Terms

"JoClub is the acronym for Journaling Club, but also fits in because of my name." Jo Franco begins. "When I began writing, I was aware of these huge feelings, and that I had older siblings who were not interested in hearing about the story. So I would write."

"I was born without a passport living in the shadows, hiding from authorities, and speaking Portuguese as well as learning English, stumbling my way across," she recalls. "I acquired a variety of languages since I wanted to be accepted. At the same time, I felt unpopular because I was considered to be the odd kid out. I looked different to everybody else. I was the youngest kid so I had this quiet voice, and a quiet personality.

"Of course, it's easy for me to think back now that's the way it went however, in the moment I was in a state of agony of 'Why am I misunderstood I'm not understood?', and many of us go through this."

Luckily, Jo had the tool of journaling: "I had a more compassionate relationship with myself, simply observing and not making judgements. I wrote about all this negativity, however I am aware of the good things that were happening within my own life. I started to tweak not only what I wrote however, I started to reverse engineer how I see things because I was looking for positive things. I had to look for positive things to have positive things for writing about. I became more of a positive person. It helped me become more optimistic."

Learning to make sense of the situation

While attending university in Manhattan, Jo was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of voices she was competing with. But she found much-needed space in her diary. "It did not matter if I resided in the States or traveling I used this journal to allow me to return home to my own self.

"My "why" gives those around me the same belief that "You're gonna be okay, no matter how ugly things happen. And not only can you help yourself in your own way, but also it's also lovely to document your story - because in documenting it is a small act of gratitude for the fact that it happened to begin with. You'll always fit in your self and your own thoughts."

"There's evidence-based science to support this up," she adds. "There are clinical trials of recording gratitude as a method of medical treatment. People who record their gratitude and gratitude will be more satisfied."

"Give your mind the alleviation. Take the weight off your shoulders and place it on the page. When you write about bad things, you give yourself distance, which allows you to think about it with an empathetic reaction. The emotions can make us insane. They are at the root of everything. They are they are at the core of confidence, at source of charisma, and that is the reason for walking into a room and being able to attract good fortune."

"Maybe it's a member"

Jo had certainly attached many positive things in the year 2020. With her YouTube channel, which has over a million subscribers, she received money to travel. "I was living this exciting, social life, however in the background I wrote. This was the essence of me: what was really me was journaling."

In January of 2020, she booked an Netflix job as the presenter for The World's Most Amazing Vacation Rentals. "It took me off of YouTube and into traditional presenting. If anybody's ever been on a production setting, they've realized that the hours are very long. It's 16 hours and an endless cycle of 'Hurry up and wait'. It's time to get ready with your makeup, hairstyle, everything's done. There are lines written to draw in your mind, and then they're like, "No I'm not kidding We need to stop'!"

In all of those pauses that would last for a long time, Jo would write. "Writing was a passion for me so I had a desire to turn it into a business." As covid became popular and the show ceased the main source of income dried up.

"I felt anxious as was everyone other. I decided to share photos from my journals. Then, 100 days later, I had journaled publicly on Instagram Stories. I thought, "Hey, maybe this is an opportunity to join a club' users would want to join in a virtual room together and journal as a group. That's how JoClub got started. That was 4 years ago. Which is crazy!"

In the Netflix show, Jo realized that journaling was the lens by which she saw the world. "It wasn't just a hobby. If you're on the road for two days, you're exhausted. It's easy to get caught up in something completely unrelated with what you're getting to be paid.

"You realize, 'This is how I understand the meaning of the world. This is a lifestyle. It became clear to me that if I let go of everything else, the one thing that I cannot let go from me is my writing. It was important for me to bake that into the next chapter of my professional life."

Her work is bigger than she can imagine.

Jo threw herself into her project. "I had to upload 3 videos every week, in three languages. I was required to employ people, fire people. I was able to learn how to create a content machine."

But something needed to change. "I didn't want to always work. If you're tired or burnt out, as is the norm in the creator world it's unlikely that you'll succeed in making money. I realized that if I want to pursue a career that I'm gonna continue for a long time I must find a way to remove my eyes from the possibilities to earn money."

Jo was looking to start something that was bigger than she. Journaling clubs began with a bang 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 mailbox."

She wanted to curate an event that was similar to yoga class. Two prompts, then the discussion. Then two additional prompts, then breakout rooms. "It turned into IP (intellectual property)," she recalls. "After the period of six months I asked myself, can I train facilitators to run these sessions? In fact, can facilitators help enrich JoClub in ways I have never had the chance to? They was looking to "extract the joy" and work alongside the facilitators, some of whom were members of JoClub, to design an art journaling style and a "bring your own song' contest for young musicians and other such.

"Now we're hosting six or more sessions every month and I can host the number of sessions I'd like," she continues. "Beautiful aspects that I would never have imagined started happening: I host retreats and I did a pilot at a college and are developing different challenges. It wouldn't have been possible to do it had I remained as Jo Franco's group and me as the leader."

Cultural and social cohesion

"An interesting thing about membership is that you create an atmosphere," she adds. "If someone is paying for a membership and they're entering your house, and then you're able to design your home however you like." Jo and her team have been looking for ways to build more lively conversations so that "people are talking in the areas of the community, and they're feeling like they're getting the value for their money."

"It's the difference between the term "audience" and "membership," she adds. "An audience will interact with what you're posting however it's not necessarily an exchange of ideas. If I post an image and someone comments, I'll comment back, but with a community which I'm curating, I'm involved in the actual architecture of what happens from the moment they sign up to the community."

Jo thinks several times about the process of onboarding and how to treat new members. "How do we handle that person walking into a room feeling like they don't know anybody? The moment you begin to get into the art of curation and that's why members stay for a long time."

She is aware that this isn't an easy task. "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, you will lose the members you have."

It's evident that Jo is bringing the compassion and self-awareness that she has gained through her journaling into the way she runs her club. Actually, she believes journals help us become more aware of ourselves. not taught in school: "We're not given tools for processing emotion. It's possible to help yourself when you feel you're sinking. I was astonished by these advantages. This was a fun leisure activity. When I grew older, I realized, "Damn! it's been my secret'!"

People often ask her 'Jo you're just 30, what did you do everything? I wrote it down and everything worked out," she laughs.

More details

For more information on Jo Franco and to become the part of JoClub to join, head over on joclub.world.