Original subtitles

Hello everyone and welcome to Creative Live.

My name is Kenna Klosterman and I am

your host for the final wrap up of

the Complete Wedding Photographer Experience with Jasmine Starr.

Now this has been an event of epic

proportions.

For the past six weeks you have seen

30 different lessons as part of this boot

camp.

So before we actually get started and bring

Jasmine up to the stage, many of you

have been watching this for the past six

weeks and maybe some of you have missed

different pieces of it.

People have been inspired from all over the

world.

It's been an incredible thing to see the

response to this course.

Five years ago Jasmine was here and went

out on a limb and did her very

first live wedding shoot, our very first live

wedding shoot, live in front of the world.

And five years later she has done that

again and this time so much grander.

So we wanted to put, we put together

for all of you out there a little

inspirational video so you can see some of

the highlights throughout the past six weeks.

So roll that please.

It's valuable to take a step back and

really just be okay in your own skin.

It's okay to say this is what I

want, this is who I am and this

is what I do.

That is entirely okay because when you say

those things it allows the recipient, the viewer,

the potential client to look at you and

say I see what you do, I see

who you are and I want what you

do.

That's a powerful shift in the types of

weddings and work that we start getting.

If what you're getting is not what you

want and if I push through and if

I push through it's gonna be it.

No, stop it, change.

The best way to break the mold is

by simply being you.

If you want people to hire you, be

unique, be different and by being unique it's

simply by being you because there's only one

of you.

This means engaging with your clients in a

way that showcases your personality because what I

have learned the hard way is that being

somebody who you think other people want you

to be will always leave you dissatisfied with

your work.

So let me encourage you that if you

might not be the person who shines in

the center of the room, on your photo

shoot you must shine and you will shine

because as a byproduct of your shininess people

reflect that as a result.

I don't think that we as humans know

how great we can be until we're pressed.

If you would have told me two days

or the day before we went to Sonoma

that that was how the day was going

to end, I feel like I'm getting credit

when I shouldn't be.

It was the team from CreativeLive, it was

my husband and it was Tammy.

Everybody was behind me, pushing me and I

feel like it's a really emotional thing to

talk about a little bit because I was

like I wasn't enough but in that moment

they made me that way.

So it was really important for me to

keep in the back of mind that for

me it wasn't the wedding and for me

it wasn't about my business, it was about

two things Samantha and Taylor and the greater

good of the photographic industry.

I believe in it so the big picture

was give until you can't give anymore and

I felt like when we left at the

end of the day I gave it all

and sure some people might not think it's

enough but it was all I had.

Those who think about doing they insist they

can do it better, they would have done

it differently, they would have used off-camera

flash, they would have left room for cropping,

they might have photoshopped the sky back in.

Could have, would have, should have but they

didn't right because those who do, those who

do well they make mistakes, they trip, they

overexpose, they underexpose, they fall flat on their

faces, they clip highlights, they crop out toes,

they blow out the sky but they embrace

their missteps and they know that it's making

them better.

To fail publicly and grow is far better

to then stay in a point of stagnation

doing nothing.

So basically those people who do get better,

I am enough, I have made mistakes, I

am moving forward and on those days that

I have really bad days where I really

feel pretty crappy it's nice to say I

might not be where I want to be

but I'm sure as happy that I'm not

where I used to be and that tiny

little shift of perspective can change the whole

day and so I have to remind myself

as silly as it sounds that when I

go to a shoot I am enough.

These people hired me, I am enough that

on my worst day I could produce something

better than anybody else because they picked me.

Does this sound like some psychoanalytical babble?

I don't know but it works for me.

I would rather speak to myself with kindness

and grace instead of saying you suck, this

is going to fail, you're not good enough.

Imagine what the people are going to say

when you post these online.

I have two options, I listen to that

voice or I listen to this one.

I'm healthier, I'm in a better place now

to say I am enough.

I deal with myself with love and grace

and contentment and I hope the same for

you.

Powerful words from Jasmine Starr and now it

is time for her final lesson.

Jasmine Starr, you are more than good enough.

Please come on up to the stage.

Jasmine, was that just like really trippy to

watch this whole montage?

The past six weeks.

As if CreativeLive is setting me up to

cry.

I mean I'm sitting in the back and

it's like sometimes you just realize it's like

you go through emotions and you just do

it because it's in front of you but

like putting it here like that it just

kind of like we made it, like we

like made it and I think that that

was moving.

So thank you guys, thank you for throwing

me off my game.

I totally appreciate it.

That's when it gets real Jasmine.

Yes, no kidding, no kidding, no kidding.

Well I know you have some more inspirational

words for us all.

No pressure.

I mean everyone's like wait for it.

You've been doing this for six weeks.

Come on, planning for six months.

I mean this has just been what is

so incredible to me is the response and

you have truly given it your all.

Thank you.

Except for a little bit more that you

have right now.

Just a tiny bit more.

Yes, just a tiny bit more.

I'll let you take it away.

Thank you Jasmine.

Wow, like wow, right?

I mean this has been incredible.

I will say that now standing here it's

been nothing but incredible.

A couple weeks ago I was having a

conversation with a friend and I was telling

him that this course felt like the end

of a really exciting challenge in my life

and we spoke for a few more minutes

and he had said that it couldn't possibly

be the end.

That having gone through these 30 lessons that

there are so many photographers who feel empowered

to start again.

That this is really truly been six weeks,

30 lessons of you preparing yourself to reassess

where you are and to move forward, which

is why I decided to entitle this conversation

the countdown to the start of something new.

Now if you've joined us for this wedding

photographer experience, you cannot be the same because

you've gone through these 30 lessons and you

see that the principles that I have applied

have been successfully working for my business and

having seen other people, I now believe and

know that it is successfully working for other

businesses.

Now I'm going to be honest because what

I'm standing here saying today is shiny.

It's retrospective.

This is the icing on the wedding cake.

This is the pretty stuff that I want

photographers to see and experience right because we

get really emotional.

We see this video or at least I

did.

I saw this emotional.

I saw everything we went through and I

was just like wow yeah you can do

it rah rah rah but getting here going

through all of those moments standing on the

stage has been very difficult.

There were moments during the filming of this

course where I wanted to quit like outright

I wanted to stop because I realized I

think I bit off more than I could

chew.

That was the god honest truth.

I was nervous and I was embarrassed a

lot of the times and I was terrified

of sharing so much of my personal business

so publicly.

There was a moment when creative live flew

the crew down to Orange County and they

said we're going to have three days of

intensive shoots.

So we had six shoots.

I had a client meeting.

I had interviews.

I had things to do and for a

girl who literally just stays at home or

in the studio and works in yoga pants

three days of all of this was a

lot and it became so overwhelming because I

felt like as I was going through the

shoots that I kept on messing up.

That I kept on missing the mark.

That I kept on falling short of the

things that I wanted to do and finally

as we get into like day day three

we're going into our last shoot and we

all meet back at the studio and everybody's

running around and there's so many people.

I literally walked into a storage closet and

I cried into a mob.

I was like I can't do this anymore.

I just can't do this and then what

I realized was I thought once we did

finish that I said okay great we got

it done but what happened was that that

paled in comparison to what happened when I

would the things that I experienced as we

shot the Not Dream Wedding live.

Now CreativeLive and I had made well CreativeLive

had suggested that we show my images straight

out from my camera as I shot them

so there would be no retouching and there

would be no editing.

Now of course when I say this it

made me like physically ill like I was

thinking like um no like what's the possibility

of us not showing those photos like what's

the possibility of me editing the photos and

then you putting them in and they said

we want integrity.

We want people to see what you are

doing and then show the transformation and I

can't help but think that that is a

life principle.

What we want to do is show how

pretty everything looks at the end but in

the middle it stinks sometimes.

Now when I when I thought about sharing

those images the first image that I had

was like when I was in junior high

and I would have these like really terrifying

dreams that I would show up to school

with no clothes on.

I was having issues of vulnerability and that

manifested itself much later in life.

So there I was and I relented and

I said okay we finally can after some

discussions but I laid in bed at night

worrying about how my work would be criticized.

Now all of that paled in comparison to

what happened to me a few weeks ago.

So what happened to me a few weeks

ago is we are getting ready to fly

up to San Francisco to film a few

days to finish out this course in real

time to talk about what happened at the

wedding, with the workflow for the wedding, the

marketing for the wedding and it had taken

me weeks to prepare and I was feeling

good and I was feeling confident and I

told JD all that stuff that happened in

the beginning all the stuff that happened the

wedding well I'm ready now.

This is great except for the fact that

the night before we were to leave to

San Francisco my presentation disappears.

So I had 150 slides on a keynote

presentation and I opened up my keynote and

it had 10 slides and I was like

oh no no like this isn't happening this

isn't happening to me right now this is

the stuff that happens in movies it doesn't

happen to real people except that it did

and we were um on the phone with

support so JD was on one phone with

apple care and I was so desperate in

this moment that I was calling anybody who

knew anything about keynote I was going to

be on the phone with him well lucky

for us the one of the co-founders

of creative live I called him it's almost

nine o'clock at night I was like

Greg I'm just so upset right now I

don't know what to do and he tried

working through it with us uh JD was

trying working through it with us and so

a couple hours later we realized it was

gone.

Now I was humiliated because there I was

crying at nine o'clock at night with

one of the founders from this entire amazing

organization um I was tired I was frustrated

but once I screamed a thousand screams I

had no choice but to let go because

I needed to start over and as much

as I wanted to hide as much as

I wanted to cower I had to make

the best of it I had no other

choice that night I stayed up working on

my presentation until we left on our flight

to come to San Francisco I worked on

the plane I worked on the taxi ride

to the studio I met with the producers

then I went back to the hotel and

stayed up the whole night again to finish

what I had to finish why because I

had no other choice in retrospect as painstaking

as these experiences were I wouldn't change them

for the world no I didn't know what

I was capable of until I was desperate

to survive but we don't know what we're

capable of until life thrust us into where

we're supposed to be and that was what

happened I had a jolt and it said

I needed to be here in that moment

but I had to prove how much I

wanted to be here but this made me

ask what if I lived my entire life

this way as if I'd never had another

option but to continue moving forward what if

I stopped giving myself reasons or excuses to

not have to deal with the struggle or

the hurt or the fear now having gone

through this boot camp this is what I've

learned I want to fight I want to

be uncomfortable because when I am comfortable I

am when I am uncomfortable I am growing

far more and far quicker and far greater

than I could be if I was simply

going through the motions and that's what I

want to focus on today I'm not going

to talk about my experiences I'm not going

to talk about mere suspicions as to why

I think uncomfortability is a good thing I'm

going to talk about concrete academic examples that

prove success has very little to do with

being the best success has very little to

do with being the strongest or the fastest

success goes to those who hustle all the

time on the note of hustlers and success

over the past 30 days I realized that

I have focused so heavily on education about

the things that I did in my business

to bring me to where I am today

but I failed to talk to you about

things that were going on in my personal

life that further changed the trajectory of where

my business was going there were a few

things and one in particular that made me

shift that made me the person that I

am today and it has to be said

today what that was because that change has

allowed me to have longevity in my business

and that's what I want to share I

want today I want to give you the

complete story of how things unfolded so as

you know if you've joined us for previous

lessons in 2006 in October of 2006 I

booked my first wedding but technically in 2007

that was my first year in business and

during that first year of business I was

building my brand I was learning how to

market my business and those marketing principles that

I use today were what I was developing

back in 2007 nothing too much not too

much has changed and those are the things

that I shared with you in previous lessons

but at the same time because I was

outsourcing a lot of like the minutia of

my business I felt like I could focus

hone my focus on photography so what happened

as a result as I started focusing on

photography it freed me to pour energy into

that one thing so when you pour all

of your energy into one thing good things

appear you grow faster you get smarter you

learn more so as a result doors opened

for me and new opportunities presented itself because

I was still a very new photographer but

my work was getting better really quickly and

I was gaining momentum which is a great

thing which is what I want for you

which is what I wanted for myself but

as these new opportunities presented themselves my life

became very fragmented my attention was divided and

my attention was divided because yes I was

trying to start a business and yes I

was trying to learn photography but I also

worked part-time three days a week I

was also attending a local junior college in

Los Angeles and how to learn photoshop truth

be told I really didn't learn too much

in that photoshop class but I had to

go on Mondays and Wednesday nights from 7

to 10 I was volunteering at church at

sun in Sunday school I had just gotten

married I had to learn how to make

dinner which years later those lessons didn't really

pay off in any way shape or form

but all of this was happening at this

time and so then I had to realize

that I found myself staying up late at

night I found myself making empty promises and

I found myself waking up almost every morning

completely overwhelmed it was very common for me

to come home from work and JD and

I would make dinner together and I would

turn to him and say I just need

about an hour and a half to get

some work done and he would say okay

and then when that hour and a half

came around I would say okay can I

just get 10 more minutes can I just

get five more minutes and then three and

a half hours later I would walk downstairs

and I would see my husband alone asleep

on the couch and this was not a

one-time thing this became a regular thing

in my life and it just wasn't with

my husband it was with my friends I'm

like you guys I'm just so tired I

just can't go out can you guys get

the coffee without me or can you guys

get the coffee and bring it to my

house and then what I'd be I'd be

everybody having coffee and chatting I'd be on

my computer yeah and I'd be working my

mother had during this time was kind of

like on the rebound she was trying to

get into remission from cancer and one of

my top priorities was to hang out with

her but what did I find myself doing

calling mom can I get a rain check

and of course she would always extend one

but then something radically changed in May of

2009 in May of 2009 I got a

phone call from a dear friend I had

met her as she was a photographer within

the industry and she had called me and

she had said that she was at the

hospital and she was with her husband who

had just been diagnosed with an inoperable brain

tumor and the news had hit her so

hard and the things that we would think

we might be concerned with the things that

we had constantly our relationship we were always

talking about work about workflow about clients about

expectations that was the last thing on her

mind she was a girl trying to deal

with the boy she loved and the possibility

of losing him and all of a sudden

everything changed as a result and so I

was desperate to help her I said can

I can we rent you an apartment by

the hospital can we send you money do

you need food like what can we do

and her response was so sobering because she

said um can you hug JD can you

tell him you love him can you press

your nose against his head and take a

big whiff of everything he is and it

just like a dagger in my heart because

I realized should anything happen to my husband

to my mother to my friends that I

would not have been there in the way

that I should have been and what I

realized was happening was I was becoming chained

to my work I was becoming enslaved to

my own expectations so we got off the

phone and I tried to walk downstairs and

I saw my husband again alone on the

couch and I sat in the stairwell and

I cried I cried and I said I'm

sorry I'm doing it wrong I'm doing it

wrong and I see it and something has

to change I cannot keeping it cannot keep

this our lives this way because we won't

last my business won't last long term and

I knew this so if I knew that

I had to make changes the question then

begged itself how how do I make these

types of changes well I set up parameters

within my business and does it make you

kind of especially as creatives we don't like

rules we don't like parameters right but in

order for healthy living what are the things

that we have to do now here are

a few things that I have employed in

my business but I as you hear me

talking about them can you find ways to

do to go through your business and find

what your pressure points are one of my

first things for me is that I stopped

working at 6 30 p.m. every night

that's hard like 6 30 hits and then

I'm shutting the computer and let me tell

you there are nights where I'm just like

no no no give me a little extra

more time just a few more minutes and

JD and I had a conversation that if

I am not in like code red stressed

out situations that the computer closes at 6

30 how do I get all of the

work done I'm an early riser I wake

up and I am working at 6 a

.m. every morning so for all intents and

purposes I am working from 6 a.m.

to 6 30 p.m. now these are

the parameters that I've said to myself yes

I take time to go and I practice

yoga and yes I take a lunch break

I do those things yes but by and

large I'm working on average about a 10

hour day if I cannot get all the

work that I need to get done and

prioritize it within those 10 hours I mean

really need to rethink about the things that

I'm doing but on that note of making

time studies have shown that you are more

productive if you take a 10 minute break

after every 90 minutes you work so how

does this unfold in a day for me

I walk my dog JD and I take

polo and we walk him so I work

about an hour and a half an hour

and 45 minutes and we get up and

we go on a walk and what does

that walk do I don't know I'm sure

it has some sort of scientific like anatomical

thing but guess what the vitamin e does

you good smelling wet grass does you good

hearing the crunch of things on the floor

underneath your feet do you good because as

artists and as creatives we want to be

creative and yet we find ourselves in in

cubicles or in caves that we create or

in dark offices what do we need to

do to create balance 10 minutes can you

give yourself 10 minutes can you give yourself

20 minutes every day I'm unafraid to admit

that we take midday movie breaks there are

times I get one clap that's right that's

right and I don't feel guilty you know

why I don't feel guilty taking a midweek

so sometimes JD and I uh we're really

fortunate we have like three or four independent

movie theaters where we live and so we

will go and see a foreign independent film

and it makes you think differently and it

makes you feel differently and then you know

what sometimes we don't do anything artistic sometimes

we're just so tired and we've just had

such a long run that week that we

look at each other margarita margarita okay so

we go and we enjoy happy hour in

the middle of the day why because we're

wedding photographers we work on Saturdays and then

we're dealing with the wedding coma or like

the wedding post after party you're in bed

like I can't move right so our weekends

are working and then what do we do

we get up on Monday we go back

to work that's what we do so when

are we finding time for ourselves on the

note of tiny finding time for ourselves the

key for me and this is a hard

one is turning off social media now not

all the time because social media is a

big marketing component to what I do to

what we do as professionals however what I

have noticed and it might not be for

you what I have noticed is that social

media empowers me to not be in the

present it empowers me to be other places

it empowers me to make friends on the

internet when the friends who are sitting in

front of me are going neglected this time

last year I keep a small little journal

just a few sentences every day this time

last year I had taken a social media

break for seven days I decided to not

get on social media at all and it

was a very hard conversation I had with

JD because I thought I'm going to lose

momentum people are going to stop talking what

if I miss out on a really great

opportunity what if this what if that and

I sat and worry and then I just

decided that if I was having such this

panic attack about not being on social media

that indicated that something was going on now

I will say that as part of this

30-day course I have been a lot

up in social media me and social media

like we are like old friends at summer

camp like we you know initial in our

initials on the pillowcases and like KIT you

know keep in touch so that's me in

social media these days but let me tell

you living with me and I while I

have a quasi affair with social media is

not fun and so as a result I've

noticed that it was starting putting like a

lot of pressure a lot of tension and

so I told JD that after this course

we're going to just kind of slip away

for three days just kind of go defrag

relax and they said during that time I'm

going to make proper arrangements for me to

kind of slip away from social media and

his exact words I cannot wait to throw

your phone in the pool and that's still

debatable whether or not it's going to happen

but I will tell you if my husband

is like thank God then I know that

that's something that has to change now the

and this led me to asking why why

did I have to make this decision well

I was learning how to balance my life

and my work I wanted my job to

serve my life I did not want my

life to serve my job now what you've

heard me say is that this is a

struggle that I dealt with in past tense

right because I'm talking about 2007 2009 the

struggle is real this goes on still to

this day so it is not do I

want to walk my dog every day in

the afternoon if I was being real no

there are sometimes jd's like come on come

on I'm like why are you making this

so hard for me when I'm telling you

this is so good for you guys like

know that these decisions come really hard so

amen I got an amen that's right now

I have to ask are you struggling to

find balance between your life and your business

and if you are I ask are you

chained to your computer do you constantly live

in this fear of letting go in order

to for you to start living the life

that you have dreamed of you must let

go of the things that are keeping you

from that it sounds so easy but it

is so hard but I promise you that

by you making these decisions what is your

priority do you want to tuck your daughter

in every night and read to her a

bedtime story is that your priority do you

want to go to your son's soccer game

at least once a week is that a

priority do you want to plan a date

night for your significant other so that he

or she is not left alone in the

bed or on the couch by themselves what

must you do to let go and ensure

that that remains balanced that that remains a

priority because I will tell you that caressing

your mouse at night making out with your

computer is not as fun as doing the

real thing with somebody you love in bed

amen I will amen my own amen I

mean right but what do we do we

make those decisions to say I choose the

computer tonight boo no no we can't so

I know that these the minute you start

making these changes in and these decisions that

you will be closer to your version of

success that might not be my version it

will be your version of success and this

is awesome and I think it's awesome because

you have been given the opportunity to do

something great we have worked together for 30

days we've worked together for six weeks you

now know everything I do to run my

business and now you know the things the

decisions that I have made to ensure that

my business does not run me because I

am not in this for the short game

I'm going in I have been that it

been in the game 10 years had I

kept doing what I was doing in those

early years I don't think I would be

in a healthy state now I don't think

that my marriage would be in a healthy

state now I don't think that my priority

being with my mother and my father saying

you know what today I'm done driving to

my mom's house that's what I'm doing today

I don't think that I would be where

I am today had I not made those

decisions so please join me in that crusade

against the inner workings of our fear don't

let fear run your business let hope let

grace let the belief in yourself by saying

I don't have to do everything in this

moment because it will come together I will

find a way I want to talk a

little bit about what that looks like now

that is success to me finding a way

I came across this fascinating TED talk this

TED talk was given by Angela Lee Duckworth

and she spent years studying what makes people

successful she was an inner city school district

teacher and she noticed a pattern with her

students and this was the pattern that normal

predictors of success privilege IQ race this had

little to do with actual success so Angela

set out to discover what makes people a

success she studied West Point Cadets it's a

five-year program and she wanted to know

this person is primed for success and this

person is primed for success will they finish

it will they finish the five-year program

because statistics show a lot of people quit

the five-year program she studied rookie teachers

in really tough neighborhoods to see if they

would make it through their first year of

teaching because statistics show that most people don't

so she said this person looks like they

would be making it through their first year

and so she started allocating who's going to

make it she also studied um high profile

fortune 500 companies and she wanted to know

which workers were actually going to take time

to climb the corporate ladder and if she

could predict who it would be now everything

she thought would be an indicator a significant

indicator of success so she listed IQ good

looks economic status intelligence health wealth those things

didn't matter they hardly mattered at all so

what's the one thing that makes a person

prone to success her answer grit so what

is grit grit is the disposition of pursuing

long-term goals with perseverance and passion basically

it is sticking with something over the long

run and working hard you want to be

successful stick with something and work hard that's

the answer her studies show that the grittier

you are the more likely you are to

succeed now the part that i just found

the most intriguing was that she took her

ideas even further and she said that people

who have a natural talents who were born

with god-given dispositions and abilities for things

did not mean that they would be successful

in fact she argues the opposite she says

that if you had natural abilities if you

were born talented you aren't used to getting

up after failures because it has come to

you for so long so easy so if

you are gifted in sports or academic or

art academic wow i need to go to

school if academics photography if this came easy

to you she says that it's almost like

your brain is wired not to know how

to deal with failures so when i first

heard this when i first heard this i

took a big sigh of relief because my

entire life i have never been one to

stick out i was never the smartest i

wasn't the fastest and i was not ever

picked first for team play in fact it

always came down to me and the kid

with the iron lung right it's like fine

i'll take jasmine but none of this changed

as i went into adulthood the things that

i noticed was that i also did not

have a history with familial connections with wealth

or experiences with people starting a business in

fact at this time in my life i

didn't even know a single person who had

started a business so for all intents and

purposes nobody would think that i would be

a success or at least that's how it

appeared on the outside so what i didn't

know then which is what i know now

is that i possessed grit after hearing angelina

duckworth's description definition i realized that this was

the one thing i knew i had she

says grit is most prevalent in people who

have failed and gotten up again well failure

me and failure are like bffs like we

go back to my days in childhood i

have grown accustomed to falling flat on my

face and finding a way to stand up

and keep going i did not have much

but what i had was grit and these

are a few things that i think people

with grit possess five things one gritty people

believe that the ability to learn is not

fixed it can change with effort so if

you have gone through these 30 days you

must prove to yourself that you learned at

least one thing at minimum and if you've

gone through this 30 days and you realize

you have so much more to learn guess

what you have the ability to learn if

you want it bad enough two gritty people

believe that if they acknowledge that failure is

not the end they are more likely to

persevere because failure is not a permanent condition

if you are gritty you must tell yourself

that either i have failed or i am

failing but because failure is not a permanent

condition i will get up and i will

move on because i'm great three gritty people

believe that change is possible always i have

used the word change it was synonymous with

hope i hope that even if my present

situation is not what i wanted i believe

that my future my future situation my future

life can be better i believe in change

because i possess grit four gritty people don't

let setbacks disappoint them gritty people knew that

setbacks were coming and now what they have

to do is find a way to work

around them lastly gritty people believe in finishing

what they started if you feel in your

heart that you have not finished get up

and go there is still something in me

10 years later but i know there will

come a time in my life where i

can say it is finished i have done

what i came to do and until that

point ain't nobody gonna stop me until you

know that you are ready to be done

because gritty people create the terms of their

own game so everything that we have spoken

about thus far can be boiled down to

one sentence pushing yourself and getting up after

disappointment is something you must always do to

be a success have you had failures in

your business good because this means that you're

finding your path to success if you continue

moving forward that is a dependent clause you

will not be a success simply because you

show up if you will be a success

if you fail and you continue to move

forward and sometimes i believe it's easy to

respond to our failures by blaming a lack

of x i didn't have time to follow

my dream i didn't have the money to

pursue photography i didn't have the technology to

build my business i did not have the

education to become a professional now sometimes it's

easy to list our lack of resources and

maybe it's true maybe you do legitimately have

a lack of resources but that cannot stop

you from being resourceful right i heard that

somebody say you don't lack resources you lack

resourcefulness and i was like yeah exactly because

the most successful entrepreneurs take the little they

have and they make it work we see

it time and again so in order to

survive and in order to be resourceful you

have to find a way to get off

this merry-go-round this cycle of going

round and round of disappointment and frustration in

order to get off the dizzy ride you

must be willing to change and there i

go i said that c word i began

this 30-day course on day one and

i said that change is hard and change

is hard because change and struggle go hand

in hand we stay away from change because

change scares us change forces us to admit

that we're stuck and we don't know where

we're going but we possess the power of

decision in our minds we hold the ability

to say no more if you don't like

your job change it if you don't like

how you feel change it if you don't

like how you think change it that is

the power of decision now but what the

but what happens when we make these changes

we know the struggle will come failures will

come it is simply the natural order of

starting something new but the more and you

will fail far more than you will succeed

but the more you fail the more you

will succeed the most successful people they don't

let the past define them they don't stay

stuck on that merry-go-round of fear

frustration and disappointment they take risks and they

become resourceful in order to follow their dreams

so i hope that today i hope that

today you make the decision to succeed i

hope i hope that you stop looking at

everything you don't have i hope that you

stop comparing your work to another photographer's work

i hope that you stop listing your lack

of resources today i hope that you make

the decision to get gritty i believe that

we are capable of wild successes the minute

we become desperate to survive today is not

the end of the 30-day wedding photographer

experience it is the start of something new

it is your dreams becoming a reality i

want to thank you people in the studio

audience i want to thank the people online

because what this course has taught me was

that i want the fight i'm not ready

to go anywhere i want to get uncomfortable

i want to grow i want to get

bigger better bigger and better i must say

i want to get better more than i

want to get bigger but i will take

both if they come that is what this

course taught me so for that and a

thousand things more thank you for giving me

something so implicitly priceless wow

jasmine you did have more to say right

wow um we've got tears at home we

have shouts at home um you've you've covered

so much um over the past six weeks

and gosh that grit uh word really really

stuck with me and resonated with me okay

we all possess it we do we do

we have how did you see some sometimes

we bury it yeah thank you thank you

i wanted to let you know um what

people's reactions are we've had such an overwhelming

series of people saying what this course has

meant to them and how it has changed

them you've just told us about how it's

changed you uh nia says thank you so

much jasmine for not only reminding me that

although this is my passion and career we

are humans seeing you tear up made me

realize how i much i need to set

up the limits and balance thank you for

being an inspiration thank you so you've you've

taught us so much we wanted to hear

uh from some people who are here in

our studio audience about how they've already been

taking what they've learned and putting that into

action and being the change that that you've

been talking about good so we're actually going

to start with jen hello so i was

here before in the studio once before and

of course i've been watching every single day

and um i have always shied away i've

done weddings in the past but i've always

really shied away from them because i lack

the confidence and what i learned from you

was not just the rah rah confidence because

i have that internally the grit that kind

of thing but what i learned was the

step by step um what can go wrong

how to fix it watching you shoot the

knot which literally like everything could have gone

wrong and you have gorgeous pictures and didn't

kill anybody during the making of it so

that was great and um within the past

three weeks i've already booked four weddings so

and you you are you often said that

when you think about it and you focus

on it and you learn about it that

it comes to you well i mean it's

proof it's proof there's is there's nothing standing

in the way except yourself and so that

that's the one thing that i got from

you aside from all the others so thank

you so much powerful thank you thank you

for that gift truly and and that really

is the most important thing it is right

it is that belief absolutely sometimes we stand

in our own way the person that you

need to say to the voices in your

head i have multiple voices stop simmer down

now i'm gonna do something i want yeah

take it get in the back seat i'm

gonna drive the car i love it thank

you thank you thank you jen now tammy

your third shooter yeah let's i want to

take a minute and just introduce tammy because

i don't think that they formally did it

at the wedding because oh we had a

few things going on that day uh tammy

is a photographer tammy page is photographer based

in chicago i actually met her as a

result of a creative life class we met

by way of restart one of the other

courses that i feel so passionate about tammy

has done since then has done amazing things

with her business and she's just kind of

doing great things and so i wanted to

invite somebody who i respected and who i

trusted and who would be there on such

a deep and profound level and tammy delivered

in space thank you um i think that

i got a really unique perspective i'm gonna

get emotional i can feel it already i'm

um i feel like one thing that um

watching you working with you that i've carried

with me is don't waste time making excuses

just um just deal with it and make

it work and um it doesn't do any

good to sit and try to complain about

like you're saying like why things are the

way they are it's just you know acknowledge

it and then deal with it and i

think the other thing is um you said

to give until you can't give anymore and

i don't think the cameras caught this but

when we were shooting the not wedding like

three different times during that day um jasmine

looked at me she's like are you okay

do you have water like and i was

like okay you're teaching a lesson you're shooting

a wedding you're like dodging all these cameras

and you're looking at me like asking me

if i am doing okay and i think

having that spirit of giving and generosity is

what makes me want to have your back

and make you a success and thanks for

doing that for me and now i'm gonna

sit down thank you thank you thank you

it was really great to have a team

yeah um it was really great and i

think that i get a little teary-eyed

because one i'm a girl and two um

is that when you go through something that's

um and that's a little difficult you uh

realize how a little bit as you realize

how strong you are only deriving strength from

people who surrounded you so the crew that

was there with me um in sonoma um

the film crew my producer celeste um jd

my second shooter and tammy our assistant and

third shoe that day was such a profound

thing and i know that the course would

not be what it what it is or

what it was without their help absolutely thank

you for being here thanks alyssa hi okay

so as a follow-up to last time

we met i had a question about my

pricing and how i lacked confidence in my

pricing and basically i was saying how i

went up at the like urge of somebody

i knew and i respected and then i

felt uncomfortable so i went back down i

didn't know what to do and one of

the things you said was you were like

girl give yourself grace and own it and

so um anyway

so as a follow-up um yesterday i

met with a bride and the question of

pricing came up and i'm like oh god

here it is here it is and so

i was like so i went from 28

50 and then remember i was like went

back down to 24 50 and so i'm

like here we go so i said my

hands 28 15 she's like oh perfect okay

great and i'm so nervous i know so

she literally just did it and it was

such a great moment and i'm like yes

like own it yes good you deserve it

you're worth it you got it yes so

thank you i'm glad i'm glad that that

is what you walked away from you know

the pricing section because so often i would

get follow-up um emails in regards to

that pricing section people are like well this

and oh this and oh that no this

it's just like i can only give so

much but this right here is you saying

i'm owning it i'm yes nervous to say

it but the minute you put it out

there and you think that you can earn

that and you've worked for it and you

deserve it it manifests itself you attract that

thing thank you alyssa thank you for coming

back and being here i think that's so

cool to see in so many of the

comments that it's like you you um have

been you know afraid to say something that

person that bride is coming to you absolutely

she wants to pay you absolutely and and

it's and we just get in our own

way over and over and you have given

us the tools thank you to be able

to do that thank you wanted to read

a couple more from the folks at home

uh we have jody mcnary who says i

purchased this course about a week ago i've

already put so many of jasmine's marketing steps

to work in my own business and i'm

already seeing the results as we speak good

people are doing the work a week later

that's great just like jed um i'm and

then suzy zo says i'm blown away by

jasmine's generosity in sharing so freaking much information

every day my head is full and i'm

having countless rethink moments already this course has

reshaped how i'm shooting and changed my direction

and my dedication to my art as business

i can't thank you enough creative live and

jasmine and jd of course so jasmine we'll

have to capture them for you but there

are so many wonderful stories that are coming

in and we have some videos to play

as well to hear from some more folks

what i want to say first is thank

you to jasmine star and creative life to

give me the strength to believe in myself

what i am taking away most from jasmine

stars boot camp is that success doesn't happen

by accident and that hard work preparation efficiency

and your passion those are the things combined

that are going to take you from here

to there i really wanted to thank you

because you and your course have taught me

to be more confident as a photographer and

have also taught me to be more gracious

and loving towards myself for tips and tricks

have helped me define who i am as

a photographer and where i want my business

to go and the steps on how to

get up there the number one thing i've

learned from this whole experience the right track

and i wanted to thank you for the

last 30 days they've been a game changer

for my business and for me personally i've

made wonderful friends i've connected with wonderful photographers

across the world and i've learned if i

have a dream i should go after it

and then i can do it we want

to say you're an inspiration and an amazing

role model we're no longer fearful of the

harsh sun we're using vlogging and social media

to increase our business and we love your

ideas on exceeding expectations we hope to be

successful and travel the world the number one

thing i learned is as jasmine says to

give yourself grace i know i can be

hard on myself and i just need to

realize it's part of the process and to

do just that give i can't believe that

my business has already progressed so much um

i look forward to being able to excel

and she's given me that hope you know

hope for success and i think that's the

biggest takeaway that i can you know apart

from all the technical stuff that's the biggest

takeaway and i can't thank her enough for

it so thank you jessica so thank you

creative live thank you jasmine for such a

great course thank you so much jasmine jd

creative live and all the cool people i

met while being blessed enough to be a

part of this whole experience we love you

and thank you so much thank you jasmine

i can see the tears tearing open your

eyes as in my own how incredible thank

you to everybody who submitted those videos what

a surprise what a surprise i feel like

i can't thank you guys enough for what

you guys have given and so to see

people who walk away with things that are

a lot more profound than f-stops and

iso it's like you have hope for the

future you're giving yourself grace you love yourself

inspire the mistakes amen if that's what people

are walking away with i love that i

can get behind that message it's all of

it jasmine it's it's the whole package you

are the whole package it just i i

don't there's nothing that i can say uh

more you've just heard it um from all

of these photographers how this class the complete

wedding photographer experience with jasmine star has changed

their lives is changing their lives is allowing

them to change their lives all right well

we've we've seen a lot of jasmine being

real now we have brought to you a

little bit of jasmine being silly now is

the time for a blooper reel that our

crew has put together there's so much footage

of you teaching us and inspiring us we

wanted to have some fun and share a

blooper reel testing one two three testing oh

shoot oh you can back up you can

back up oh my god you guys i

thought that was like oh my god you're

gonna fall that was amazing shut up oh

my god if you do not see the

implication god bless you which camera i'm talking

to you steven dang it ah dang it

okay big mistake because twitter it why i

went like this no idea so we're gonna

go into that right now just kidding shoot

that was really cool i walked off great

though big mistake okay i'm like whoa i'm

sweating okay here we go are you guys

ready you tell me when you're ready okay

you're ready okay okay okay you can cut

that out i saw you going for the

clap it was like the slow clap it

was like that after school clap like i'm

sorry i'm sorry i'm gonna get together i'm

so sorry i feel like i'm on qvc

okay this is what okay no qvc for

me i know that i have verbal diarrhea

that's the problem the flow of events changes

then there is then there then somebody help

me out what am i trying to say

i'm gonna start zacky a zacky i'm just

gonna call you guys zacky i want to

remind you that if you plan to fail

if you fail to plan you plan to

fail now i'm gonna start it a little

bit differently so editors have the option so

you saw the good the bad and the

oh so fabulous okay that needs to change

because i would i would punch myself in

the face if that made the edits what

happened i got like bonk weekly real quick

so join me as i go along this

ride and thanks for being here thanks for

being here also ride edit knows that goes

out i sound like i'm a tough cookie

right i mean i do it's like the

puerto rican in me let me tell you

something mommy shop awesome so what we i

oh it's like a default word have you

guys noticed awesome awesome there could be a

clip at the end of the show it's

like awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome

awesome awesome fantastic what is life if

we can't just laugh at ourselves right i

give the editors a lot to work with

my god thank you for being so real

i mean that's from from watching the inspirational

parts to you just putting it all out

there being yourself and being real through and

through thank you well before we wrap there's

still more um we have some words of

thanks uh that we want to do but

we also um have another very very special

person that we want to bring up onto

the stage uh jd jd has is usually

behind the scenes but let's get him out

here in front of the scenes thanks for

having me it's always good to see you

actually always great you know you know how

much i don't like being on this side

of the camera you taught a whole you

were you taught a whole creative life class

we like push you and i always i

i was always pretending that the cameras weren't

even there so it's a good way to

be yeah yeah yeah it's a good way

to be this is us chatting what what

i want to know is we've we've heard

from jasmine about this experience yeah we've heard

from students here and all over the world

about this experience you have seen all the

blood sweat and tears behind this what what

what are you feeling with this coming to

a culmination what do you what what have

you seen jasmine do i i i got

a little teary-eyed today i wasn't expecting

i'm glad the blooper reel came on because

that made me laugh but um before you

know i there was a lot of highs

and there was a lot of lows um

but uh what i learned is that this

course wasn't about jasmine it was about everybody

that i met on in the audience and

everybody online that's making a difference in their

in their businesses and and uh they're inspired

to uh go out and and and live

their dreams so uh that was like kind

of the biggest thing that this entire experience

has taught me so yeah yeah it's glad

to know that we're on the same page

i'm glad i'm glad to know that people

can see if you felt it and other

people felt it that the course i hope

the course was not about me i hope

the course was individualized and tailored to what

people needed at that moment so for you

to say that it's just extra credibility that

we we we accomplished what we set out

to do oh yeah it's been fun at

the end of the day it's been really

really fun i love just being here for

jasmine and helping out and being here with

the entire crew it's just been such a

great memory and i i thank you guys

thank you guys for it well and and

as you said jasmine i mean this is

just the beginning like right this is the

culmination of right of creating right but it's

not the culmination of execution no this is

just the beginning y'all the beginning for

everybody out there so i believe that you

had some some words of thanks i do

i do i do i do have thanks

and i think i i'm glad that you're

here with me because um i can't do

this without the the team who supports us

and so i just kind of wanted to

go through and um list a few people

i know i say it tongue-in-cheek

because there are a lot of people to

thank and i probably will miss a chunk

of people but first and foremost to craig

swanson and chase jarvis the co-founders of

this amazing organization that these opportunities would not

have been given to us had they not

taken a risk to follow their dreams the

studio audiences in san francisco the studio audiences

in seattle and the studio answers at home

this would not have been possible without your

support i will tell you that it was

so moved and profoundly touched that after the

knot wedding that people saw live and after

the broadcast that week people were offering so

much support to where i felt there would

be criticism i did not get that i

got support so thank you for that to

kennard klosterman who has been with us since

the beginning who makes this course personable she

really sets out and execute and what she

does is seeing somebody in their element i

also want to thank george arenakis the head

of the photography channel here at creative live

he was the first person to say you

got to get out again i don't know

what's going on in your life but come

on creative live is here and i'm going

to push you he was the catalyst of

this and i appreciate him for his faith

and belief to arlene evans and uh to

sue bryce two powerful women who really helped

and encouraged me every step of the way

i appreciate them fundamentally to tani page our

wonderful third shooter who stepped up big time

boo nothing but love for you um the

knots dream wedding film crew from creative live

stephen john eliza and stacy these are my

backbones i will tell you that after that

wedding maybe i shouldn't say this because this

is on creative live budget we went through

like seven bottles of wine we earned it

like we earned that let me tell you

yes some people are like what true story

it was a long day um i also

want to thank the creative live studio crews

everybody behind cameras everybody who mics you up

like everybody who's getting snacks everybody who's doing

hospitality when you walk in the door there

is somebody smiling to greet you there that

makes a difference in what i do so

thank you guys for that also i have

to think that my most special person backbone

who's been with me throughout the entirety of

the progress process and who has said you

can do better every step of the way

she said you can do better you're doing

great but you can do better that was

my producer celestals i can't look in this

direction of the room because i'm gonna get

all girl but i will say that there

was somebody who was behind me helping me

in ways that i couldn't articulate so i

would say i'm really struggling with this i'm

really struggling with this i'm really feeling overwhelmed

and instead of saying her saying it's okay

you got it she would send me a

list of things that i had to do

by a certain date and a time with

every slide that is my love language and

color-coded i was like you're only missing

unicorn stickers if there was unicorn stickers we

would just be in it uh lastly i

have to thank my amazing husband and backbone

i can't look in this direction i'm just

gonna look off in space uh it has

been a very it has been a wonderful

struggle it has been a wonderful struggle i

cannot do it with the man who stands

at my back with his hand out my

book pushing me i appreciate him i have

the ugly cry i have the ugly cry

so on that note i need to stop

but i will say that i love you

and i appreciate you thank you it's been

fine it's been great um i have to

thank the sponsors you will find sponsor links

i'm crying over sponsors wow okay i'm gonna

pull it together i'm gonna pull it together

i have to thank the sponsors photographers edit

to blog stomp to totally rad actions to

pixie set to album mask and to white

house custom color thank you i cannot do

what i do with the profundity without their

support in the wind at my back thank

you guys jazz all right thank you all

don't be sorry come back come back wow

i can't believe this is closing out um

you have i mean six you guys have

all been here six weeks 30 lessons people

get to now start watching it again and

again and again and can't wait to see

what you all do as you embrace your

grit and get out there and move forward

so i'm really excited um for now to

say jazz and star thank you so much

jd that's a wrap this

is my blizzard thank you

melissa

thank you oh it was hilarious that's pretty

awesome i'm not gonna lie that was look

at that that was not really a wrap

wow um we actually i mean you've just

um given so many thanks um and and

we do have a few final words you

are incredible um you are such a pleasure

to work with always um we have a

history going back five years when i hosted

your first creative live and many since then

but to see you well yeah um to

see you continue to shine and continue to

give it all just on behalf of everyone

and myself thank you thank you uh there

are some people who they're still coming down

i love it there are a number of

people who have worked so hard as you

said um on this course along with you

and some of them are in maine some

in bali um so a lot of people

who have a few words of thanks and

so we're going to share those with you

we are done we are done congratulations you

did it thank you for seriously being awesome

at what you do i just want to

say congratulations on all your success with your

boot camp it was pretty amazing i of

course knew you were going to be great

because i recruited you congratulations on a fantastic

workshop i had a blast working on it

with you at the wedding i just wanted

to say it was a pleasure working with

you you and jd were both rock stars

at the not dream wedding i am just

impressed i got the pleasure to work with

you on the not dream wedding series and

to see you in action and boy were

you in action your first creative live workshop

put us on the map and it has

just been fantastic working with you over the

years this last course is your best to

date i am just so blown away by

how hard you work and how smart you

work and just how you just really deliver

people off screen don't know half the obstacles

that were thrown in the way of this

event and you took every single one of

them and you turned it into an opportunity

to make the conference even stronger you have

brought back to the industry the true learning

experience uh along with your capability of drawing

everyone in and sharing your secrets and making

them better people thank you for always looking

out and having so much appreciation for everyone

that's on your team i have never felt

anything but loved when working with you and

that's part of why i love working with

you so much i just wanted to say

it was so awesome working with you and

you're just an authentic wonderful person and made

my job so much fun and so easy

to do just because you're so on top

of your stuff what you did these last

weeks these last months as you stepped up

and i know that that took just great

courage and i have incredible respect hey jasmine

i wanted to say thank you so much

for all the hard work you put into

your creative live classes not just this one

but all the previous ones and shout out

to you too jd for keeping it tight

in the background appreciate it guys thanks just

i want you to know that i oh

oh the cat's walking nope nope okay it

wouldn't be a video if i didn't so

there it is i'm a creative cat lady

sometimes your instructor is really dope and sometimes

she's got a cool husband and sometimes they

give you a bottle of wine and that's

just chill you are just a fabulous wonderful

person and i just can't wait to work

with you again love you congratulations and go

enjoy some wine take some time off go

on a vacation do something thank you for

coming back to creative live absolutely crushing it

and thank you for being such a great

friend over the years so here's to you

cheers the queen of cool one two three