Terms

"JoClub stands for the Journaling Club, but also fits in because of my name." Jo Franco begins. "When I first started writing I was aware of these big feelings and I knew my older siblings didn't want to hear that. Thus, I started writing."

"I grew up undocumented, in hiding, speaking Portuguese and trying to learn English, stumbling my way through," she recalled. "I learned a bunch of different languages as I was always awed by being understood. In the meantime, I was unpopular because I was considered to be one of the few kids. My appearance was different from everyone other kids. I was the smallest kid so I had this quiet voice and muted personality.

"Of course I'm able to think back now this is what happened however, in the moment, it was just agony of  being misunderstood?' and so many of us go through this."

Happily, Jo had the tool of writing: "I had a more than a sympathetic relationship with myself being able to observe without judgement. I wrote a lot of negative things, yet I know good things have happened within my own life. I started to tweak the things I wrote however, I started to reverse engineer my perception of things since I was looking for positive stories. I would have to observe positive things to have positive experiences to write about. I became a more positive person. This tool saved me."

Understanding the context

When she attended college located in Manhattan, Jo was overwhelmed by the number of voices she competed with. However, she was able to find a space in her journal. "It was no matter whether I resided in the States or on a trip I was able to use this device that enabled me to come back home to myself.

"My "why" gives those around me the same belief that 'You got you no matter how bleak things can be. Not only will you be able to help yourself emotionally, but it's also beautiful to write down your journey by writing it down. In doing so, it's a little act of gratitude for the fact that it happened to begin with. You'll always fit in your own skin and in your own thoughts."

"There's evidence-based science to support this assertion," she adds. "There are studies conducted on writing as a form of medicine. When people write down their gratitude and gratitude will be more satisfied."

"Give your mind a break. Remove the burden from your head and put it on the page. When you write about bad events, you allow you a distance that allows you to process it with an empathetic reaction. Emotions will drive us crazy. They're at the heart of everything. They are at the root of confidence, at root of charisma, that is the reason for entering a room and being able to attract positive energy."

"Maybe this is a membership"

Jo had certainly attached many positive things until the year 2020. Through her YouTube channel with over a million subscribers, she was getting paid to travel. "I had this exciting private life but behind the scenes, I was writing. This was the essence of me the only thing I did was writing."

In January of 2020 she landed an Netflix task as host on The World's Most Amazing Vacation Rentals. "It took me away from YouTube and into the traditional way of presentation. If you've ever been on a production set, they know these hours are very long. There are 16-hour work days, and there's lots of 'hurry up and sit'. It's time to get ready: makeup, hair, everything's done. There are lines written in your head and then you're thinking, "No I'm not kidding We need to stop for a moment'!"

In all of those pauses, sometimes for hours, Jo would write. "Writing was a passion for me so I had a desire to make it into a career." After covid came on and the show stopped her primary source of income dried up.

"I was nervous, just as was everyone was. I began sharing pictures of my journal entries. It was 100 days later and I began sharing my journal publicly on Instagram Stories. I thought, "Hey, maybe this is a membership' - maybe people would pay to be within a room online together and journal together. That's the way JoClub began. This was about almost four years ago. That is insane!"

During the Netflix show, Jo realized that journaling was the lens through which she was able to see the world. "It was deeper than just the act of a pastime. If you're on the road for two days, you're really exhausted. You find yourself doing something that has nothing to do with the work you're payed for.

"You realize, 'This is how I make sense of my world. It's a way of life. It became clear for me to removed myself from everything else, the one that they can't take from me is writing. It was important for me to incorporate that into my next chapter in my professional life."

Her work is bigger than she can imagine.

Jo decided to get involved in her project. "I was posting three videos per week, in three languages. I needed to recruit people, fire people. I learned what it was to create a content machine."

However, something had to be changed. "I didn't want to always being working. If you're exhausted or worn out, which is common for creators and you're exhausted, you'll never be able to make money. I realized that if this is a career that I'm gonna maintain for the foreseeable future I'll need to figure out an avenue to take my face from some of the opportunities to make money."

Jo was looking to start something larger than her. The journaling group was launched in earnest on Zoom: "The membership started at $29 per month and included a monthly live chat and I'd send out daily journal prompts to everyone's mailbox."

She wanted to curate an experience that was similar to a yoga class. Two questions, followed by a discussion, then another prompt, and finally breakout rooms. "It was IP (intellectual property)," she recalls. "After the period of six months I started asking myself: can I educate facilitators in these workshops? In fact, can facilitators help enrich JoClub in ways I never would have thought of? They was looking to "extract the goodness" and work alongside the facilitators, who were once members, to create an art journaling format as well as a "bring your personal song' contest for young musicians as well as other similar activities.

"Now there are six sessions per month, and I can host as many as I want," she continues. "Beautiful aspects that I would never imagine happening began to happen: I host retreats and I ran a pilot program at a college and are working on different challenges. I could not have done this if I had kept it as Jo Franco's group that I was at the top."

Culture and community

"An intriguing aspect of membership is that you create an atmosphere," she adds. "If you pay for a membership, they're walking into your home, which means you can design your house in the way you want." Jo and her team have analyzed methods to make more interactive conversations so that "people can talk in areas of the community, and they feel like they're getting their money's worth."

"It's the distinction between an audience and a member," she adds. "An audience is going to engage with whatever you are creating and it's not actually a conversation. If I post an image and someone comments and I reply however, with a group that I'm curating, I'm a part of the design of what takes place - the minute they enter the membership."

Jo has thought on the onboarding sequence and how we treat new members. "How do we mitigate that individual who enters a room and feeling that they don't know anybody? This is the time to get into the curating of culture, which is the reason members remain for years to come."

She is aware that this isn't easy. "It's a skill that must be a passion about to continue to improve since a member's membership is a living thing. If you aren't attentive to what's happening, you will lose every member you've got."

It's evident that Jo has brought the empathy and self-awareness that she has gained through her journal into how she handles her membership. Actually, she believes journals help us become more aware of ourselves. not taught at a young age: "We're not given tools for processing emotion. It's possible to help yourself from losing your footing. It was difficult for me to comprehend these benefits. It was just a wonderful leisure activity. As I grew older I realized, "Damn! I've been hiding my secrets'!"

If people inquire about 'Jo, you're only 30years old, how have you done everything? I just journalled about it and everything worked out," she laughs.

More details

For more information about Jo Franco and to become an active JoClub member, visit www.joclub.world. JoClub to join, head over on joclub.world.