what you want. And so many people, when I talk to students and burgeoning entrepreneurs, I’m like, what do you want?
Tori Dunlap:
They can’t tell you. A lot of people can’t tell you.
Jasmine Star:
So if people are having a hard time verbalizing what they want when they’re jealous, highlight, what is it? What is that? And identify it. Name it. Focus on it. Where your attention goes, your energy flows.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. When somebody is thinking, yep, okay, I’m ready to start this business. Let’s say they do steps one, two. Where do they get stuck?
Jasmine Star:
If we’re being honest, every step.
Tori Dunlap:
Sure.
Jasmine Star:
I mean, every step.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah.
Jasmine Star:
So that’s just the misnomer is that new levels, new devils. When you ask-
Tori Dunlap:
Ooh, I’ve never heard that one.
Jasmine Star:
Oh, good. Oh, good.
Tori Dunlap:
New levels, new…
Jasmine Star:
So you have expansion slated big time in 2027. 2026, yes. And then even mega in 2027. So you’re going to be facing challenges in 2027 that the 2026 version isn’t even prepared for. But what you go through this year is going to prepare you for what’s happening in 2027. So we have to know that every wall that you hit, because surprise, surprise, Tori, it’s walls.
Tori Dunlap:
Crazy.
Jasmine Star:
Crazy is that we say I’m one rep closer to my PR. So I want to be very clear that every step will be hard. Now, because we’re super into data and analytics, we can tell. So we get established business owners who want to get consistent revenue to 10K a month and then we take burgeoning new business owners who want to build businesses and every step. But I will tell you the first one big time is who do you want to serve? I want to serve women. Okay.
Tori Dunlap:
Not specific enough.
Jasmine Star:
Not specific enough. And so we see the first thing is like, well, if I identify, it gets too close. And I’m like, no, no, no. In today’s day and age, the closer you get to your dream customer against all odds, you attract more. But it’s because you’re very clear and you’re unafraid to say who you serve.
Tori Dunlap:
Yes.
Jasmine Star:
Now the next big one, because we actually have people talk to customers and they’re like, admit in public, I want to do something. Yes, baby. We’re teaching you how to talk about your business. We’re teaching you how to put yourself out there. You’re practicing here so in the real world, when you get knocked down, you’re like, “I’ve been here before. I’m stronger now.” And then the second big hurdle is the minute they’ve identified their offer, the proposition, who it’s for, we green light the offer. It is going out in what we say is like a seed launch. This is beta testing, small baby steps. Let’s see how much money you can make by your immediate audience and the biggest hurdle. It’s like, now it’s time to post. Post?
Tori Dunlap:
People are going fo make fun of me.
Jasmine Star:
100%.
Tori Dunlap:
They’re going to talk about me behind my back. They’re going to tell me I’m cringe.
Jasmine Star:
Oh yeah. And my cousins, what are they going to say?
Tori Dunlap:
They’re going to go, who do you think you are?
Jasmine Star:
And my husband’s embarrassed because this is my third time trying something. I’ve tried other things before.
Tori Dunlap:
Also, if your husband’s embarrassed, get a new husband. I have no patience for unsupportive partners. I’m like, no, get the fuck out of here. No, but yeah. Oh, I actually have to put my money where my mouth is. I have to go out and be vulnerable. Which is what it is. It is a handout and asking of like, please maybe see me and see what I’m trying to do. That’s very scary.
Jasmine Star:
But I mean, I always think, but I flip the energy and I know you’re not saying, “Hey, please see me.” It’s what we’ve identified with messaging is you have a problem.
Tori Dunlap:
Yes. And I’m solving it.
Jasmine Star:
And I have a solution.
Tori Dunlap:
Yes, totally.
Jasmine Star:
And so you don’t have your hand out saying, “Lady, you see me.” You’re saying you’re struggling with your finances.
Tori Dunlap:
No, that’s a great way.
Jasmine Star:
You know what you’re doing. And so to me, it’s a place of power. You’re not begging for alms, baby. You have the secret sauce. Are you willing to put it out?
Tori Dunlap:
No, but I think that is the reframe because I think my version is what people are thinking, which is like, I have to beg people to take me seriously.
Jasmine Star:
No, no, no. No, no, no. There is no begging.
Tori Dunlap:
Yep.
Jasmine Star:
You are worth your weight in gold.
Tori Dunlap:
Yep.
Jasmine Star:
Add tax.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. Okay. So that one, the charge what you’re worth because a lot of people follow me, talk about pay equity, talk about negotiating and charging is such a black box. What do I charge? How do I charge? Am I charging too much? Am I charging too little? Tell me how to figure that out. And I know that’s a big question, but for somebody who’s just starting the business, how do they figure out, yeah, okay, I don’t have a ton of experience yet, but also I also know my value.
Jasmine Star:
I mean, listen, you can take the girl out of the hood. You can’t take the hood out of the girl. I start a swap meet philosophy. When you’re getting started, you might be so overqualified and have family connections and have investments, but the market’s never wrong. The market doesn’t care who your daddy is. They don’t care about your trust fund. They care about the solution to their problem. And if it’s an untested solution, we all have to have the humility to put something out there. And the more demand there is for that, the faster you raise your price. So I always suggest start at a baseline and then every increase thereafter you could be raising it. So for instance, when I first started as a photographer, 10 hours of wedding coverage for a thousand dollars and included and included and included all of the images. I was unproven. I was unproven. But every three clients, every three clients I bumped, I raised my prices $300. It was a 33 more or less percent increase.
Tori Dunlap:
Which was big.
Jasmine Star:
Huge. In one year I was charging $5,000 a wedding. And when I ended my career, I was charging $30,000 a wedding. The market’s not wrong. When we launched the Consistent 10K, we launched it at a beta. I know my reputation. I know our programming. I know our coaches. I know our accountability, but guess what? It’s new. I’m not going to cash in on equity from something else. This is unproven. So the people who joined early, we’ve now raised the price like three or four times because of the results. [inaudible 00:33:14] Exactly. So people are like, where do I start? As low as you can go, babe. And the market will push the price.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. And this is where I tell people, if you are starting a business, and this is where we might actually disagree, I think starting as a side hustle is so crucial.
Jasmine Star:
Yes. I agree.
Tori Dunlap:
Well, I think there’s two kinds of entrepreneurs. I think there’s the leap and the net will appear entrepreneur, which you might be more of than I was. I was the, I need the ducks in the row and then the backup ducks and then the backup net and the net. I needed all of that before I quit and still the universe made the decision for me. I did not quit on my own. And I think it’s so much easier to grow a business when you are not dependent on that business to survive like in the early days.
Jasmine Star:
And it’s also easier to post a step the things you need to do because you have your paycheck. So I am a full believer in side hustle until it’s a real thing. I’ve done that in every single parts of my career. I’ve never once, not like, oh, I’m fingers crossed. There’s always been a strategy behind it. But I also knew that if I waited too long, it would be slower to take action. My husband and I, we say, “Burn the boats.” The boats that took you to the new island, if they’re out in the water, you will want to swim back to them because they feel safe. But going back, there’s no land from which you came. It doesn’t exist anymore. You can’t go back to your old job. You’re not the same person. So what you once tolerated and what once had you fulfilled, even if you go back because you “failed at this thing,” you’re no longer the same. You have tasted the nectar and ambrosia. So you better find something else or make this thing work. So I’m a little bit more pushy in that way.
Tori Dunlap:
No, but I would agree with that.
Jasmine Star:
It’s like we’re Mexicans. I’m Puerto Ricans. We believe in can. None of this can’t stop.
Tori Dunlap:
No, I totally agree. And for me it was more that I got to make strategic choices in my business. I killed, we were talking about this on your show. I was coaching people one-on-one. I killed that and on paper that was a terrible decision because immediately a couple of thousand dollars of revenue dried up. But I was like, “This is not sustainable if I want to grow this business.” And I think if I had quit too early, I probably stayed too late, but if I had quit too early, it would not have been… Yeah, it would not have been helpful. But I do love the idea of at some point you will never feel ready.
Jasmine Star:
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Tori Dunlap:
Ready is a decision, not a feeling.
Jasmine Star:
Oh, yeah. 100%. I think that people think when I’m confident, I’ll take action.
Tori Dunlap:
When? Yeah.
Jasmine Star:
It’s you take action to feel confident.
Tori Dunlap:
Literally, you build your confidence in running a business over time. Again, I want the Jenna Kutcher business. It’s like, I did not have the skills to run the Jenna Kutcher business. And I got them and I still learn from her all the time. I got them by putting my reps in.
Jasmine Star:
That’s right.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah, absolutely.
Jasmine Star:
That’s right.
Tori Dunlap:
What is a common busy work task people mistake for progress when building a business?
Jasmine Star:
Posting on social media without a strategy.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah.
Jasmine Star:
So people will spend on average. So part of what we do on the SaaS companies, we have data and analytics and we’re constantly surveying people and people on average are spending between 42 and 47 minutes on a single post. Yes. Yes.
Tori Dunlap:
I almost threw up. Oh, wow.
Jasmine Star:
It’s a long time.
Tori Dunlap:
A long time.
Jasmine Star:
And so this is why that time is a waste of time because it could literally be cut down by three fourths if you just decided this is going to be like what you had even mentioned before. It’s like this is the theme or what we call content pillars. This is the content pillar. I’m going to show up. I’m going to take action. And done is better than perfect. Another one of your lines too.
Tori Dunlap:
I didn’t come up with it, but yes, it is the thing I live my business by.
Jasmine Star:
So people will say like, oh, and then they go down the scrolling, like doom scroll. And then they go and see who’s other things. And so you get super distracted on something, which is the name of the game on social media. It is a device. It is a platform that is intended to distract and dissuade you. So yes, I want you posting on social media, but you got to show up with a plan and a strategy.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah, I would agree with that. I would also say the other one is, “Oh, I got to get the right brand colors or the right logo and the right website.” That is the one that everybody thinks is progress. They’re like, “Well, I can’t launch it. I don’t have the right logo.”
Jasmine Star:
Okay. Has anybody told you they haven’t started a business? I need my mission statement.
Tori Dunlap:
Yes.
Jasmine Star:
What?
Tori Dunlap:
I need my 45-page business plan.
Jasmine Star:
No.
Tori Dunlap:
No. No. If you looked back at the business I launched that turned in my first 100K, it is the ugliest website you’ve ever seen.
Jasmine Star:
Of course.
Tori Dunlap:
It is a logo I designed myself on Canva.
Jasmine Star:
Of course.
Tori Dunlap:
That I also took in on probably two hours to find the right template for. And it’s terrible, but I launched it. We got it up.
Jasmine Star:
That’s right.
Tori Dunlap:
We got it up.
Jasmine Star:
The market will always fix it.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah.
Jasmine Star:
The market’s never wrong. We are.
Tori Dunlap:
And my own experience.
Jasmine Star:
Yes.
Tori Dunlap:
After six months, I’m like, “Yeah, that’s not a great logo. We’re going to fix it. Oh, I want to redesign this thing on my website.” You’re able to do that because the thing already exists.
Jasmine Star:
Yes.
Tori Dunlap:
You don’t have to tinker until it’s perfect because it won’t be.
Jasmine Star:
It will never be perfect.
Tori Dunlap:
You said that your first business is often a bridge, not the final destination. Why is it such an important reframe for beginners?
Jasmine Star:
Oftentimes people have, myself included, had this attachment that this was the end, all be all. And it’s easy [inaudible 00:38:38] you get to a destination. Exactly. I would often call my business, my baby, my baby. But when you actually think about it, a baby requires 24/7 attention. The baby is mercurial. The baby can’t speak. You can’t speak to the baby because the baby doesn’t understand. The baby runs the schedule. The baby demands supersede your demands. And I started thinking, I don’t know if I want my business to be my baby. I want my business to be a fountain, a machine.
Tori Dunlap:
I was going to say the kid off to college, but I like the fountain even better. I get [inaudible 00:39:14] from you twice a year. Okay, have fun.
Jasmine Star:
We want this thing that gives us life, that pours back into us that we run it. It serves us. And so that’s where I kind of am just like, the bridge was the thing that will take me to the next evolution of me. When I first started my business, I could never imagine sitting in this chair in this spot speaking to you. My reality is so much bigger and greater than my dreams could ever be. So if I continued to think that where I’m at right now, like the consistent 10K is my destination. No, baby, it’s just a wider bridge. It’s taller and it’s wider to get you to the next thing, to get you to the next thing. And when I take my last breath, may I say that the destination was never the business, it was the purpose.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. And I think the dreams that we’re talking about, there are people out there who are going, “Oh my God, 10K a month.” That’s so crazy. I want everybody listening to go back to what you said, which is maybe it’s just $400 extra. $40.
Jasmine Star:
Let’s play that game.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah.
Jasmine Star:
What would $400 mean to you today?
Tori Dunlap:
It would be massive for almost everybody listening.
Jasmine Star:
That’s what I’m saying.
Tori Dunlap:
Yep.
Jasmine Star:
And so we say, I don’t know $10,000 a month from a digital product can ever be in reality. Okay.
Tori Dunlap:
Also, I’m so scared of my own dreams. I don’t have the capability for that. Yeah, you might not right now.
Jasmine Star:
Right, but you haven’t been taught.
Tori Dunlap:
Right.
Jasmine Star:
You don’t know.
Tori Dunlap:
Right. You haven’t put in your reps.
Jasmine Star:
No.
Tori Dunlap:
If I go try to deadlift 300 pounds, yeah, it’s not going to work.
Jasmine Star:
Right.
Tori Dunlap:
It’s not going to work. I deadlift 30.
Jasmine Star:
That’s right. And if I tried playing the tuba, I wouldn’t know. I’m not going to be like, “Oh, you’re capable for it.”
Tori Dunlap:
That’s literally the example I give all the time. For me, it’s literally speaking Italian and playing the tuba. Those are the two examples I give all the time. Yeah, if I tried to go and, I don’t know, order food at an Italian restaurant and Italian, they’re going to be like… But we tried.
Jasmine Star:
But in this situation, you don’t pick up a tuba and say, “You bloody fool. What an idiot. How dare you? Come on. Can’t you do better?” You had no idea. And yet people start a business and then what they say is you idiot. How dare you try? How stupid. Do you know how dumb you look? What in the world? You’re so bad at that.
Tori Dunlap:
Of course you’re so bad at it.
Jasmine Star:
Of course.
Tori Dunlap:
Of course.
Jasmine Star:
Of course. And as the business grows, you continue to stay bad. If you don’t have the stomach to be bad at everything for a long time, you will never find your way to success. That’s the game. I just want to tell people we get into business to change our lives in terms of personal development and change our legacy and change our futures, but every step of it comes with the cost. It comes to the cost of uncomfortability, feeling dumb, questioning the decisions you make. And what you say is what used to be my PR is now my warm-up. That’s the game.
Tori Dunlap:
And the thing that we might have that somebody listening doesn’t, to answer that before of like, what do they have that I don’t, is that resiliency of like, yep, I’m going to be stupid about this. And we don’t have a lot of stuff figured out. Again, I’m still Googling things all the time.
Jasmine Star:
All the time.
Tori Dunlap:
Being like, “What was that acronym that somebody just said on a call? I don’t fucking know.” It’s so, so common. I’m having conversations in our business right now. We’re trying to solve this problem. We don’t know how to solve it. We’re going to figure it out.
Jasmine Star:
We’ll figure it out.
Tori Dunlap:
But it’s going to be uncomfortable for a while.
Jasmine Star:
That’s right. That’s right.
Tori Dunlap:
What is the simplest first offer someone could create?
Jasmine Star:
You modeled it perfectly in your business model. Perfectly.
Tori Dunlap:
[inaudible 00:42:38].
Jasmine Star:
No, it’s literally a small group of people paying a small amount of money to work with you so that you figure out your messaging, figure out the common points, figure out how you get somebody a transformation. People always say, well, when they hire a photographer, they’re getting photographs. When they hire a coach, they’re getting the coaching. No, they’re not. They’re getting the transformation. Jinx. Okay. And so in the beginning, you have an idea. In the beginning, you think you know how they’re going to get a transformation. It will never happen the way that you think. It will never because when you’re in the middle of it, you’re like, “Oh, that’s not working the way that I thought it would.”
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah, I intended it to.
Jasmine Star:
And then all of a sudden the more people, the more reps that you go through clients or customers, the more you realize, oh, this is how we standardize the transformation. This is how we guarantee. This is how we can create an ROI guarantee because we know the system is so good. So I believe that the easiest way is to get paid for something you know and do it again and again and again and then get bigger over time.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. That is the perfect example for people who don’t have the large audience because that’s the other thing is like, oh, I have to have even 10,000 followers on Instagram. I’m right down the barrel with you out here. I had 4,000 Instagram followers when I quit my job to run my business full-time. 4,000. That was enough. We figured it out.
Jasmine Star:
But even now, so even somebody says that, yeah, but Tori, you are X. Okay, fine. But let’s just use actual quant and facts. Is that the algorithm now is not indexing on followers.
Tori Dunlap:
No.
Jasmine Star:
It’s indexing on interest.
Tori Dunlap:
There has actually never been a better time to be a small creator.
Jasmine Star:
100% because the more niche and specific you get around a particular person’s problem and your solution is drilled down for it, the algorithm is so good. It’s going to be sending it to dream customers. Where in the past we were hoping that the right followers who were following us the right time would do the right post for the conversion. Now you don’t need that the way that you needed it then. It’s different. It’s never been a better time to create an offer online and sell it.
Tori Dunlap:
Have you seen the woman who is a manager at a Ace Hardware who just films herself as customers come in and they’re like, oh, she’s like, “What can I help you find today?” And they’re like, “Oh, I’m looking for this kind of wire.” And she’s like aisle 12 halfway down on the second shelf. This video goes on for like two minutes. She posts the same kind of videos. I watch the whole thing, the whole thing and I’m like-
Jasmine Star:
What’s the fascination?
Tori Dunlap:
I think she’s so good at her job. I love watching people be competent. It’s like competency porn. It’s like, oh. She’s like, oh, she knows exactly where it is. She’s like super friendly. The interaction she has with customers, it’s like a little TV show. And I’m like, it’s so smart. She’s doing what she’s already doing and she’s filming herself doing it.
Jasmine Star:
And do you know that Ace Hardware, what do you think? They’re paying nothing for it and the halo effect of that marketing.
Tori Dunlap:
Oh, she should get a brand deal.
Jasmine Star:
Of course.
Tori Dunlap:
She’s making money off the platforms just posting that. That’s the perfect example of like, yeah, on paper, does she have the skills needed to be a business owner? Actually she does as a manager and everything, but that is a perfect example of she is making something out of like seemingly nothing.
Jasmine Star:
Yes.
Tori Dunlap:
And do I watch it every time?
Jasmine Star:
Every time.
Tori Dunlap:
Absolutely, I fucking do. Absolutely I do. And it’s my little… I’m like, oh, my show’s on. Here we go. I’ll find her because I got a show. I got to credit her in the caption. It’s so good. You describe entrepreneurship as creating options, not just income. What is the first option business ownership gave you? Maybe it was full burrito and a soda for your family, but what made you realize this is so much bigger than money?
Jasmine Star:
When I became in control of how I spent my day. I’m born and raised in Southern California and so an average commute here is an hour each way. And the fact that you could choose to no longer do that. The fact that you could choose to work at six o’clock in the morning and then take a three-hour break in the middle of the day and live life on your own terms. And then the second optionality was to tell my family when we go out to eat, you don’t pay for the bill. And when people say like, “What does success feel like?” I mean, Tori, you’re sitting in a dream of mine. This is not success. The success is being able to sit with my family and every single time we got the bill.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah.
Jasmine Star:
We got the bill. And that just is like, it’s powerful. It feels so good.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah. That is the difference that I found with talking with women, educating them about money, educating them about growing businesses. The stereotypical entrepreneurship content that’s really just focused in men is about stockpiling and is about your investment gains and is about how much money can you rake in. And that’s the fun of it. But for women, every single woman I talked to, it is everything you just said. The money’s fine, but the money is what gives you the flexibility to have a scholarship at your college. Have the ability to take your parents on a nice trip. To donate to causes you believe in.
To stand up and say, “No, I’m not going to accept this kind of treatment, even if you’re paying me X amount and being able to walk away.” That is the actual feeling that entrepreneurship and just financial freedom generally give you. And people want to look at my story and, “Oh, it’s because she budgeted.” Yeah, my first 100K was about budgeting. It was about saving. It was about investing. And I did all the financially right things. Yes, I continued those and that’s why I’ve been able to keep my money. But the reason I went from 100K at 25 to multimillions at 27 and all of that money afforded me, that was entrepreneurship. That was the only thing.
Jasmine Star:
That’s right.
Tori Dunlap:
The investing helped absolutely.
Jasmine Star:
That’s right.
Tori Dunlap:
But it was starting the business. That’s it.
Jasmine Star:
That’s it. That’s it. And I think that that is the biggest misnomer is that we have aspirations to grow within an organization, which is awesome, which is awesome.
Tori Dunlap:
And you can become a millionaire that way.
Jasmine Star:
Of course.
Tori Dunlap:
But you’re not listening to this if you don’t want to be a business owner. So I’m talking to those people.
Jasmine Star:
Yeah. And oftentimes being a business owner doesn’t have to look the same way for everybody. I keep on going back. It’s like, what does an extra $2,000 or $4,000 mean?
Tori Dunlap:
No, I think it’s worth hearing 17 times. It has the capacity to transform your life.
Jasmine Star:
Absolutely. Yep. Absolutely. Let’s just pretend that you put 50% of what have you made from your side hustle into a Roth IRA or into investment.
Tori Dunlap:
Or paying off debt.
Jasmine Star:
Yes.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah.
Jasmine Star:
100%. What does that do for your life?
Tori Dunlap:
Yep.
Jasmine Star:
What does it do for your family?
Tori Dunlap:
Yep.
Jasmine Star:
Everything.
Tori Dunlap:
Everything.
Jasmine Star:
Optionalities mean I don’t have to agree based on everybody else’s timeline and everybody else’s rules. When you have money, the game changes.
Tori Dunlap:
Yes.
Jasmine Star:
Period, the end.
Tori Dunlap:
Yep, absolutely. This episode is so good and I was literally sitting in Jasmine’s living room recording this being like, “Oh, God-damn, this one’s so good.” And even though I’ve heard Jasmine’s story a few times, it’s never not incredibly encouraging, especially if you dream of being a business owner like her or like myself, which leads me to a brand new tool, my team and I built specifically for those of you who are looking to figure out how to actually build a business you’ll love. The number one thing I hear from people is they’re like, “I don’t know what business I would start. I don’t have enough skills.” Or maybe I have so many things I want to do but I don’t know what the most profitable one is. How do I actually build a business that’s going to get me out of my job I hate as soon as possible?
So we built you an incredible tool and resource. This resource takes your actual job, maps it to real entrepreneurship options you probably haven’t considered and walks you through picking one and taking your first move. So no matter what you do in your nine to five, we’re going to help you match those skills into a profitable business. Find out which of your job skills are already worth somebody paying you money for.
Match what you do every day to a business idea that you maybe haven’t considered yet and figure out what your first real offer might look like and the exact next steps to make it happen so you can start making money. Head on over to herfirst100k.com/ffpod to get this guide for free. There is no reason not to grab this. It’s free and I know you want to be a business owner or you wouldn’t be listening to this episode. I’ve given you this free incredible tool to get you started, herfirst100k.com/ffpod. All right, let’s get back into it. When we think about someone who feels stuck at a job that they’ve outgrown, how can entrepreneurship expand their sense of possibility without requiring a massive leap?
Jasmine Star:
I mean, you do as much as you can however you can, when you can.
Tori Dunlap:
Yeah.
Jasmine Star:
That’s it. And so what happens where people are like, “I’m so exhausted from my job.” That’s real. And specifically, I mean, even more so for single moms, that’s real. I just spoke with somebody after a speaking engagement and she’s a single mom. She’s a realtor. She’s with a brokerage, but she’s like, “I want to get my own leads on social media. I want to go out on my own.”
And I looked at her and I said, “Okay, it’s too risky for you to leave the brokerage because they’re giving you leads. So when you are at the brokerage nine to five, it’s 10 toes down. They’re paying you, you do it right. If this requires you to get up another 40 minutes in the morning and stay up 40 minutes at night for 12 months in order to have the pathway out, it will suck, but it’s the way we get out.” And so we have to acknowledge we have to do things that we’re uncomfortable with. We’re going to do what we can, however we can, when we can. It might not be as much as we want, but it’s something and that something’s better than nothing.
Tori Dunlap:
Well, and if that is your dream, like I absolutely do not think hustle culture is great or sustainable.
Jasmine Star:
No.
Tori Dunlap:
There are periods of hustle.
Jasmine Star:
There’s seasons.
Tori Dunlap:
Absolutely.
Jasmine Star:
There is seasons.
Tori Dunlap:
I had Jenna, the first time she came on the show, we talked about this. When I wanted to be a business owner so bad, I was willing to sacrifice some nights and weekends because that for me was my goal. When I wanted to be a New York Times bestselling author, I went too far and I won’t do it again, but I learned a lot during that period of like I wanted to put everything out in the field so that when I woke up, a couple of weeks after the book had come out, I could say, yep, I did everything that I could do.
Jasmine Star:
Exactly.
Tori Dunlap:
And then what’s going to happen is going to happen but I did everything I could.
Jasmine Star:
That’s right.
Tori Dunlap:
Now a prolonged season of that is not sustainable nor healthy.
Jasmine Star:
Agreed.
Tori Dunlap:
But I do think that if you have a dream or have a goal, it will take sacrifice. It just will. For a woman listening to start a business but feels behind, under qualified or overwhelmed, what is the first step you’d want her to take this week?
Jasmine Star:
Well, first and foremost, I’d look at her and say, welcome to the club. You are one of us. There are more of us than there are not. And then the first step, I would go back to say there’s going to be days that it’s very hard and there’s going to be harder days than there are easier days. And there’s going to be days where you find yourself working alone and there’ll be days that you find yourself questioning whether or not the work that you’re doing is good enough because you have enough taste to know what good is and enough sobriety to look at what you’re doing and know that it’s not it. And the chasm between what is good and what you’re doing is so great that you wonder, can I ever achieve that? That is all normal. But the thing that you have to go back and do every single day is to start with why?
Why are you doing this? And it’s okay if you’re doing it for $1,000 a month. That’s beautiful. That’s amazing. But let’s go a little bit deeper. What does $1,000 mean? What does it do? And I think that every time it gets so rough. See, I start talking about my daughter, dang, it just hits. I can’t get one sentence out. I just think that my entire life, my capacity as an entrepreneur, what I’m building and what I have capacity for, the minute she entered my life, everything changed because I’m like, “Oh, it’s no longer about this. It is about what you are building and showing her.” So when I take her to places, say, “Mama never had this access and you do. You will stand on my shoulders, but beyond anything else, make sure you’re putting people on top of yours.”
And so to me, when I go back and say those late nights and those weekends that you don’t want to work and when you get a lot of hate online or when you just feel so exhausted, when you feel like you’ve made the wrong decision, again, 17 times in a row, you think to yourself, I might not be doing it for me, but I’m going to do it for her to show her what resilience means. And I’m going to do it to show it to myself that I’m doing it for her, game over. You can’t beat me because I’m not doing it for myself. I’m doing it for her and all of the other little girls who never believe that they can start a business. See, I talk about her and then I cried.
Tori Dunlap:
Well, I’m crying too. We have the crying sandwich today. You got me at the beginning, you got me at the end. No, that’s what it’s about. And I think it’s whenever you have a goal, you are going to hit the times where you don’t want to keep going and you have to remember why you care. Why are you doing this Because that is the only thing even psychologically that’s going to keep you moving.
Jasmine Star:
100%.
Tori Dunlap:
Thank you for being here.
Jasmine Star:
Thank you for having me.
Tori Dunlap:
Plug away, my friend. Where can people learn more about you? Plug away.
Jasmine Star:
I answer my own DMs, so shoot me a DM @jasminestar. Say hello if you are interested in learning more about the Consistent 10K. Send me a DM that says method, M-E-T-H-O-D.
Tori Dunlap:
People are going to love this episode. Thank you.
Jasmine Star:
Thank you. I appreciate it.
Tori Dunlap:
Thank you for listening to Financial Feminists, produced by Her First $100K. If you love the show and want to keep supporting feminist media, please subscribe or follow us on your preferred podcasting platform or on YouTube. Your support helps us continue to bring this content to you for free. If you’re looking for resources, tools, and education, including all of the resources mentioned in this episode, head to http://herfirst100k.com/ffpod.
Financial Feminist is hosted by me, Tori Dunlap. Produced by Kristen Fields and Tamisha Grant. Research by Sarah Sciortino. Audio and video engineering by Alyssa Midcalf. Marketing and Operations by Karina Patel and Amanda Leffew. Special thanks to our team at Her First 100K, Kailyn Sprinkle, Masha Bakhmetyeva, Sasha Bonar, Rae Wong, Elizabeth McCumber, Daryl Ann Ingman, Shelby Duclos, Meghan Walker, and Jess Hawks. Promotional graphics by Mary Stratton, photography by Sarah Wolfe, and theme music by Jonah Cohen Sound. A huge thanks to the entire Her First 100K community for supporting our show.
Tori Dunlap
Tori Dunlap is an internationally-recognized money and career expert. After saving $100,000 at age 25, Tori quit her corporate job in marketing and founded Her First $100K to fight financial inequality by giving women actionable resources to better their money. She has helped over five million women negotiate salaries, pay off debt, build savings, and invest.
Tori’s work has been featured on Good Morning America, the New York Times, BBC, TIME, PEOPLE, CNN, New York Magazine, Forbes, CNBC, BuzzFeed, and more.
With a dedicated following of over 2.1 million on Instagram and 2.4 million on TikTok —and multiple instances of her story going viral—Tori’s unique take on financial advice has made her the go-to voice for ambitious millennial women. CNBC called Tori “the voice of financial confidence for women.”
An honors graduate of the University of Portland, Tori currently lives in Seattle, where she enjoys eating fried chicken, going to barre classes, and attempting to naturally work John Mulaney bits into conversation.
