Ep. 54 | When Dreams Become a Reality with Jasmine Star

I cannot believe it has officially been ONE WHOLE YEAR since I first launched the Frame Your Way Photography Podcast! Thank you so much for continuing to listen to the show, messaging me, leaving reviews and finding me on instagram over the past year. This all would not have been possible without you and I am so thankful for your support. After all, this is all for you! It is my heart and my passion to be a resource for your business and for you to live the life that you absolutely love.

We have Jasmine Star with us. She is a photographer and business strategist who went from dropping out of law school to becoming an internationally recognized entrepreneur to becoming the Founder of Social Curator.

Today on the show, we’re talking about how her dreams became her reality and the mindset and actions you can take to make yours a reality, too!

Website:  www.jasminestar.com

Social Curator:  www.socialcurator.com

Instagram:  www.instagram.com/jasminestar

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/jasminestar

Twitter:  www.twitter.com/jasminestar

Want a chance at earning a FREE Focused Book Planner? Simply leave us a review on itunes, screenshot it before you submit, and tag us on Instagram using @thefocusedbook & @brookejanaephotography

Ready to grow your Instagram? Click HERE to sign up for the upcoming free week long Instagram Challenge happening April 6-12th!

Loving this podcast? Come join us in the NEW Photographer Community on Facebook.

Looking for more?

Check out the photography templates on Etsy.

Looking to learn how to run a profitable photography business? Join the From Broke to Booked Blueprint program.

Would love to have you in our Photographer Facebook group!

Transcript

spk_1:   0:00
have you wondered if having a mentor coach would help you further your business? Someone you can ask questions and get advice from? I know I needed someone when I first started, and I'm so excited to offer one on one mentoring to you to find out all the details and how we can work together to give you a profitable and sustainable photography business. You can check the show notes or head to my website. Brooke jefferson dot com. Welcome to the frame your way. Photography podcast. I'm your host, Brooke Jefferson. I'm a wife, Mama to two and full time photographer and business coach. I created this podcast with the aspiring photographer in mind to bring you inspiring stories. Strategies to help you go from zero to multiple figures and tips and tricks to help you get one step closer toe work. Life harmony. Are you ready to frame your way to your dream career? Let's dive in. Today is a very special day. It is the frame your way. Photography podcast, First birthday. It's hard to believe that it's come full circle and that 365 days ago I released my very first episode of this podcast. You can go all the way back to Episode one and listen to how nervous, unprepared and just all the things that I was in the very beginning. You can hear how I became a photographer and how this podcast came to be back at Episode one. But for today I am so excited for my special guest, and this episode is absolutely going to lead you. So inspired, so full of hope and ready to take on whatever mountain is currently standing in your way. Before we get into this episode, I want to talk about the amazing Give away that I have going on to celebrate this podcast. One year birthday up for grabs is a 30 minute coaching session with me, all about your photography business, your goals and your dreams as well as these focused photography planner book, which is absolutely amazing. There will be an episode releasing tomorrow that is going to talk all about this awesome planner that we have up for grabs. So to be the grand prize winner of both of these prizes, all you have to do is leave this podcast to review on iTunes. Be sure that you screenshot your review before submitting head over to your instagram stories and be sure to tag at frame your way. Photography podcast and at the focused book hashtag Frame your Way. Photography podcast. Once you do all of that, you're officially entered to win the grand prize. And if you want extra entries, you can head your instagram stories and once a day gotta get an additional entry by talking about the podcast in some way and again, be sure to tag at freeing your way. Photography, podcast and hashtag frame your way. Photography podcast that I can keep up with your entries and I will be announcing a grand prize winner on Friday, April 10. Guys, thank you so much for continuing to listen to the show messaging me, leaving the reviews, finding me on instagram and all the things that you have done over the past year. Your support means the absolute world to me, and I'm so glad that so many of you have found so much value in this podcast. At the end of the day, that is my heart. That is my hope, and I am so glad that I can be a resource for you to grow your business and for you to live the life that you absolutely love. Now on to today's show, my special guest is Jasmine Star. She is a photographer and business strategist from Newport Beach, California She dropped out of law school and became an internationally recognized entrepreneur later to become the founder of Social Curator, a social media marketing membership for business owners, harnessing her hustle, jasmine and powers entrepreneurs to build a brand marketed on social media and create a life they love. Some days you'll find her future in Forbes Entrepreneur and Ink magazine. Other days you'll find her going live on Instagram Hosting asked me anything sessions on Facebook and empowering business owners to build a life they love on her podcast. The Jasmine Star Show. You guys, I'm so excited for this and I can't wait to dive in. So let's do it all right, Jasmine. I'm so excited that you are here and kind of a little star struck to still little bit, but I would love it if you would introduce yourself for people who have never heard of you before.

spk_0:   5:01
Well, my name is Jasmine Star and I'm a photographer and business strategist from Newport Beach, California And I am also the co founder of Social Curator, a monthly social media membership for small and medium sized business owners to market their business and build a brilliant

spk_1:   5:15
I love it, and I've been a member of social curator for almost two years, I think almost since the beginning, and I'm loving every minute of it

spk_0:   5:25
and I'm loving you back. In fact, right before we got on this call like you know all about taking action and our day is completely full. So you and I hop on this call a little bit ago, you just said, I just got off your live And now we're doing this podcast. I'm like, Yes, queen, Show up. Yes, we're doing it. We're doing the work.

spk_1:   5:41
Yes, I love it. So I am really excited about today's conversation because it it's so timely. So I was just cooking dinner last night, and I listened to your adoption story and I was just in awe of your story. And I think that it's, um, first of all, God showed up big and too, it's just so timely, especially with what I decided to title your episode, and that's when dreams become reality. And so I and that's what today's show for me is all about, is we all have these dreams we want to pursue and for my particular audience for all photographers. And we all have these different dreams that we want. Thio work our way up Thio, and for me it's more stepping into the educator side and just being people's biggest cheerleader and helping them build a profitable and sustainable business. So I think the perfect place to start for you is maybe giving a little bit of a background that you are a photographer and that is your past life as well as some of your present life with being a new mom, kind of give us a backstory on how you became a photographer and then what that looked like transitioning from more of a photographer to a business mentor.

spk_0:   7:05
Uh, I believe that my journey to becoming a photographer is a lot closer to so many photographers who are now in existence than it was when I picked up a camera in 2006. At the time, photography was largely film based on do, it took a lot of money. It took a long time and it took a lot of education. And around that 6 4007 time frame, it was like this big shift in the way that photography was actually done and digital photography was right. At the beginning, I happened to be in the crosshairs of digital photography that empowered me to get a digital camera and quickly learn at a much lower cost how to become a photographer. So I became a photographer by Google. You know, I became a photographer by, like, literally photography forums and learning anything I could online. And I dreamt of being a photographer and I didn't have a camera. My husband gifted me a camera when I dropped out of law school, and he just said, Give yourself one year to build a business and if it were excrete and if it doesn't, you can go back to school. And that was like my big plan, like, I'm gonna try it for a year and it will probably fail. And then, well, I'll just go back to law school. And it was during that year that I met other photographers. I started interning I started entering. That's a big sound. Formal. It was I was volunteering. I was literally shooting for anybody who would give me the permission to. I didn't get paid for about a year as I shot with other photographers. But those opportunities taught me what it is felt to be a first photographer, even if I was 1/4 photographer like, Yes, I was a force for Tiger for a long time. Like I was a photographer, that I was like, you know, one shoot this stuff nobody else wants to shoot. And I

spk_1:   8:46
was like, happily, yes, I will totally do

spk_0:   8:48
it. And so, you know, that was like the start of it for me. And then in October of 2007 I shot my very first wedding as a lead photographer and that was the start of my career. And I shot two other weddings in 2007 for a total of three weddings in 2007. And then by 2008 I had but it was 40 weddings, all word of mouth. I didn't have a website and I didn't have any money, and I wasn't even all that talented but I understood the power of building a business in the brand, and that's really what Howard needed to really sore in the industry.

spk_1:   9:26
I love that, and for me, I think that's so important for people to hear. Hey, my first year, it was just three weddings. I know what you saw was the year I had 40 but really, the first year it was just three. And that's something that I try to instill especially into the listeners of my show is I want them to know we all start somewhere were either. And my story was I was a $50 family portrait photographer like I thought I was making it big until I realized I wasn't. She does, you know, and since then we've evolved. But I always It's the starting point, and a lot of times that's the part of our story that's not public. It's not that easy to go back and see where we started. It's just easy to see where you are and see other people. And so I love when people go back and they just touch on like how they started so well

spk_0:   10:16
done up work. If you know I'm gonna jump in real quick. I feel it's so important because during 2006 and 2007 this was also in addition to digital photography, really becoming the anger and creativity with the camera. Blogging at the time was like the thing that before social media was blogging. And so I started a vlog in 2006 to document the journey. Andi, I'm very open like that log still exist online because I want people to read the post of I don't know what I'm doing. I just got a first lens. I need my 1st $200 you know, shooting away. I was so open on this log to document the journey because I really believed I was sharing the journey to show what it feels like to not meet your goals and go back to law school. Like, I didn't think that this is gonna take off. So I leave it out there so that people can always see like I know who I am, and I know where I started in. Everybody starts with nothing and nobody is born with a silver spoon, and nobody has advantages. It's taking the little that you have in making it work. So thank you for being a testament to that. But at the same time, I always tell people share your journey. It will not ruin your career. It just won't. It'll make your career better.

spk_1:   11:26
I agree with that so much. And that's why I try to be very transparent. I know. For me there's Sundays that I feel like my sharing do much, and I being too honest here. But honestly, I wish somebody would have done that for me. You know, back when back when I first started, because I learned a lot from Google and from YouTube, much like we all do. We all start learning for free somewhere, but yeah, I just I think that's a huge thing. And I hope that everyone will be not ashamed of where they start, but really just to embrace it, because we all have that story. So I love that I'm okay. So you had I love that you mentioned you didn't think your business was gonna be successful and you almost kind of expected I have to go back to law school. And I feel like a lot of people, especially the ones that are, I would say, two years or less into their photography career. Even the ones who started six months ago. They're sitting on a teeter totter right now where they have a little bit of hope, but a whole lot of doubt. What would you say to them? Like, How do you How do you keep going every day? What? What? Your golden nugget for those people that aren't quite sure if it's gonna work out.

spk_0:   12:36
Well, look, I think I'm hardwired for positivity, like I'm hardwired for the silver lining, right? And so I think what people would expect me to say is keep pushing forward. You're just You're two steps away from success. This is where everybody has been before and I do. And I mean that. And I say that, but I'm with my people like I'm with photographers right now, like I'm not going to candy coat it like I have been there and I know what it looks like. And I have seen more businesses closed their doors than I have seen businesses succeed. There was this interview that I had seen with Matt Damon that is actor director, and somebody had asked him a very simple question. Very similar to what you just asked me. If you're an actor in Hollywood and somebody is just like, kind of like I'm not sure if it's gonna work. What advice would you give them? And Matt Damon said, Quit. Quit right now. Quit. And there was, like, this awkward, kind of like Lowell because that was not the expected answer. And then he ball it up and he said, If you heard that and you quit, you were never meant to make it to begin. If you heard that and it wild you up, it made you more passionate. It put a chip on your shoulder. It inspired you to keep on moving after. No, after, no after, no. After, no ever every missed opportunity. And you're still willing to be there. Then you have what it takes to make it work. And so I'm like, half of me wants to speak my truth and be like, you've got this, You're at the precipice, you're gonna jump in, the net will appear, and I will. But there's also the very pragmatic like If you don't believe it's going, it's going to happen for you. Save some time you have to believe, Ah, part of you has to believe that it's going to work. Even though I felt like I worried that my business wasn't going to take off and it wasn't gonna be a success, there was an equal part of me that said, I think I think it ISS I'm gonna prove a few people wrong. So that's my answer in the whole full spectrum of me speaking to my people. So that's not true.

spk_1:   14:42
Absolutely. And I definitely riled me up, you know, yet I actually feel like I have heard him say that are seen someone take a right clip of that before in for me. I just have that nature where I'm like Oh, no, it's gonna work exactly exactly

spk_0:   15:00
because there's that little part of like scrappiness and in very successful entrepreneurs, it's We could look at other people and see all the money they have the resources they have, the connection, the education, the cars, the houses, the zip codes. And we could say I will never get that because I don't have that or people like you and me say I'm going to get the life that I want on my terms, and I'm here to prove you wrong. Like those your hard wired like that. You're gonna win?

spk_1:   15:30
Absolutely. Oh, that's so good. I hope somebody else got rolled up with that. But okay. One of my favorite things that you teach, especially inside of social curator, is you teach entrepreneurs how to stand out how to not dressed to do the bare minimum to get by. But you teach, then to stand out. And so I would love a few churches. One way photographers today in 2020 can stand out from others in their industry.

spk_0:   16:01
Oh, Brock about toe. I'm about to chaps, um, hides. Okay, so here's the thing, and nothing has changed. Nothing has changed from 2007 when my mind when I kind of look at that's like my first riel year of business from 2007 to present day, nothing has changed. There is this imitation as creatives, but specifically as photographers because we, we capture, are we make art. We make moments, right. There's a sanitation to lead with our skill. It could be the fancy camera you have with the fancy presets. Or maybe you design your own presets. Maybe you have some secret sauce. Maybe you have a coveted lens. Maybe you have a studio, maybe of Camden's prints or albums. Or maybe your car is wrapped with your photography business That does nothing to separate you or help your business stick out in a saturated market. Because there's too many people who use the same camera, the same presets, the same computer, the same lenses like We cannot be different when what we want to lead with is all the same. So how, then, do you stick out in a saturated market in small town U. S. A. Internationally online, You show more of you and I know that it's so counter opposite because people say, No, no, no. I want to show my photos. I want to show my art and I get that. But our clients are buying photographs as much as they are investing in the photographer. People are buying art as much as they are investing in the artist, and I would venture to say that the more that the artist is defined, the higher the art pieces were, and that is like the corrective everything. In fact, I spoke at a photography conference a few months ago, and it's wildly talented photographer I did Instagram critique, and her most highly engaged post that I hit him for months was an iPhone photo of her and her partner, not her beautiful, internationally recognized work. The most engaging photo on Oliver Instagram feed was iPhone photo of her and her husband. So what does this go to show that the market doesn't lie? People want to see the photographer who creates the photographs. So how do you stick out in saturated market? Show you and that rubs people the wrong way. But I only speak the truth. I have seen it. If you look at leading photographers in this field, if you look at people who are leading industries around the world, it is a counter balance between the art and the artist.

spk_1:   18:42
I have to say that's not the first time I've heard that, obviously. But every time I hear that, I almost here in a different way, a new perspective, something about that showing more of you pops into my head and even just now like it. L like I got a brand new perspective, and now I'm like, I think I want to go change out some of the some of the way that I, you know, my post my feet, All the things insure more about myself. And I know that's tried and true because the people that are having the most success or doing exactly that exactly that. Tell me, girl like I don't know Yes. Yeah, So I think that that's just amazing. And honestly, I think that's a key piece of making your dreams happen is again You got to see people along for the ride and peel back the curtain and and the veil and let them let them see you through every season And the good, the bad, the highs, the lows, all of it. And I know for me that's what moves me and the people I follow. I'm invested in them and not just what they provide, which I think is so just important. Honestly. So Okay, because I'm gonna take it a little. We're in a transition this little bit and two more personal and about you because I come to the Walt Disney about these dreams. You just had one of your dreams and prayers answered, and I actually wanna invite you to talk about it. So I think it's so moving. And when we hear other people's stories, even if it's not business related or whatever it might be, I feel like it leaves us with hope. And that's what I want to leave someone with today. So can you tell us, um, about your about your adoption jury? Just just a little Smith it

spk_0:   20:26
Yeah. You know, I feel like at the time of this recording, I had just yesterday posted, ah, behind the scenes journal of the adoption story, and I want to take a step back before I actually talk about the dream. Becoming a reality, um, is that as a creator, I have found for better for worse that I process a lot of what I do by creating like my emotion. I tap into a new emotional reservoir that I cannot without the process of creation. Now I have got my social platforms being a photographer and then also being a creator. So I create a lot of videos. I take photos, but I think that somewhere in the process that has become so closely aligned to business that I just felt like I couldn't document my journey. Be a video and they couldn't document my journey. Be a camera. Something was There was like this barrier, but I did. I did have my phone and I just was recording things as they happened. So the podcast became a creative outlet for me to process my emotions without having to be on. I had to feel the weight of waiting a very long time. So I feel like I'm just coming off like processing what that looks like emotionally. And so for people who have no idea what I'm talking about. I Let's see. 11 days ago, I adopted a baby girl. Not my husband, and I. I am such a selfish mama already, and like I, she's a mine. No, no, no. First, what was? She belongs to God. So there's that. But her father and I, her daddy and I adopted a baby girl from lost. It is Nevada, and we had about one day notice, and we had been waiting for years for years and years and years for the adoption to come into fruition. We went down a lot of different adoption paths and then about two years ago, we got headfirst into working specifically with an attorney. Now I could talk about all the other decisions as to why we made it here. But the podcast. We'll get into that explanation. I really want to bring us, like, super present, because it's so easy on social media ready, Brown calls it gold plated grit. We're on social media. You can go back and say I went to this really hard time, but now I'm better with a really hard time, and now I'm happy. But she says that there's this beautiful vulnerability in sharing the process so that when you do get the end result, people are just as happy for you and it doesn't come across, is inauthentic. And so I thought it was gonna be very important because for goodness gracious, two years on Social every two months, I would give like an adoption update, and I dreaded them because I'm like, still nothing because it makes you feel like you're not good enough. It makes you feel like something's wrong with you. Makes you feel like your profile isn't viable until you start telling yourself all these negative stories about why your dream is not gonna happen because it's in somebody else's hands and I believe that that was a story or narrative I could I could have told myself. But we always went back to What? The truth, Waas and the truth Waas. Regardless, if you're a believer or your faith driven for us, we believe that God had predestined our child. And we equally believed that it just was a matter of time before the child found us. And when we got the call from Las Vegas 01 more thing. I actually didn't say this in the podcast, but, um, goodness gracious, Last October, we got really close. Were the final two families for a perspective adoption. And I believed I was like, This is it. This is gonna be this is it. And it was such hard news to receive that we were not selected that that weekend. My husband, I just went away for the weekend. We just went to a hotel and I just wanted to cry it out like I wanted to cry it out. And then I decided to write down everything that I wanted the adoption process toe feel like, and to look like when I wanted the bird with the relationship that I wanted the birth mom, the relations with the child, How how we would find the child. Right. So this is me just driving down the dreams and I put it in the envelope. And is it Every time I start doubting, I'm gonna read that list again, and it's gonna keep me tether to my truth. I am. When we got the call for our for this for baby girl in Las Vegas, I went to that. I went to that list and I read it out loud to J B. And I started to cry and cry and cry. And I said, The situation is nothing like we said we wanted. And what I know is that this is what God wants. Like, I had no doubt I had no doubt everything that I thought my dream was supposed to look like. Herbie was tossed out the window. We packed our bags about 35 minutes, we drove to Vegas and we didn't know it was gonna be there. And when we got there, it was court cases, and it was foster care and those child protective services, and we didn't have medical records. I didn't speak to the birth parents. There were so many things that I thought would be the town are opposite of everything I thought my dream was supposed to be. And we spent about about two weeks in Las Vegas and when everything cleared and when the baby was put in our arms, I had zero doubt. I was like, This is what it feels like to see a miracle like this is what it feels like when the time is right. This is what it feels like to hold a dream. And I just feel so indebted to the people who number one prayed for our baby girl number two I look back at the jasmine who wrote that dream list, and I just want a hug her and say, Girl, it's nice that you kind of wanted to plan your life, but God had other plans. So, Joe, if it And now that we get to hold Luna soul dilatory, My life is just so different. Like I wake up and I'm like, I'm purpose driven. I wake up and I speak to her and I wake up and I'm like every podcast I do every interview I did. Every video that I make made my ceiling be your floor. Like now, unlike you, girl, have all the tools for success because your mom is gonna be right behind you. Saying everything you think is impossible is actually possible. We have people who support you when you remain undaunted and bring it like a loop it back up to the start of this conversation. Get a little chip on your shoulder. If

spk_1:   26:44
you get riled up, maybe the world is your oyster. Your story is so beautiful on. Of course I cried with the podcast is I was making dinner and I teared up as you talked about your story. And the reason that I really wanted you to share it was because you physically are holding a dream that God gave you the desire for and that he blessed you with. And I feel like and I knew this to that 2020 was gonna be such an incredible year of promises coming to fruition. I've seen it with my sister as she had a couple losses last year and now she's pregnant and her baby will be born this summer. Our little rainbow baby who's also a girl, and we're very excited for that. But I just like I've seen all these things and even in my own personal life, there's something that we you know, have been waiting for for years. And while it's not a baby, it's still our dream. And it's what we've been waiting on and stuff. And I it's coming like way. No, no. We see the light of the end of the tunnel and so it's just it's amazing to watch God show off. And I know that everyone is sitting on a dream or a struggle. And I really wanted them to hear your story, but also for the reminder that you waited for a long, long time and you had heart break even in the waiting. And I just want people to know like that's a normal part of the process. You know, it's not all rainbows and sunshine, and I just I just want to leave people with hope today, and I feel like that's exactly what she brought. So

spk_0:   28:15
make you. Brooke and I also want to take a step back because oftentimes it's easy in there sis temptation to hear somebody else's dream and say, Well, that's their dream warning that fifth a certain way. But I have to say that, um, every time I have had and held on to a dream, it took a matter of time like photography, starting a photography business and becoming a photographer as a career was a dream. And I can definitely say that the 1st 3 or four years of my career I always felt like I was one step of failing or once a closing my doors. I was one step away from not being the thing I really wanted. And that was a period of waiting and heartbreak for a litany of other reasons that we don't have to get into. But I want people. I want to encourage people to share their story, share their story and share their journey. Because even though I was heartbroken so many times in photography, I was heartbroken on the path to beginning a mother. But the fact that when you are open with people and you say this is exactly what it is like, it love it, hated, despise it. This is my reality, and this is my truth, so that when your success story happens because it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when. And if you don't believe it, get out of the game. Because if you believe that your success is a foregone conclusion, that all you need to say is when the dark days come and when my failures are public and when there are shortcomings. And when I'm worried how I'm gonna ping on bills that you know your success is a foregone conclusion, that all you need to do is continue showing up. So when your day happens, people can look at you and say day, she didn't give up good for her. That is the only thing that I want people listening to this very conversation to say if you are willing to remain undaunted and if you believe that impossible, an impossible situation is actually possible for you. And if you're willing to share the journey, people will clap with you and share with you when your time comes.

spk_1:   30:14
Thank you for taking us to church, Desmond. I love it so good. How can people continue to get connected with you and follow you? And of course, your new motherhood journey?

spk_0:   30:27
Uh, well on all social media platforms. It's Jasmine Star. I am on YouTube, instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and tails still kicking it on Twitter and also a jasmine start back up.

spk_1:   30:37
I love it. What? Thank you so much for coming on the frame your way. Photography podcast. And I can't wait for people to start following you and get more connected to your dirty if you haven't already. When you were loving this podcast, would you take just a second and hit that subscribe button? This will automatically deliver new episodes to your phone every Thursday. And if you want to go above and beyond, I would love for you to leave and honest rating and review. This helps other photographers find the show and get the support they need. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll meet you back here next week.