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Welcome back to the Jasmine Star Show,

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a show about business, pursuing life on your own terms,

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and getting creative as you pursue what your purpose is.

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My name is Jasmine Star and I am your host.

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And every week I have the opportunity to connect with you.

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So thank you for being here. A couple weeks ago,

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we walked to the campus and imagine a collegiate experience.

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There are people playing sports in the background and sounds of

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people running and biking past you and sounds of laughter and

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crunching, leaves and wads of people being thrown up and discarded

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in nearby trash cans. And every step that my daughter took with her tiny feet,

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you would hear a leaf crunch underneath it.

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And we were wearing matching sweaters and we had the university

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logo and blazed on our chest. And yeah,

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it's a little weird that I like to dress like my daughter, and you wanna know what?

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I love it. I had her tiny hand in mine and I pointed to

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the bell tower and I pointed to the fountains and I

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pointed to the business school where I would be taking classes.

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I was accepted to Stanford University's Latino Business Action Network.

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And this is a whole program that focuses on scaling for

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entrepreneurship. And so I took my daughter to walk the campus

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with me. And this is probably a time where I admit that when

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I applied to the three month program, I wasn't sure I could actually manage all the additional work

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they had said it would be in about an extra 10

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to 12 hours of classwork per week.

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And when I heard that number, I have to tell you all,

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I was like, I'm barely making it now.

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You know, being a wife, a business partner,

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a mother being a ceo, trying to have a semblance of a social life,

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all of it, all of it has been a lot for me.

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And so when somebody says to find another 10 to 12

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hours a week, I'm like, that's impossible.

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Except the fact that every time in my life I've looked

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at something and I really wanted it.

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I found a way to make it work.

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I think we all do, but I felt,

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could I do this perhaps?

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But it wasn't just about me, it was with my husband and it,

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it was about my daughter and my husband and business partner,

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jd. He said, Jasmine, pursue this opportunity.

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You have been accepted and I don't want you doing this

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opportunity just for business education.

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He looked at me and he said, I want you to show Luna what's possible.

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So during kickoff weekend,

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it's September and 85 Latino business owners are gathered,

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and we're gonna study and we're gonna learn from Stanford professors,

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and then we'll get paired with a mentor.

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And then we do these weekly classes and we read a

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bunch of books and have a lot of homework. And lo and behold,

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here's a crazy thing, the day before the in-person event happens,

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so this is back in September, I get an email and it making an introduction to a

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gentleman by the name of David, and they give a brief bio of David and they said,

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David is your mentor and you should email him before the

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event and set up the cadence in which he won't be

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mentoring you. So our mentor sessions happen once a week for an hour.

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And so we email and he said, Jasmine, I'm from the Bay Area.

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I'm actually gonna be at Stanford for kickoff weekend.

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And I was like, I would love to meet you there.

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And that's what we had decided. Now, if you know anything about the Stanford campus,

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I didn't know anything until I arrived.

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It is massive. And the business school is equally as impressive.

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And so the day before when Luna and I were walking

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to campus, we went to the business campus, but I actually didn't figure out where exactly on the business

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campus grounds the classes were gonna take place.

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I just thought, oh, I'll figure it out.

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Except for the fact that we're driving into Stanford campus now

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we're driving into the campus properly, right? So it's lined with these beautiful,

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beautiful old trees and palm trees and a large,

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large terracotta like arc to triumph.

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And it has a big welcome to Stanford sign.

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And my daughter's sitting in the backseat of our rental car

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and she insisted that we listen to Moana.

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Now, there's a song in Moana if you know Moana and

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Moana has the courage to go face the ocean and pursue

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Maui, and it's such an empowering song.

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So talk to me why we are listening to that Moana

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song as we're driving into the Stanford campus.

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And I'm like, wow, the timing of this is really incredible.

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My daughter is singing in the back and my husband is

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holding my hand, and he looks at me and he says, you're gonna do great.

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So we drive through campus, he drops me off in front of the business school,

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and it's a weekend and it's empty.

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So there I am walking and I don't know where to

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go. So I kind of meander for like five minutes.

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And then across the way I see a gentleman ascend from

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a parking structure, and I look at him from a distance and I'm like,

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is that David? So I walk closer to this gentleman and he has a

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quizzical look on his face, and he looks at me almost as if saying,

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are you Jasmine? So I wave and like worst case scenario,

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it's a stranger. And I'm like, hi, I'm Jasmine.

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And he said, what a coincidence of all the people to meet at this

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particular time on this empty campus at this moment.

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It's you. So there I met my mentor,

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I was completely alone. And there we were on this big campus and we spent

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five minutes walking and talking and getting to know each other.

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Now he's a former IBM intrapreneur.

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So I love this term intrapreneur because David has the mind,

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the passion, the hutzpah to be an entrepreneur out on his own,

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doing his own thing, running his own business. But what he decided to do was to apply his entrepreneurial

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skills at ibm. So when you're an entrepreneur,

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that means that you're an entrepreneur on the inside of another

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organization. Now, as a ceo, I love entrepreneurs.

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Entrepreneurs are the kind of people that could absolutely run and

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have their own business and be successful, but what they wanna do is get their big vision and

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put it inside of somebody else's bigger vision.

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Like as a ceo, you need to have such a big vision that highly qualified

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candidates can fit themselves in there and say,

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I could be out on my own, but I would prefer to do it with a team.

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Okay, so he worked at IBM for like 20 years and

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he developed revenue streams worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

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Like he's the kind of guy that took a flailing department,

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spent some time asking questions on how to turn it around.

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He knew that when he got into this position,

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massive leadership role, he knew that the department was going to get cut if

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he didn't make massive changes. And he had nine to 12 months to make the first

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massive change to prove that the concept in it and of

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itself would work. So yeah, I mean this guy,

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he knows his stuff. So I had a mentor session with him.

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So we met, we went through the weekend, and I should probably not skip over that part.

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L a Latino Action Business Network has been transformative.

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It has opened my eyes to seeing business in a new

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way. I feel wildly supported.

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And this program is worth tens of thousands of dollars,

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and it's subsidized by other organizations who really wanna see Latino

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business owners succeed. So the out of pocket cost that I paid to attend

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this program was $2,000, but it's well over worth $20,000.

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It's a three month program. You're paired with a mentor, you get all of your educational resources included,

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you get weekly webinars. I mean, there's so many things that are included and involved.

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And the reason why Stanford made this big initiative was because

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the amount of new businesses done by small business owners comprise

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44% of the small business market.

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44% of new businesses in the United States are starting off

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by Latinos, and yet they have the hardest time succeeding,

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or they, I should say, we have the hardest time succeeding in the business space.

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So Stanford saw this as an opportunity to really push the

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American economy forward by the largest demographic of people who are

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starting businesses and teaching them how to think bigger.

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Okay, so during one of our weekly mentor sessions,

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kind of just led out a deep sigh. I was like,

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and it was the si, like the size of a trash bag.

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No, I should actually, it was the sigh,

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the size of a trash bag with cinder blocks inside of

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it. And so David looked across the screen and he said,

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care to talk about it. And I was just like,

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yeah, I really would. I would love to talk about it.

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I explained it. There's this dichotomy between loving what I do and I love

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the business I created. And then on the opposite side of his very wide spectrum

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is the deep desire for more.

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I can't shake this thing that there's more,

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more what he asked. And I responded just more.

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There's more desire, grit, growth.

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It's like deep inside of me and I'm trying to figure

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out how to get it out into the world.

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This faceless, nameless, this idea,

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this energy, this percolation that I know in my gut is more.

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And I told him it feels like I'm ready to sprint,

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but I'm not quite sure if it's the right direction.

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In fact, I'm not quite sure it's the right thing.

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And he looked across from me and he said,

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four words, get creative,

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stay curious. And then he went on to explain that I should stop

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asking questions for answers and start asking questions for insights.

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He says, oftentimes business owners, you're looking for an answer.

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So you ask a question in a way that gets an

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answer. He's like, I want you to ask questions for insights.

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He said, you need a deep understanding, not of what you wanna create,

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but the value for somebody else.

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I mean, the guy knows his stuff.

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He knows that there is a difference between being a creator

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and a creation and being an artist,

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an artisan versus the difference of being an entrepreneur.

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An entrepreneur is less about making what you want to make

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and more about making something that somebody else finds valuable.

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And I wanted to share this idea of value with you

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as business owners. You and I we're not meant to create in a silo

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like just by ourselves, for ourselves as business owners.

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No, we're meant to present offers to somebody that finds them

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deeply meaningful and solution driven.

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And he said, Jasmine, you need to understand what the goal is.

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He says, you must always start any new venture,

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any new business, any pivot, any reset.

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He's like, you must start with the goal.

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What is your goal? And what does a customer find valuable that I was really

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interesting and then I responded,

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that's great, but if I don't actually know what that thing is quite

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yet, what my goal, like how do I define the goal?

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And he says, I'm gonna share three things with you,

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just three. And so I'm gonna share them with you because David's really

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smart. And if you're at a spot where you're deeply satisfied

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with your business, or maybe you're not,

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if you're at a spot in your life where you feel

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like you're called for more or maybe not,

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if you feel like you want to think or dwell about

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possibilities of the future, or maybe not if one or all three of these apply

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to you, I'm gonna share these three questions because it open a pathways

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for me to distinctly question and assess how to create value

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for somebody else in relation to a goal,

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even if I don't know what the goal is. So question number one,

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who do you want to help? He says,

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get very clear. And it's crazy because y'all know like if you've listened to

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this podcast before, that is the first question I tell anybody I consult with.

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This is the first question. When you are a part of social curator,

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we always ask first and foremost, well, who's your ideal client?

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That is the same way that David had asked me,

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who do you wanna help? If you don't know who you wanna help,

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if you don't know who you're creating value for,

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if you don't know what they want,

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if you don't know what pressure point you're relieving from them,

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here's a really hard time being in business.

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So he repeated back the number one question,

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I know we must always ask question number two,

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ask, what is the experience I have?

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Now? This is where he said, you must be honest. Like what is it that people see or experience as your

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expertise? And so he waited for me to outline what do

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I think people see as my expertise?

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And then he said, the larger the magnitude of your expertise,

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the more opportunities to create value.

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And he said, Jasmine, you and I have been speaking for a few weeks

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and you have around 15 years of entrepreneurial experience.

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He's like, of all of that experience, he's like,

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you just listed a few things and there's a common thread.

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He's like, but the larger the magnitude of things that you can do

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and have created it now opens more opportunities for you to

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create value because people can see you as a thing over

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15 years to do the thing that they themselves might want

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to do. So question number three,

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or actually before I get to question number three, it's not about me.

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This podcast is always about you. So the question then becomes for you to answer what expertise

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do you have? And you might be saying,

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well, I'm just started, or I've started a couple businesses and they never took off.

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Or I'm in the messy middle of my business.

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And to that, I want to add a caveat and let you know that

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that is okay. In a previous podcast episode,

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we interviewed R Vaden and he had said that your content

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becomes your credibility. And the content that we create is for the former version

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of yourself, where you were last year,

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where you were two years ago, for you to create and add value to somebody.

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It is okay if you are not the Oprahs of the

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world, it is okay if you're not as seasoned in your

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business as you would like, it is, okay if you're not making as much money as you would

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like or have a small waste or drive the car or go on fancy vacations,

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that is entirely okay. You can have an expertise that is just a few steps

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of somebody else who wants to be exactly where you are.

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Question number three, what do I have fun doing from questions number one and

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two? So when do I have the most fun working with

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that type of person? And when do I have the most fun exerting my expertise?

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Wow. I mean, we got real psychological in this conversation and he said,

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you know that it will bring positivity to the thing that

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you're creating when you focus on,

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Hey, I really like working with this person. I really like doing this thing that I've experienced in.

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And then all of a sudden the energy that we inject

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in this new idea, this new business,

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this new opportunity, it becomes a byproduct of who we are and what we

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create in happiness and positivity.

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Our customers, our clients then feel that as well.

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And so I said, okay, well, you know, can you give me an example?

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And he is a consultant. He works with other business owners.

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And so he's like, sure. He's like, I was talking to a person who said that they wanted

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to work with a ceo and what is the role of

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a CEO when talking about leadership? But the person who he was coaching wants to work with

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a CEO who has a very small business who might not

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even yet consider them a ceo. And so he said,

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okay, well if this coach wants to help a CEO with

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like a three person team and maybe they're making $200,000

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a year, then our goal as this coach would be to say,

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how do I get my client where they wanna go?

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How can I forecast a future? Two years later,

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they're making two and a half million dollars and they have

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12 employees. It's like once you know what that person wants.

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And then you have to ask yourself, do I,

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can I build the framework? Do I know the information to get the person who's making

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$200,000 a year with a three person team to two years

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later getting them to 2.5 million with 12 people?

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Do I know how to do that? And if the answer is then yes,

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then what you must do is build a framework on how

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to do that and then position yourself as an authority to

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do the very thing. But you could not do that unless you knew what,

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who you wanted to work with, what your expertise was,

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and then embedding fun along the way.

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So if you are like me at this point of loving

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what you do and understanding that there's more,

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I'm gonna repeat the advice that David gave me.

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Get creative, stay curious,

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stop asking questions for answers and start asking questions for insights.

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Y'all, you and I, we both know that we need to have a deep understanding,

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not just of what we wanna create but value for someone

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else. I hope that after this conversation,

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you will like me ask questions for insights and not for

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answers. In the process of getting creative and staying curious,

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I believe that we are going to uncover our unique value

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proposition so we can grow our businesses in new ways.

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Luna and JD and I will,

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we're gonna return back to Stanford for the graduation ceremony.

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It's happening in December, and my hope is to walk across the stage,

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accept my certificate, and then I'm gonna have my daughter sit in my lab

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and I'm gonna lean over it, and I'm gonna whisper in her ear,

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baby girl, we did it.

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Thank you for letting me work at night and in the

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darkness of the morning. Thank you for being patient.

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Thank you for singing to me, thank you for being the first thing I think of in

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the morning. And the last thing I think of at night,

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I believe that I had a deep desire to create more.

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When I met you, my daughter shifted things for me.

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I loved the business I was creating. And then I looked at my daughter and I thought to

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myself, how can I become the person who she could look

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to and think that there are no such thing as limitations

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or possibilities. We just have to craft a unique way of pursuing the

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thing that we want. And so I hope that the desire for more isn't rooted

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in vanity or the sheer desire for more,

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but simply as a way to show her what is possible

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in her life. And so I hope she's two and a half.

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I hope that she will maybe perhaps remember seeing her mom

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walk across the stage, and I hope that she'll remember those trips to Stanford.

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And I hope that she'll remember the afternoon spent with her

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dad as he walked her around the campus and bought her

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a Stanford little stuffed animal. And I hope that she remembers the parks that he took

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her to while I was in class. And I hope that she remembers the dinners that we went

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to where we raised a glass and we thought, my God,

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these opportunities. Thank you for listening to the Jasmine Star Show.

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I hope that you find a little bit of yourself in

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all of our collective stories. For those of you who share on social media and who

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tag me in poster stories. Thank you,

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thank you, thank you. For those of you who leave reviews for the Jasmine Star

21:04

Show, I've said it a thousand times before,

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but I really do minute. When you spend 30 seconds to write a review,

21:10

it has such a massive impact on what we could do

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with the show for those of you who take those actions.

21:15

Thank you. And for those of you who will take those actions,

21:18

oh yes, you will. I'm go. I'm gonna call it into existence.

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I'm thanking you in advance. I hope you have a beautiful day.