Laying Bricks
Invest consistently now to create opportunities that compound later.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 97%
Laying Bricks treats business growth as the cumulative result of small, useful investments whose eventual payoff cannot always be predicted. The input is a desired future direction plus repeated actions such as publishing content, accepting aligned projects, serving people well, and cultivating relationships. Those actions create a foundation of skills, trust, visibility, and connections. Quarterly reflection then traces later opportunities back to earlier decisions, revealing which bricks are compounding. The framework reduces dependence on immediate validation because each action is judged first by whether it strengthens the foundation. Over time, invitations, partnerships, referrals, and audience growth emerge from combinations of bricks that could not have been forecast individually.
Origin
Jasmine Star introduced Laying Bricks to document the slow, unglamorous work behind business growth and show how earlier investments produced opportunities many months later.
Core principles
- 01Meaningful growth usually looks slow while it is happening.
- 02Every useful action can become a foundation for a later opportunity.
- 03Consistent output matters before recognition or engagement arrives.
- 04Relationships and visibility compound in unpredictable ways.
- 05Retrospective review reveals which investments created leverage.
How to run it
- 1
Define the Foundation
Describe the business, audience, reputation, or capability you want to possess in the future. Use that direction to determine what kinds of bricks are relevant.
Pro tip Choose a direction broad enough to permit unexpected opportunities.
Watch out Do not confuse a future direction with a guaranteed prediction.
- 2
Lay Small Bricks
Take repeatable actions that build skill, trust, relationships, visibility, or intellectual property. Continue even when the immediate audience or response is small.
Pro tip Favor actions that create reusable assets or deepen valuable relationships.
Watch out Avoid abandoning a useful practice solely because early engagement is low.
- 3
Release Immediate Attachment
Evaluate whether the action strengthens the foundation rather than demanding an instant payoff. Allow useful work to remain valuable even when nobody responds yet.
Pro tip Define a controllable process metric, such as publishing or contacting one person.
Watch out Detachment from immediate results does not mean ignoring evidence indefinitely.
- 4
Review the Chain
At the end of each quarter, map new opportunities to the earlier actions, investments, and relationships that helped create them. Identify delayed effects that were invisible at the time.
Pro tip Use a dated activity log to make causal chains easier to see.
Watch out Do not claim that every later success came from a single action.
- 5
Reinforce What Compounds
Continue or expand the bricks that repeatedly create useful downstream effects. Retire activities that consume resources without strengthening the foundation.
Pro tip Look for actions that produce several benefits at once.
Watch out Give long-horizon activities enough time before judging them ineffective.
In the wild
Star accepted a mentoring project connected to Inc. magazine, met its editor in chief at a live event, later spoke at the Inc. 5000 conference, and was subsequently approached for two articles. The eventual editorial opportunity emerged from several earlier bricks rather than one direct pitch.
→ A project begun near the end of 2023 developed into speaking and editorial opportunities during 2024.
After spending two years in a mastermind with Adam Schaffer, Star discussed content with him during a group trip. He invited her onto the Mind Pump podcast, exposing her work to a large health-and-wellness audience outside her usual market.
→ A long-standing peer relationship produced a cross-industry podcast appearance.
Common mistakes
Demanding Immediate Proof
Abandoning an action because it does not produce fast engagement prevents the underlying skill, trust, or visibility from compounding.
Laying Unrelated Bricks
Activity without a future direction can create busyness rather than a coherent foundation.
Skipping Retrospective Review
Without tracing opportunities back to earlier actions, people cannot identify which investments deserve reinforcement.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for entrepreneurs, creators, and professionals building audiences, reputations, relationships, or long-term ventures.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for urgent problems requiring a predictable short-term result or immediate financial return.
From the transcript
“So what are the bricks that I am laying to my current foundation for future success?”
“So essentially, 11 months later, something good came from an investment of time, energy, or a relationship.”
“You don't know what you don't know until it's in retrospect.”
From the episode
Quarter Four Review: How I'm Building The Foundation For My Biggest Year Yet