Terms

"JoClub refers to the Journaling Club, but also is a good fit with my name," Jo Franco begins. "When I started writing, I realized that I had huge feelings, and that I knew my older siblings didn't want to hear the story. So I would write."

"I grew up undocumented and in a state of hiding, talking Portuguese as well as learning English and stumbling through," she recalled. "I learned a bunch of other languages because I wanted to be accepted. At the same time, I felt disregarded because I was one of the few kids. I was unique to everyone around me. I was the youngest kid so I had this quiet voice and muted personality.

"Of course I'm not able to think back now this is what happened, but in the meantime, it was just agony of  wondering 'Why do I feel misunderstood And how most of us experience this."

Fortunately, Jo had the tool of writing: "I had a more than a sympathetic relationship with myself simply observing and not making judgements. I wrote all of this negativity, however I know good things were happening throughout my life. I started to tweak not only what I wrote, but weirdly reverse engineering how I see things because I wanted to read positive stuff. It was necessary to see positive events to come up with positive thoughts for writing about. I became a more positive person. It helped me become more optimistic."

Making sense of the situation

While attending the college at the University of Manhattan, Jo was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of voices she had to compete with. She was also able to locate a much-needed place within her journals. "It was no matter whether I resided in the States or in Europe in other countries, I always was able to use this device that enabled me to come back home to me.

"My "why" is to give people that same confidence of 'You got you regardless of how ugly things can be. And not only can you be a strong person in your own way, but also it's beautiful to record your experience - because in documenting it is a small act of gratitude for the fact that it began to happen. Your identity will always be in self and your own head."

"There's scientific evidence to back this up," she continues. "There were studies conducted on writing as a form of medicine. The people who write their gratitude down, will feel more grateful."

"Give your mind the alleviation. Take the weight from your head and put it down on paper. When you write about unpleasant issues, you grant you a distance that allows you to process it with a less emotional reaction. The emotions can make us insane. They are at the root of everything; they are at the core of self-confidence, at the base of charisma, and in the genesis of being in a space and being able to draw positive energy."

"Maybe this is a membership"

Jo definitely had many positive things until the year 2020. Thanks to her YouTube channel that had millions of subscribers, she earned money to travel. "I had this exciting private life but in the background I was writing. That was my essence I was a writer. What really made me was writing."

In January of 2020 she was offered her first Netflix task as host of The World's Most Amazing Vacation Rentals. "It took me away from YouTube and into traditional broadcasting. If anyone has experienced being on a set, they know these hours are very long. They're 16-hour days and it's lots of 'hurry up and sit'. You're ready to go with your makeup, hairstyle all done. You have your lines in your head and then they're like, "No no, it's just a joke, we have to pause'!"

In all of those pauses often lasting for long periods, Jo would write. "Writing was a passion for me and I wanted to turn it into a business." After covid came on and the show ceased her primary source of income dwindled.

"I felt anxious like everyone was. I decided to share photos from my journal entries. Then, 100 days later and I had journaled with the world on Instagram Stories. I thought to myself, "Hey I think this could be an opportunity to join a club' members would be willing to pay inside a virtual space alongside me, and write in a group. That's the way JoClub began. This was about almost four years ago. That is insane!"

While watching on the Netflix show, Jo realized that journaling was the lens by which she saw the world. "It was more than the act of a pastime. When you're traveling every two days, you're tired. It's easy to get caught up in something that has nothing to do with the work you're payed for.

"You recognize, "This is the way I see the world. This is how I think of this world. This is a lifestyle.' It was obvious for me to let go of all the other stuff, that the main thing that I cannot let go from me is writing. It was crucial for me to bake that into the next phase of my life."

Her work is bigger than she can imagine.

Jo decided to get involved in her project. "I had to upload three videos per week across three different languages. I was required to employ individuals, and then fire them. I learned how to create a content machine."

But something needed to change. "I didn't want to always be working. If you're sick or burned out, which is common among creators it's unlikely that you'll earn a living. I realized that, if this is my career path that I'm going to keep for decades to come I'll need to figure out ways to keep my name from opportunities to earn money."

Jo decided to make something bigger than herself. The journaling group was launched at the beginning of Zoom: "The membership started at $29 per month and the benefit was one monthly live phone call and I'd also send daily journal prompts to everyone's inbox."

She envisioned a curatorial experience that was similar to a yoga class. Two instructions, followed by the discussion. Then another prompt, and finally breakout rooms. "It was IP (intellectual property)," she recalls. "After six months, I started asking me, could I teach facilitators on how to conduct these events? In fact, can these facilitators enrich JoClub in ways I have never had the chance to? She would like to "extract the good" as well as work with facilitators who were former JoClub members, to develop an art journaling style and a "bring your own song' for budding musicians and other such.

"Now we have six plus sessions every month and I host as many as I want," she continues. "Beautiful events that I could never have imagined started happening: I host retreats and I conducted a pilot project at a college and are working on different challenges. I could not have done it had I remained as Jo Franco's community that I was at the top."

Cultural and social cohesion

"An important aspect about joining a club is that you build a culture," she says. "If you pay to join, they're walking into your home, which means you can design your house according to your preferences." Jo and her team have analyzed ways to build more lively threads so "people are talking in the communal spaces so that they're feeling like they're getting the value for their money."

"It's what differentiates the term "audience" and "membership," she adds. "An audience is likely to respond to whatever content you're creating however it's not necessarily a dialogue. If I share a video and people comment on it, I'll respond, but with a community which I'm curating, I'm part of the architecture of what happens from the moment they sign up to the community."

Jo is thinking several times about the procedure for onboarding and how to treat newly joined members. "How do we handle that new member who walks into the room feeling like they've never met anyone? This is the time to get into the curation of culture which is the reason members remain for years to come."

It's not simple. "It's an art that you have to be passionate about, in order to continually improve since a member's membership is something that is constantly evolving. If you do not pay attention to what's happening then you'll be losing all your members."

It's evident that Jo has incorporated the compassion and self-awareness that she has gained through journals into the manner she runs her club. Actually, she believes journaling brings a self-awareness we're not taught in school: "We're not given tools to process emotion. You have tools to save yourself when you feel you're falling. It was difficult for me to comprehend these benefits. This was a fun leisure activity. As I grew older I realized, 'Damn, this has been my secret""

People often ask her 'Jo you're just 30, how have you done all of this?' I wrote it down and it all worked out." she smiles.

More details

To read more about Jo Franco and to become an active JoClub member, visit www.joclub.world. JoClub Go to joclub.world.