Terms

"JoClub refers to the Journaling Club, but also is a good fit because of my name." Jo Franco begins. "When I 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 lived in a state of denial living in the shadows, hiding from authorities, and speaking Portuguese as well as learning English by tripping through," she recalled. "I acquired a variety of different languages as I was always awed by being accepted. At the same time, I felt unpopular because I was considered to be one of the few kids. I was unique to everyone else. I was the smallest kid and I was the quietest. voice and muted personality.

"Of course I'm able to see in the future that's the way it went However, for the time, it was just agony of  wondering 'Why do I feel misunderstood?' and so many of us go through this."

Happily, Jo had the tool to journal: "I had a more compassionate relationship with myself, simply observing and not making judgements. I wrote about all this negativity, however I know good things were happening in my life. I began to alter my writing, not just what I had written however, I started to reverse engineer the way I look at things, because I wanted to see positive things. I had to look for positive things to have positive experiences that I could write about. I began to be a more optimistic person. The tool helped me to be more positive."

Making sense of the situation

Going to the college located in Manhattan, Jo was overwhelmed by the number of voices she was competing with. She was also able to locate a much-needed place in her diary. "It didn't matter if I was located in the States or traveling I was able to use this device that enabled me to come back home to me.

"My 'why' is giving individuals the same sense of 'You got you no matter how bleak things can be. And not only can you be a strong person in your own way, but also it's also beautiful to document your story - because in documenting it you can show a tiny gesture of gratitude for the fact that it happened to begin with. You'll always fit in your own skin and in your own mind."

"There's scientific evidence to back this," she continues. "There have been research studies that have used recording gratitude as a method of medical treatment. The people who write their gratitude down are more content."

"Give your mind relief. Let the weight go out of your mind and write it down on paper. When you write about unpleasant issues, you grant yourself distance, which allows you to process it with the least emotional response. We can be sucked into a frenzy by emotions. They are at the root of everything; they are at the core of confidence, at the root of charisma, that is the reason for entering a room and being able to draw good fortune."

"Maybe this is a membership"

Jo had certainly attached a lot of goodness until the year 2020. With her YouTube channel, which has over a million subscribers, she received money to travel. "I had this exciting private life but at the same time, I wrote. This was the essence of me: what was really me was journaling."

In January 2020 she landed a Netflix task as presenter for The World's Most Amazing Vacation Rentals. "It took me off of YouTube and into traditional presentation. If anyone has experienced being on a set, they know these hours are very long. They're 16-hour days and it's a lot of 'Hurry up and then wait'. It's time to get ready for makeup, hair and everything is completed. You have your lines in your head and then they're like, 'No I'm not kidding, we have to pause""

When she would pause that would last for a long time, Jo would write. "Writing was special to me so I had a desire to turn it into a profession." As covid became popular and the show ended, her main source of income stopped.

"I was nervous, just like everyone else. I started sharing photos of my journals. Then, 100 days later, I began sharing my journal with the world on Instagram Stories. I decided, 'Hey, maybe this is a membership' - maybe people would pay to be inside a virtual space alongside me, and write together. This was how JoClub was born. This was about 4 years ago. Which is insane!"

During this Netflix series, Jo realized that journaling was a lens through which she saw the world. "It was deeper than just an interest. If you're on the road for two days, it's hard to not be tired. It's easy to get caught up in something which has nothing to do with what you're getting to be paid.

"You realise, this is how I make sense of this world. This is my life. This was clear to me that if I removed myself from all the other stuff, that the main thing that I cannot let go from me is writing. It was crucial for me to make that a part of my next chapter in my professional life."

Creating something bigger than herself

Jo decided to get involved in her project. "I posted three videos a week, in three languages. I was required to employ individuals, and then fire them. I learned what it was to create a content machine."

However, something had to be changed. "I did not want to constantly work. If you're tired or burnt out, as is the norm among creators and you're exhausted, you'll never succeed in making money. I realized that, if this is an occupation I'm planning to maintain for the foreseeable future I'll need to figure out a way to remove my name from the opportunities to make money."

Jo wanted to create something that was bigger than she. The journaling group was launched in earnest on Zoom: "The membership started at just $19 per month, and the benefit was one monthly live chat and I'd send out daily journal prompts to everyone's inbox."

She wanted to curate an experience similar to a yoga class: two instructions, followed by an open discussion, and then two additional prompts, then breakout rooms. "It was IP (intellectual property)," she recalls. "After about six months of being in JoClub, I began asking me, could I teach facilitators on how to conduct these events? In fact, can these facilitators benefit JoClub in ways I never could? The participant wanted to "extract the joy" and work alongside the facilitators, some of whom were members of JoClub, to design the art journaling form, a 'bring your own song' for budding musicians and other such.

"Now there are six sessions per month, and I can host the number of sessions I'd like," she continues. "Beautiful aspects that I would never imagine happening began to happen such as retreats I organize and I ran a pilot program at a university and we're creating new challenges. It wouldn't have been possible to do this if I had kept it as Jo Franco's community that I was at the top."

Cultural and social cohesion

"An interesting thing about membership is that you create an atmosphere," she says. "If you pay for a membership, they're walking into your home, which means you can design your house however you like." Jo and her team have been looking for ways to build more lively threads so "people can talk in communal spaces so that people feel they're receiving the value for their money."

"It's what differentiates an audience and a member," she adds. "An audience will interact with what you're creating, but it's not a dialogue. If I post videos and people leave comments, I'll comment back in a forum, however with a community that I'm curating, I'm part of the structure of the community - the minute they enter the community."

Jo thinks several times about the onboarding sequence and the way to handle the newcomers. "How do we handle that new member who walks into the room and feeling that they don't know anybody? That is when you start to dial in on the art of curation and this is why people stay for a long time."

She knows this is not an easy task. "It's an art that is something you must be enthusiastic about in order to keep improving, because a membership is something that is constantly evolving. If you do not pay attention to what's happening then you'll be losing 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. In fact, she believes journaling brings a self-awareness we're not taught at a young age: "We're not given tools to process emotion. It's possible to help yourself when you feel you're losing your footing. I didn't understand these benefits. It was just a wonderful hobby. As I got older, I realized, 'Damn, I've been hiding my secrets'!"

When people ask 'Jo, you're just 30, What did you accomplish through all of this?' I wrote it down and everything worked out," she laughs.

More information

To learn more on Jo Franco and to become the member of JoClub to join, head over to joclub.world.