145: Social Media Strategies with an Accidental Entrepreneur with Jasmine Star

<p>Upon listening to my recent conversation with my guest, photographer and business strategist, Jasmine Star, it will become quite apparent why I felt as though we could have continued to talk for hours more. Her story (so far) will have you hooked and feeling the serendipitous pull of it (not to mention all the social media strategy knowledge she drops here). In 2005, Jasmine walked away from a scholarship to UCLA law school to follow her heart. The path led straight to her mother's bedside as she battled brain cancer for the second time. Wanting to be at her side as she fought, she dropped out of law school (fully intending at the time to go back). Praying for her mom to be able to walk her down the aisle at her wedding to her high school sweetheart, she planned a wedding in three months to ensure that this hope became a reality.</p> <p>Against all odds, both her mother and father were able to escort Jasmine down the aisle on a sandy beach in Hawaii. Shortly after, wedded bliss faded into the reality and she discovered she was jobless, broken, and desperate to follow her mom's earlier instructions of doing something she loved.</p> <p>On a beach, barely a tan line on his ring finger, Jasmine confessed to her husband that she didn’t want to be a lawyer, she wanted to be a photographer. With no experience or a camera for that matter, Jasmine’s husband supported her decision. That Christmas he gifted her a camera and the permission to pursue her passion. Though not extraordinarily talented at the time, she tapped into her self-awareness, slowly building a brand and community, marketing her services, and transforming from a “doubtful photographer to a savvy entrepreneur.” Four years later, she was voted one of the top photographers in the world.</p> <p><em><strong>“As a byproduct of pushing through and consistently ending up on the other side, other entrepreneurs, quiet observers, are paying close attention to what you’re doing. They develop an allegiance not for the perfection, but for the sheer will to succeed.”<