The Business Gay Podcast with Host Calan Breckon
The Business Gay
Networking and Tips for Entrepreneurs with Jasmin Cornejo
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Networking and Tips for Entrepreneurs with Jasmin Cornejo

In this episode of The Business Gay Podcast, host Calan Breckon speaks with entrepreneur Jazmin Cornejo.

Jazmin is no corporate conformist – she’s a bold, boss babe who’s breaking the mold! With a passion for networking, empowering women, and smashing glass ceilings.

As the mastermind behind FeMAVEN Getaways, she whisks women away on unforgettable journeys where they connect, explore new cultures, and have a blast. When she’s not jet-setting or helping ladies embrace solo travel, she’s in the trenches with female entrepreneurs. Jazmin’s a pro at turning chaotic businesses into sleek, sexy operations – she does this by jumping in feet first as their right-hand woman and online business manager.

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Key Takeaways for quick navigation:

  • [01:29] 🌍 Jasmin Cornejo, founder of FaMAVEN Getaways, curates travel experiences for women, emphasizing friendship travel often overlooked in adulthood.
  • [02:22] 💼 Jasmin’s journey into entrepreneurship started early, fueled by a desire to escape traditional corporate structures and find something special.
  • [04:38] 💡 Beyond operational challenges, Jasmin highlights the underestimated mindset struggle in entrepreneurship, especially in the lonely days.
  • [12:49] 💰 Early financial and legal challenges arose, emphasizing the need for entrepreneurs to tackle these aspects with resources like online courses.
  • [18:42] 🌐 Building a strong network and community is crucial for business growth, with personal connections often outshining digital marketing efforts.
  • [20:20] 🌐 Attend business gatherings and meetups for networking opportunities.
  • [20:50] 🌍 The rewarding part of starting a business is aligning it with your passion; for Jazmin, it’s helping women gain confidence and succeed.
  • [21:30] 🔄 Entrepreneurship requires balancing hustle and taking time off; setting healthy boundaries is crucial to avoid burnout.
  • [24:46] 🤝 Learn to communicate and set boundaries with clients and yourself; recognize and navigate busy and slow seasons in your business.
  • [27:20] 🚀 Start your business without overthinking; allow room for pivots and evolutions as you discover what truly resonates with you.
Transcripts

[00:00:00] Calan Breckon: Looking to start a business, Ownr gives you the tools you need to get started today. Trusted by companies like RBC, Futurepreneur and the City of Toronto, Ownr enables Canadian entrepreneurs to start, manage, and grow their business. Right now, Ownr is offering their Sole Proprietor registration for just $49. I used Ownr to register my business back in 2020 and it was so easy to do. When I make the move to incorporate, I am definitely going through Ownr. Find out how easy it is to start your business today calanbreckon.com.Ownr that’s O-W-N-R or click the link in the show notes. Now, let’s get on to today’s episode.

Welcome to the Business Gay podcast, where we talk about all things business, marketing, and entrepreneurship. I’m your host, Calan Breckon. And on today’s episode, I have entrepreneur Jasmin Cornejo. Jasmin is no corporate conformist. She is a bold boss babe who’s breaking the mold with a passion for networking, empowering women, and smashing glass ceilings. As the mastermind behind FeMAVEN Getaways, she whisks women away on unforgettable journeys where they can connect, explore new cultures, and have a blast. When she’s not jet setting or helping ladies embrace solo travel, she’s in the trenches with female entrepreneurs. Jasmin’s a pro at turning chaotic businesses into sleek, sexy operations. She does this by jumping in feet first as their right-hand woman and online business manager. I am so excited to speak to Jasmin today. So, let’s jump in.

[00:01:36] Calan Breckon: All right, well, welcome to the show, Jasmin. I am so excited to have you and to talk about all the entrepreneurship stuff you do. So how about you go ahead and do a little bit of an intro for yourself?

[00:01:48] Jasmin Cornejo: Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I am super excited to be here. It’s always fun to meet these different people virtually around the world. There’s so much magic in it, right? So I am Jasmin Cornejo. I am the multi passionate founder of FeMAVEN Getaways. So I curate Getaways for women around the world to pull us together, to connect with each other, indulge in local cultures, and have a shit ton of fun. And then my other business is I’m an online business manager and business mentor, helping CEOs essentially scale, but by creating sexy systems. So taking it from messy to sexy.

[00:02:25] Calan Breckon: Nice. I love that. And I love the travel because we didn’t jump into this before. Usually I have a little meet and greet before we start recording, but I’ve actually been to like, 80 countries and over 200.

[00:02:34] Jasmin Cornejo: Oh, my God.

Yes. I love that.

[00:02:38] Calan Breckon: Yes, I will work for Travel. Not really, but I will.

[00:02:43] Jasmin Cornejo: But I would too.

[00:02:44] Calan Breckon: That’s the shirt. Like, we’ll work for Travel, so I love that. I absolutely love what you do. How did you get started on this journey of being an entrepreneur?

[00:02:54] Jasmin Cornejo: I always say I knew really early on I was not meant to have a boss. Right. I mean, I started even in high school when they were trying to give me dress code rules, I was like, that’s a rule, I’m going to break that. And then I went on to further my career, and it was like corporate world, that’s stable. And then I worked for big banks and big hotels and once again had this boss that I just was like, this doesn’t feel right. And so I had the opportunity to work for a small company pretty early on in my twenty s. And that’s when I started to feel like I had found something special. And then just from learning and seeing a business grow from being like a small family business to bigger, I was like, all right, I want to do that. I just am waiting for it. What’s going to be my thing? Right? It’s like, I would search for it. I would wake up every day and be like, I want to be an entrepreneur. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? And then finally it hit one day, and I knew what I was going to do, at least for the travel company. And that was I got laid off from COVID I had been working in hospitality tourism events for like ten plus years, and getting laid off felt like the scariest. But the best thing for me, yes.

[00:03:58] Calan Breckon: That happened to a lot of people in COVID. I know, because I worked for a company in the Middle East. I had actually quit back in 2019, but I had colleagues who were still flying and still all over the world. And then when COVID hit, they’re like, okay, they kind of chilled for a while. And then slowly but surely, everybody started getting laid off. And I look back and I was like, oh my God, I’m so glad that I left before that because I just would not have wanted to be. I’m glad I left on my own terms because I was like, you. I’m not a great employee in the sense that I’m constantly like, this is awful. This is stupid. You shouldn’t do it. This doesn’t work. Why are you doing it like that? But I’m a great employee. I’ll do the work really well, and I do it 100%. But it’s being done wrong because you’re making me do it wrong.

[00:04:44] Jasmin Cornejo: Yeah, exactly. Or it’s like, why do we got to do 100 steps to get there? Let’s just pass that on. I don’t understand why we got to do all these things. Because we’re checking the boxes.

[00:04:53] Calan Breckon: Let me just get there 100%. I hear you on that. So what would you say is the biggest struggle that you struggled with when you were starting your business then?

[00:05:06] Jasmin Cornejo: To be honest, I think there’s a mindset component that people don’t really talk about enough, and I feel like it’s coming out more. And it was like checking all these boxes of how to SEO things up in terms of operational, which, you know, I’m here for that because I come from project management and events. It was the mindset of it, the lonely days. It was the days of having no one to ask or getting lost in Google or all those pieces that I think the mindset was really like a big struggle for me and just how to set up my days and how to set up time to be useful and also make sure I was getting step to step to step. Especially before you actually have all these clients. Right. It’s like, what does the work look like?

[00:05:48] Calan Breckon: Yeah. Oh, I hear that mentorship is definitely one of the biggest game changers that I came across in my business, where it was just like, struggling for so long and then finally mentors, I figured out how to get them and I was like, oh, I’m not supposed to do it alone.

[00:06:07] Jasmin Cornejo: Yeah, no, absolutely. And we go from having these big networks around us when we’re working for a company and you don’t realize that you do rely on them as much as some days you’re like, I hate them, or this isn’t for me to when you’re then on your own, it’s like you no longer had that same network to get you to that next place. The other thing I struggled with is I call it my corporate trauma. It’s like I lost my voice and my personality in writing emails, trying to create blogs, trying to create content, because I was always being stifled down by them and trying to be so formal and even the way I dressed and the suits, and it wasn’t truly me. And so coming back to create a brand and a personality, it took me a while to get there.

[00:06:48] Calan Breckon: Yeah.

Do you think you found that in your email? It was so hard to pull away from that cut and paste dryness that so many corporate emails make you. They’re like, do this and you’re like, nobody’s going to resonate with that because it’s so blase. What do you do now for your emails? Like, your personality? How do you infuse them in there now?

[00:07:08] Jasmin Cornejo: Oh, my God, I have so much fun with it. Basic grammar is there, but I’ve thrown out like, the perfect grammar 100%. I mean, there’s tools now that kind of helps that, but before, that kind of like talking. But everyone’s a lovely girl.

Hey, friend. It’s not formal. There’s always a cheers. My out of office will never, ever be boring again. I’m very much like, I’m on vacation drinking margaritas because we enjoy a break, or I’m at this conference doing this and I try and really infuse it into my emails and my communication with people to make sure they know that I’m a human on this other side of this.

[00:07:46] Calan Breckon: Yes. I think that that’s one of the biggest turning points in today’s society is that we are rehumanizing the workforce, or at least in my mind. It’s what I’m trying to do is to rehumanize the workforce and for people to understand that it’s like, there cannot be there’s this concept of, like, leave your shit at the door and come in and come to work and do your work. It’s like, yes, do your work. But we’re humans. We can’t do that. We can compartmentalize. But it is so unhealthy.

It is that it’s like, we have to bring our whole selves to work. And I think the companies that are succeeding and that are doing well figured that out and are figuring that out and how to implement that into their systems today.

[00:08:27] Jasmin Cornejo: Yeah, no, definitely. I couldn’t agree more. And also admitting, like, when I make a mistake or something gets skipped in my business, rather than blaming it or saying something, I just can say, I’m so sorry that got skipped, or this didn’t happen. Let me get right on top of that for you. Rather than trying to come up with some huge reason why it didn’t happen or blame it on something else.

[00:08:46] Calan Breckon: Yeah, own up. Sorry. Fucked up.

I’m a human being. I mean, as long as it’s not happening to the point where it’s like, this is a problem.

[00:08:57] Jasmin Cornejo: Yeah, definitely.

[00:08:59] Calan Breckon: But definitely owning up and just being like, hey, I’m a human. I think that also gives other people permission to be humans. And if they aren’t allowing you to be a human, then it’s like, okay, do I even need you as a client? Do I want you as a client?

[00:09:11] Jasmin Cornejo: Yeah, no, absolutely. And then also just, like, putting gifs in emails. So much fun, right, to be able to put a little video in there to help and emojis to help kind of get across the emotion you’re trying to say that might not be coming across in text. It can be such a fun world once you break that barrier of getting away from that standard structure.

[00:09:33] Calan Breckon: Yeah, exactly. So I want to know more about femaven. So it’s like femme maven. It’s like female maven. I loved it.

[00:09:40] Jasmin Cornejo: Yeah.

[00:09:41] Calan Breckon: Tell me more about your business and what you do there for women, because I absolutely loved it when you told me about it.

[00:09:47] Jasmin Cornejo: Yeah, absolutely. So it really came out of this place of women. And when we’re adults, it’s like, we travel when we’re young, in that gap year. Right? And then travel as you get older, starts to look like family travel, couple travel, and that you kind of lose this gap of friendship travel, unless it’s for bachelorettes, and there’s always a reason why you got to travel, but just the friendship part of it. But it’s also coming from a place of so I do curated experiences for a group of friends that want to travel so busy. Corporate women, they’re like, we have the money, we can take time off, but I don’t have time to plan. It is where I jump in. They tell me all their dreams come true and I make that happen.

And then I do this hosted experience which is truly like my baby, which is where I take women who might not have friends, who can travel with them, who financially might be at a different place than their friends, family wise, different place. Or maybe their husband’s passed away or they’ve just recently divorced and are looking to reconnect with the world and didn’t give that chance when they were younger. Because it’s definitely become more popular now, right into where I take I always say I take like anywhere between six and ten perfect strangers on a trip to a city and I plan it and I bring us together. And we have these adult sleepovers, essentially get to know each other, bond on a different level and explore these local cultures in a very nontourist way. And then by the end, I hope that we develop and have lasting friendships out of it.

[00:11:10] Calan Breckon: I love that. I love that. That’s awesome. And it’s so true. Corporate, like corporate world. Everybody does. They grow up. I mean, in that heteronormative world, a lot of people grow up, get married, have kids, do all that stuff. In the world that I come from, the gays, we still very much do our friendship travel. And everybody’s always looking at us like, why are they having so much fun? Their lives seem pretty awesome. It’s like, yeah, because we still travel with our friends and we still make a point to include that in our lives. Like, yes, a lot of people don’t have kids, which makes it easier. But I think that that’s a really important aspect of adulthood that people don’t talk about or acknowledge is that you need to still create those moments and carve out that time for that friendship. Because your partner can’t be your everything they are not supposed to be. That is way too much pressure.

You need to have friendships and you need to cultivate time to go and spend with them.

[00:12:04] Jasmin Cornejo: Yeah, it’s so important. I am someone who actually doesn’t want to get married or have kids either. So I feel like that level of fun for the rest of my life is also always there. So maybe looking for an excuse a little bit on how to build it really into my life.

But I always said, think about all the photos you have in times you’ve gotten professional photos, right? It’s typically been with children if you have them for work, your weddings. But how often as adults or even younger adults do you have professional photos with just your girlfriends? Not many people have that. And so I build those into the trip so people are able to take those photos and take them home and have that on the wall next to all their other family photos. Because friends truly are our family. And especially I mean, in my life, they are they’re at a very equal level with me because they keep me sane most days.

[00:12:54] Calan Breckon: Yeah, definitely. Coming from the LGBTQ community, my friends are my chosen family and it’s just like we do friends giving and friends every single holiday. It’s friends, friends, especially a lot of people who didn’t maybe come from families that they could spend with their family and stuff like that. So it’s super important. So I love that you do that.

Can I ask what’s one of the hardest lessons you’ve learned when you were starting this business? One from when you started the business and then one maybe from later on down the road. So let’s start off with one of the lessons you learned when you first started the business.

[00:13:31] Jasmin Cornejo: I think when I first started the business, to be honest, the finances side of it was a really interesting piece for me because and the legal side of it, there’s a lot of liability in what I do because I’m taking people and meeting them in different countries. There’s alcohol involved in it. Typically there’s just like all these moving parts and just not knowing fully or where to Google because I’m not considered a travel agent. I’m more like group tour travel coach. So I play in a little bit of a different field and there was just no straight on answer or contract or place to get the insurance I needed.

And so just like navigating that, it was a scary place. And same thing with the finances because my other business is pretty service based. So it’s just like I do the service and it goes out. But I have a lot of incoming money that comes into travel and then a lot of outgoing that goes into it. And in the beginning I’ll be first admit I was messy. I was real messy with my finances and barely breaking even on some of my trips because I’d be like, oh, what’s extra $10? Or what’s extra $50 here? I want to treat them and I want to make this special. And then coming out of it and being like, well, okay, well, I lost money on that one. That didn’t go as well as I wanted it to. And those were probably some of my biggest challenges.

[00:14:45] Calan Breckon: Like starting off nice, going from there. Finances is a huge part.

Me and my business, the only reason my finances are together is because I ended up getting a mentor who was a bookkeeper. And so I got paired with him in a program. I was like, I don’t know if we’re going to get along, but sure I need to have a mentor for this program. And just she ended up being the biggest godsend. Like, oh my, she saved me so much money and taught me so much about money. Do you think that being an entrepreneur, especially like creative ones and fun ones who are like, I just want to go out and have fun and do this stuff what would you tell them about how to get their finances in order to start with and to not be afraid of it? Because I think that that’s a big problem where a lot of entrepreneurs, they have the ideas, they have the goals, and it all just falls short because they just don’t know how to financially plan for it or get it together. What are some good first tips or ideas to give somebody to be like, don’t be afraid of it. You can do it.

[00:15:45] Jasmin Cornejo: I think for me, I’m someone who kind of likes to learn a little bit before, like, hire someone or dive into it. And I think now with YouTube, there’s so many videos you can watch or just find like a mini course on bookkeeping for small businesses or taxes for small businesses, so that would be a big one, is kind of dive into it to just have an understanding. But honestly, even if it’s just a simple Excel spreadsheet to start with, which you can also buy amazing templates for, just start there. But one of, I’d say my best investments early on was having a CRM system that handles all my proposals, handles everything. And I use HoneyBook currently for one of my businesses, and it streamlines it and pushes out A-P-L and also where my costs are going, but also just allows me to track my incoming money and also get money quicker and faster from people. I like to say that we should all have at least four ways someone can pay us between Venmo, Zelle, a payment, credit processor, and PayPal. Right? You don’t want that to be the barrier on why people aren’t coming to you. But I think getting some kind of system that is taking your money in and tracking it is a huge piece. And don’t be scared of it. Definitely don’t be scared of it because the longer you push it off, which, like I said, I’m so guilty in that the harder it was to kind of go back.

[00:17:00] Calan Breckon: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. QuickBooks. For me. It’s QuickBooks and stripe. I mean, I have PayPal, but QuickBooks and Stripe were kind of the two big ones. QuickBooks was like to track everything and just put it all in there, put the receipts in there and learn that system. And then stripe was charging, and that was pretty straightforward. But it’s really important to get in there and at least do the basics, so that when you do go to a bookkeeper, it’s there, it’s digital. It might still be messy, but even if you booked, like, one session, with a bookkeeper to be like, hey, can you just teach me how to use QuickBooks the basics that I should do to set up so that at the end of the year I don’t have to race and input all this information? I can just input my receipts as I go. And then at year’s end, it’s all organized for you the bookkeeper. That’s what I would definitely say advice wise there.

[00:17:51] Jasmin Cornejo: It’s so important.

[00:17:53] Calan Breckon: So number two is what have you learned later on in being a business as you grew?

[00:18:02] Jasmin Cornejo: I think as I’ve grown, the community and network that I’ve built is so important. I’ve always been a networker, but I was always a networker for other brands and other companies before I started my own thing. And it’s a huge piece of my business now. I try and go to one thing a week minimum, I always say or know either a Mastermind, a networking event, or just something. Because in the end, yes, you can market on Instagram and through email and all those things, but those personal connections you make and how they’re sharing about your business, there’s so much power in that and so much growth in it, and it is such an easier sell. Like someone who I’ve met at an event and then they now follow me on Instagram. There’s no conversation that needs to happen. It’s just like they book and they’re ready to go on a trip, whether that be right now or next year, compared to the amount of time and effort I have to put into something when I’m more the digital marketing side. So I went through a point where I got confident, let’s say, and so I had pulled and busy pulled back from going to a lot of this stuff locally, and I felt like a lull in my business. And I was like, what is happening? What changed here? And I realized it was I had gotten too busy to do that stuff and to just start keep building my personal connections. And that was even just a mental thing as well. And once I got back out into it, it was almost like the floodgates opened back up.

[00:19:18] Calan Breckon: Yeah, I hear that. I’m a chronic introvert, and so it’s really hard for me to convince. I promised myself to do one a month.

[00:19:27] Jasmin Cornejo: Okay.

[00:19:28] Calan Breckon: But I have to say that’s definitely where my business turned around as well is when things started going much better for me, is when I finally started to go out and to do these events that other people were at and especially events that weren’t ones that are in my sector, like I’m in tech SEO. Going to other ones that weren’t necessarily in that realm helped because people in my world don’t need my work. It’s people outside of my world that need my work.

[00:19:52] Jasmin Cornejo: Right, exactly.

[00:19:54] Calan Breckon: Putting myself into these situations and finding these professional settings that I could put myself into, I was like, okay, I got to do at least one a month. It definitely is life changing.

[00:20:03] Jasmin Cornejo: It is. And to be honest, I mean, I feel like a podcast is kind of networking in a weird way, too. Like, you have a podcast because you’re meeting people one on one like this, and so it counts. So you are doing more than once a month.

[00:20:14] Calan Breckon: Definitely this is true. You know what you are right.

[00:20:18] Jasmin Cornejo: But yeah, it’s just that was a huge piece. It’s like never forget that part of it is like you still need that human connection and people still need to see the person behind the brands. Rather you’re attending conferences, which is also a huge component of it going to smaller events, whatever it might be. And I love what you say about getting outside of your industry because it’s true that’s where the events that are about your industry is where you learn and you grow and you can lean on each other. Outside of it is where potential clients.

[00:20:44] Calan Breckon: Are right on the nose. Right on the nose. Definitely. Yeah. That’s how I use them. I go to my specific events are for me to learn and grow and I’m focused. I’m not necessarily networking per se there, but then it’s when there’s other kind of outside just like business gatherings or like hey, a general business meetup or something like that that somebody’s throwing out there that I’m like, okay, I’ll go to that and that will be the networking. Trying to kind of maybe let everybody know what the business is and that kind of a thing. So great advice. I love that.

What has been one of the most rewarding parts about starting your own business?

[00:21:19] Jasmin Cornejo: I think it’s really just like my passion truly is helping women and that’s on both sides of my business. However I’m doing that and that is the reason why I’m here. Right? It’s either to help them see the world get confident, to see the world make friends for my travel business or the other side. It’s to help them set up their businesses to be strong enough and maintain them and help them scale where then they have the time to travel with me. Right? Because you can get so caught up in your own businesses that you can’t travel or you don’t feel like you can leave. Which is the reason why we started our businesses was to have this flexibility. But it’s so easy to get tied into the hustle in the day to day towards like I want to be able to go in, help them get their businesses organized, automated, sexy, as I call it to then they’re able to take time off with me on the other side.

[00:22:07] Calan Breckon: I love that. That’s so important. It’s very true. Make your time for yourself as an entrepreneur. You can get in the weeds and it’s just like there’s always like, oh, I need to make more money, I need to make more money, I need to do this, I need to do that. There’s always going to be that because this is your baby. This is what you’re growing. You’re going to feel that need. And unless you learn early on which mentors help you with this, learn early on to carve out that time for yourself and to set structure, you will burn yourself out very quickly.

[00:22:36] Jasmin Cornejo: Very quickly. Yeah, definitely.

[00:22:38] Calan Breckon: Have you ever burnt out in your business?

[00:22:43] Jasmin Cornejo: I would say I was kind of close, but I was very adamant when I first started to not even build that lifestyle to start. And I know there’s a lot of entrepreneurs where we disagree. It’s like you have to hustle and then you can step back. And I was like, no. Even if it’s a slower grow for me, I’m not going to hustle right in the beginning. And I don’t know if you know anything about human design, but I am a projector, and my projector ness does not want to hustle. There is a very strict line of work, how much work this little brain can do, which is also probably why I didn’t hustle into where it’s taken me a slower grow because I’m not willing to work every night all the time. There’s seasons and times where you have to to where I’ve built in a little bit of a slower pace to where I haven’t burnt out as much. But that being said, there are certain times where I’m like, all right, I got to step in. To be honest, I’m in that right now. I took some big vacations. I joined some different mentorship groups, some accelerator programs. So I feel like I’m in a semester of school while scaling my business, while trying to vacation. And I wouldn’t say I’m at Burnout. I’m just at, like a max capacity. But I know it has an end. It has an end date. It’s on my calendar. I have a big celebration for myself that day to book a massage, treat myself as soon as that season is over.

[00:23:57] Calan Breckon: Yes. I love that you’re talking about seasons and seasons in your work because it is so true and so important for entrepreneurs to understand this, that it’s like, it cannot be go, go all the time. Growth, growth, growth. You have to bake in seasons into your business and also as you grow as a business person, you will recognize that there are busy times in your season or busy seasons in your business and slower seasons in your business and sort of plan things accordingly as you grow and learn as an entrepreneur you’re like. Okay, summertime real slow. I’m going to plan to also go on holiday, and I’m not going to feel guilty about it because I know that’s slow. But that kind of is the thing that comes with time and learning.

[00:24:37] Jasmin Cornejo: It does. And recognition, and I’m definitely still learning that piece of it. And I feel like this year was one of those times where I definitely learned the different balances and just communicating with people around me in my circle, like, hey, I’m in the busy season. So I’m not saying no because I don’t love you. I’m not saying no because I don’t like you. I’m just saying no because I’m in that season right. Now.

[00:24:57] Calan Breckon: Yes. Learning healthy boundaries and how to communicate them properly. Also a really important lesson, which actually tracks back to the beginning when you said a lot of entrepreneurship is, like, the mental health side of it. You need to know yourself enough to know what you need to ask for and how to get that help and how to get that support. And it took me ten years of doing ten to 15 years of doing personal development before I even recognized that for myself, of being like, oh, I need mentors. I need these things for my business. I need to be part of organizations and certification programs. Really help that because they plug you into those groups and organizations who can help your growth. And it just took so long to get there to figure that out. But yeah, don’t do that. Everybody out there listening. Do not burn yourself out. Do not think you have to do it alone. You don’t learn good communication skills and ask for help.

[00:25:51] Jasmin Cornejo: Yeah, no, it’s been a huge piece of it is like those boundaries pieces. And it’s okay to set boundaries with their clients, with yourself.

Otherwise, if you give them a mile, they’re going to take that mile.

[00:26:03] Calan Breckon: They will take way more than that mile. You trust me. Oh, my I have very clear limits. I have a booking calendar. That’s how you get in contact with me. I only take bookings on certain days of the week. I don’t work Saturday, Sunday. I don’t work past five.

Rules. Rules.

[00:26:21] Jasmin Cornejo: Yeah, I have the same rules. And I know when I start working with a new client, and I’m like, so what’s your schedule look like? And they’ll take client meetings all week. And I’m like, how do you get into the deep work when it’s just constantly, like, talk, talk. And you’re like, okay, well, I got 30 minutes, so I need to do this thing for 30 minutes. For me, there’s no way. When my extrovert is on, my extrovert is on, and I just want to play in that world. And then when I need to do deep work, I’m like, please leave me alone. Don’t talk to me. Like, I need to get into this.

[00:26:48] Calan Breckon: Yeah, yeah. You mentioned human design earlier. I feel like you might know astrology. So I’m an Aquarius. I’m very like, I need my space. I need quiet. Leave me the fuck alone.

[00:27:01] Jasmin Cornejo: And I’m a Scorpio, but on the libra side of it. And so I sit in a little bit different side, but very much I have some strict boundaries, and when I’m feeling rubbed the wrong way, it is like we know it’s not good.

[00:27:15] Calan Breckon: Yeah, definitely.

So do you have anything that we’ve not talked about yet? Do you have any words of wisdom or advice for the listeners who are thinking about starting their own business?

[00:27:26] Jasmin Cornejo: I’d say just do so. And I say that because I feel like I’ve done both sides. So my travel business, because I got laid off during COVID and really couldn’t do much right. And I was very thankful for the COVID loans the way I had been laid off to where I essentially kind of use that money as my grants, I say to grow my business. But I had the opportunity to kind of build a brand, build a website, do all the pretty things and set it up that way.

And that was amazing and one learning, but my other business kind of just started on a whim because I was doing virtual assisting to kind of pay my way while I was starting my travel company lightly. And then one day someone’s like you need to take that to another level. You’re way more than a virtual assistant project manager, fractional SEO. And that I started without the website, without the official Instagram handle, without all the official things, like barely even packages set up. And that was almost easier to grow and also pivot, as I was learning, than the other side because I felt so attached to this brand and these colors and even my name at the time, which eventually I had to change my original name because of trademarking to where it’s like just truly just started out a little bit and just play with it a little bit and then start to do some of the formalizations because I’m sure you probably our business is my model has changed, how I operate has changed. My products have changed. Some of the things I thought I was going to fall in love with and start with I no longer do. And now I’m doing these other things which I didn’t even realize was something I enjoyed doing because I just didn’t know it was out there.

[00:29:01] Calan Breckon: Oh, 100%, my stuff has pivoted. Like before this podcast, I was on the Game and Going Deeper podcast, which I helped grow to doing great things. And I love them over there, but I was over there doing personal development and all this other stuff, but behind the scenes I was this tech nerd and I was building out all these things in the background of the business that I was like, this is where my heart really soars. So it was a hard decision to be like, I need to pivot and go where my heart is taking me. But to give yourself that grace and give yourself that permission in your business to pivot is very important. To be like, okay, I need to do this, but think about it. I was thinking about it maybe for at least six months before I actually decided to voice that thing. And I said, okay, by this date, if I still feel like this, that’s when I’ll start moving. And I was like, because let’s give it six months and find out. And it was still like, okay, yes, this is the right time to do that. But yeah, pivoting and giving yourself that grace. To be able to do that is hugely important because you never know where it’s going to lead you.

[00:30:02] Jasmin Cornejo: You don’t. You definitely don’t. And also just be able to like people are like, you started a second business, but your other one’s not. Like you’re not making millions on it yet. Are you sure you want to focus your time? I’ve said, well, why not have two incomes? Especially one can be a little bit more passive the other than the other one. They’re both going to get me there. Financially. My brain can work in two different ways and it keeps me interested in two different ways. So, yeah, don’t feel like you need to fully shut something down just to start on the other one. You can do both and lift them both up kind of together.

[00:30:32] Calan Breckon: Definitely. And it goes back to the seasons part where it’s like, this podcast right now is part of my business, but I do my bread and butter kind of thing, is SEO and website work for businesses and companies, but this podcast is like another offshoot of that business. Getting it all ready and prepared to launch and doing all that was a busy season, but now that it’s out, it’s coming out now it’s just kind of upkeep and it’s easy to do. So now I calan pivot my thoughts to other things again and there’s always going to be, okay, what part of your business are you going to level up? What part are you focusing on? Where’s that busy season for you right now?

[00:31:07] Jasmin Cornejo: Yeah, absolutely. I think you said that perfectly awesome.

[00:31:10] Calan Breckon: Cool beans. All right, is there anything else that you’d like to share before we wrap things up today?

[00:31:16] Jasmin Cornejo: No, I think it was a great conversation. Yeah. I think just for entrepreneurs, just follow your heart and your heart might change and give yourself permission to go there with it and yeah, make sure you build a sustainable business, not a hustle and grind business because you won’t last in this world.

[00:31:33] Calan Breckon: No, you will not last. Hustle and grinding anytime. I can’t remember what that guy’s name is, but every time that guy’s like hustle and grinding and I’m like, oh, God, that makes me want to puke.

I am not a hustle and grind kind of a business builder. I am strictly focused on doing good work and just being around people and meeting other people, doing the work and enjoying it and just taking note from them. And I’d rather build a really solid and stable foundation that then can grow up from there than to build it fast and strong and make lots of money right away. It’s very like bro tech, bro energy. And I am not about that vibe.

[00:32:13] Jasmin Cornejo: I worked in a sector of tech because I worked for girls in tech and there was a definite energy in that world that it was like eat, sleep, drink tech, which is why their offices are so incredible. They just want to keep you in that hub, and that’s why they feed you and give you all the free stuff, is because we’re like, Stay here, don’t leave. Pretend like you have a good, healthy life.

[00:32:33] Calan Breckon: Yeah, right. Your life is well rounded.

[00:32:35] Jasmin Cornejo: Right.

[00:32:35] Calan Breckon: We have a yoga room.

[00:32:37] Jasmin Cornejo: Exactly. We have a nap room because you haven’t slept in three days and you can take a nap in it. You’re healthy, right.

[00:32:46] Calan Breckon: Cool. Awesome. So where can people find more about you, about your holiday packages that you offer, all that kind of good stuff?

[00:32:54] Jasmin Cornejo: Yeah. So you can find me for my travel company, it’s at famavin getaways, and then for my online business management, you can find me at Jasmin, which is J-A-Z-M-I-N-M cornejo. Or you can find me, which is my [email protected]. So it’s bizz systems.com perfect.

[00:33:16] Calan Breckon: So I’ll make sure to have those all in the show notes for everybody so you can choose whatever link you need. It has been magical having you on the podcast, Jasmin. Thank you so much for joining me today and sharing.

[00:33:27] Jasmin Cornejo: Thank you so much.

I appreciate it. I had so much fun. Thank you.

[00:33:31] Calan Breckon: Awesome.

[00:33:33] Calan Breckon: Thanks again for tuning in today. Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button. And if you really enjoyed today’s episode, I would love a star rating from you. The Business Gay podcast is written, produced, and edited by me, Calan Brecken. If you’re looking to get a free SEO website audit, you can head on over to Calanbreckon.com/audit and set one up with me. Or you can just click the link in the show notes. That’s it for today.

Peace, Love, Rainbows.

Calan Breckon
Calan Breckon

Calan Breckon is an SEO Specialist and host of "The Business Gay" podcast. He has worked with companies such as Cohere and Canada Life and has been a guest on the "Online Marketing Made Easy" podcast with Amy Porterfield as well as featured in publications like Authority Magazine and CourseMethod.

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