The Success Blueprint: Investing in Your Future Self with Jo Franco

This Power of the Ask podcast episode features Jo Franco, CEO of JoClub, a journaling company that fosters clarity, connection, and community. Jo's journey is marked by resilience and determination, from her early years in Brazil to her current success as an entrepreneur and content creator. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Jo moved to the USA at age six, learning English and navigating challenges as an undocumented immigrant. Despite these obstacles, Jo excelled academically and professionally.

Her entrepreneurial spirit blossomed during college in Manhattan, where she rejected corporate roles to launch a YouTube channel. Overcoming financial struggles and visa uncertainties, Jo's breakthrough came with a major deal in 2015, leading to her hosting a Netflix travel show and founding a successful journaling company during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jo credits her mother's fierce independence and resilience throughout her journey as guiding forces. Her upbringing taught her the value of hard work, financial responsibility, and seizing opportunities. Jo's story reflects a blend of ambition, adaptability, and a deep-rooted desire to create a global impact through her ventures and personal growth.

 On this episode of the The Power of the Ask podcast, Jo Franco:

💠 Shares her passion for building relationships by making other people feel seen and heard.

💠 Explains the role of preparation, research, asking questions, and actively listening in moving forward.

💠 Discusses the importance of finding common ground and maintaining relationships.

 Jo advises listeners to invest in themselves, their skills, and their knowledge through research and conversations with people from all walks of life. For her, the long game is the bottom line.  

 “Power and progress come the earlier we can get our hands on the books, have these conversations, take action, and look at investing or saving,” she said. “There should be a sense of urgency. You can start seeing how it moves -- if you're in the money world, time is your greatest asset, and that’s the bottom line. You need to get into the game and also invest in yourself. Don’t be afraid to ask anyone, ‘How can I help?’ This is the number one question that opened doors for me.” Sharing the story of creating a cycle of empowerment makes this Power of the Ask a great listen.
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About Jo Franco:

Jo Franco is the CEO and creator of JoClub, a journaling company fostering clarity, connection & community. A world traveler, TV and podcast host, writer, polyglot, and global soul, Jo moved to the United States from Brazil at age six with her mother and siblings and uses her life story to teach others to invest in themselves, their skills, and their knowledge. A gifted content creator, writer, on-camera host, and brand enhancer, Jo finds energy and enlightenment in connecting with strangers and firmly believes in making moves.

 Jo also hosts the Not Your Average Jo podcast, designed to amplify perspectives from all over the globe. Jo and her co-adventurers cover topics ranging from travel hacks to financing the lifestyle of a digital nomad, language learning, finance, love, culture, fitness, and anything that will help grow our perspectives and minds. Each episode has a global filter.  At the end of every episode, Jo shares tangible takeaways that will inspire all her listeners to make daily life feel a little less average — at home or on the road.  

 Jo earned a BBA in Marketing and Communications from Pace University. Her impressive resume includes being a speaker at the SXSW Interactive Conference on Innovation in Digital Media

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 1:16 Jo's Journey
• 3:39 The Waiting Game
• 6:58 The Power of Money
• 10:20 Lessons From Mom
• 15:50 Bridging the Gap
• 20:52 Money Changing the Narrative
• 24:03 Partners and Lessons Along the Way
• 27:40 Life Changing Questions
• 30:07 The Importance of Your Voice
• 32:35 The Power of the Ask

Transcript

Precious LaTonia Williams (00:06.225)

Welcome to the power of the Ask podcast. And you know, every guest we have on here is just illuminating and electrifying. So let me introduce you to our guests today. Jo Franco has the power to leverage every situation, build her dream life and learn how to plan and manage her finances to succeed. Jo has leveraged her skills and is an avid learner of new skills. Jo has traveled the world, journal, speaks multiple languages. She's built a successful YouTube channel, launched a journaling company and hosts her own Netflix shows. The world's most amazing vacation rentals 2021, View and Chew 2020 and Carpe Challenge, Los Angeles 2019. She's now a podcast co -host for Money Baggage, where she shares her personal money story. We're thrilled to have Jo join us today on the Savulators Power of the Ass podcast. Let's go.

Lisa Zeiderman (01:01.253)

So Jo, I know you have a personal journey that is so fascinating and I'm gonna ask you just to tell us what that personal journey was and what your path that you took to success actually consisted of.

Jo (01:16.032)

Lisa and Precious, first of all, I'm just so excited and honored to be here. So thank you for having me. And I love what you're doing. I think questions are actually more powerful than answers. So we're in the right place. What is the path to success? I mean, how does one boil it down? I feel like I'm still on the journey. I don't feel like I've arrived. I feel like every day is just day one. And I think that is the feeling that I want to keep in my life. Like no matter how long I've done what I've done. And I'm, I'm 32 now, but I started this crazy career of entrepreneurship 12 years ago. So I've been in the game for a minute and I really do feel like today's still just like year one in air quotes. The backstory, my inception story is that I was born in Rio in Brazil. So I shouldn't even be speaking English, which is a crazy fun fact that my first language was actually Portuguese. And no one in my family was American, but my mom.

Very ruthlessly independent. She decided to raise her three young kids in a better country because, you know, where we were supposed to be raised was a little bit more dangerous. And she really wanted to chase the American dream. So as a six year old, I started going to school in small town, USA in Connecticut, had to learn English. And I think that crazy reality check of, you know, like, first of all, how old do you do you realize that you live in a country?

That you speak a language and that there are other countries and languages out there that you can't understand. Most people are maybe in their teens when they realize that. I had to learn that as a six -year -old. Not only did I learn that, but I realized that there's a big power struggle if you don't speak a language, because my mom went from being my mom, who could help me ith homework and give me the answers, to cleaning houses where she couldn't speak the language and I had to now learn to translate legal documents for her. So from a young age, I learned.

This connection between skill and privilege and power. So I was like, wow, I can only, I can help myself, I can help my family, I can help other kids that came into the small town that didn't speak any English. And so that was kind of like the root of my desire to create a global life for myself. But the trick was I was undocumented. So all of these years as a kid, we had this giant secret that we were holding while my mom was paying lawyers and we were in the process, but we didn't actually get our green card.

Jo (03:39.52)

For 12 years. So we were in this system, this legal system, waiting, waiting for that golden ticket that would give us the privilege to leave. And the only way I could travel in those 12 years from like six until I was 18 was through languages and studying things about the world. So that became a really big piece of my heart that I haven't lost. And if anything, I've only grown. Finally, I got my green card. I went to school in Manhattan. I thought I was going to work for someone else, thought I was going to be...

Jo (04:08.)

You know, this diverse minority CEO working for some cool media company. Like I'd be the first of my kind. And I got seven different internships. So from day one, I was already reaching out to the business deans. I was, I was trying to get the experience because I came from these humble beginnings. We didn't have any money. So I had to work my booty off to start figuring out how I was going to pay these loans. And after my seventh internship, actually somewhere halfway, I think it was like the third internship. I realized I, I didn't.

I didn't see a role in a corporate environment that could check all of the boxes that I was passionate about. I loved marketing, but it was not multilingual enough. I loved the hospitality travel industry, but it wasn't strategic enough in the way that I liked. I love new business, I loved pitching, but I missed like something else, like the hospitality. There were so many things that I loved from every industry, but I didn't find one role. And so this is when I think...

As the world does, it kind of like shows you the path that you should take. And for me, that was entrepreneurship. So 2012 in college, I started a YouTube channel and then I grew that channel to over a million subscribers, you know, turned down the full -time job offers that I was given. I moved to LA with nothing but a carry -on suitcase, a mountain of college debt. When there was no plan B, I had to make plan A work, pitching everybody before there was an influencer market at all. Like there was no influencer marketing, but I was like, hey, I have this many viewers, can I create an ad for you? And this is how I started scraping together money to pay the rent. And then I landed this big deal with AT &T in 2015 that basically gave me the permission to make my own travel show. And so I created this travel show with producers, we filmed it. And then that was the beginning of the rest of my career. So since 2015, I've been traveling, making content.

I hosted a Netflix show, two seasons of this crazy Netflix show, traveling around to see the world's most amazing vacation rentals. And then I launched my journaling company during COVID because I had always journaled. And this was the first time in my life I couldn't travel because of the pandemic. So then I did what I had always done, but I put a camera to it. I sent my audience of like a hundred thousand people at the time, a photo of my journals and they challenged me. They were like, Hey Jo, why don't we start journaling together for 30 days?

Jo (06:30.496)

I said, okay, we start tomorrow. And this 30 day challenge turned into a 90 day journaling challenge. And around day 70, I'm like, would people pay to be a part of a global journaling community? Four years later, Jo Club is a beautiful, amazing organization with hundreds and thousands of journalers. We host global retreats. In fact, next month I'm going to Greece to host two of the retreats this year. It's just been a, it's been a wild ride, but I'm only just getting started, I swear.

Lisa Zeiderman(06:52.773)

for you.

Lisa Zeiderman(06:56.837)

Hahaha!

Precious LaTonia Williams (06:58.033)

Well, Queen, to be honest with you, Jo, that's an incredible story and just the memories that you have. You say you're just getting started. I feel like 45, I'm just getting started too. And you said some things that really stood out like the world of the journey will show you the path that's correct for you. So all of us have money stories or like a money history in terms of money and finances.

What are a couple of the most powerful ones that stand out from your childhood?

Jo (07:30.528)

I always feel like we learn from the challenging things more than we learn from, you know, like the in your face, here's the neat little lesson plan. So one of the things that I really remember, there were a few things. I remember always being conscious of money. I remember being aware when my mom on a Saturday morning was like huffing and puffing with a mountain of bills around her. And I remember thinking like, I don't want that. I don't want that for her. I don't want that for me. I remember going to Costco, the grocery store, you know, this wholesale store and...

Precious LaTonia Williams (07:55.409)

Mm.

Jo (08:00.032)

Being so anxious when the checkout would come because I knew that my mom would be playing credit card, a game of credit cards to see like which card she could pay with. And we was a family of three kids, we were three kids. We also had a cousin from Brazil live with us. So it's like a single mom raising four kids. So my mom...So my mom really was like the soul.

So my mom was the sole breadwinner and to see her struggle, I always saw that as like something that I wanted to help her and also help myself and make sure that I didn't repeat this. But really early, my mom, because she was a young mom with all of us to raise, she taught us what it looked like to work. So when I was like eight years old, I would clean the office with her. We had these clients that were, they were office buildings, like marketing office buildings. And I would be cleaning, I would be vacuuming. And I remember thinking like, I wanna work for this office, I wanna work for an office building.

In the sense of like when the cleaning lady and the daughter comes, I want to treat them so well. So when I was like eight, nine, 10 years old, I already knew that I wanted to be in the boss's chair, but to treat the people who, you know, clean the garbage so well, because I was that kid for so many years. I also remember thinking like, mom is going to pay us to clean the office and she's going to pay me $30 this month or this week. And if I don't spend this on a stupid toy next week, I'm going to have $60. And I, I, that compounding mentality was like, very key to how I still look at money. I also saw that so many small tiny things like when I look back it's so amazing to think about how we learn so much of our money story and our money relationship as kids. I have two older siblings and I was blessed because I think when you're the youngest you have the observation privilege you know and I saw how my sister when she wanted to buy a dress for prom my mom would be like hey you have to choose from this rack because I'm pink.

Jo (09:51.52)

And I vividly remember thinking, I don't want to have to choose from any rack. I'm going to work for years if I have to, and I'm going to go and buy the dress I want. And so I did, and my mom was pissed. My mom was so mad that she didn't let me wear the prom dress I bought. She had to buy me a new one just to say, like, no, I'm your daughter. I want to buy you a dress. So I ended up having to go to a different dance with the dress I bought. So small things like that. I just saw that money bought you choice, and I wanted all the choice I could get.

Precious LaTonia Williams (10:17.681)

Come, come, come, come.

Lisa Zeiderman (10:20.165)

So those are amazing, amazing stories. Particularly, I so can relate to the one about buying the dress that you wanted because you were spending your money. And I think that that's such an important lesson. And it's really the lesson that I think we, many of us teach our kids is that if you work for it, then you have the power.

And you can go and spend it or save it or do whatever it is that you want, but it's you've worked for it. So now you can make choices. So it's, it's so interesting that your mom had a different view of that. and it seems like you've learned so much from your mom about so many different things. and,

It sounds like your mom was a huge part of your life, obviously, as a single mom and raising you and working and teaching you about all the things that have to be taught. Tell me what you think you learned from your mom in terms, not just in terms of finances, but in terms of life itself. What are your mom's lessons that you've actually taken in and made part of you?

Precious LaTonia Williams (11:22.929)

question.

Jo (11:27.52)

It's so funny. So she's actually in this house right now. I bought this house where I'm recording in 2020. And I, so this house is in Connecticut. And I, prior to buying this house, I had lived five years in New York and Manhattan in Harlem for college and stayed there for a year after college. Then I moved to Los Angeles for five years where I made my career. This is where I really began like the entertainment industry side of my life. And I was abundant.

Lee's successful there and I went to this fancy gym and I had a personal trainer and I had this whole life that like had nothing to do with how I was raised. And my whole message to my mom was like, I'll never come back to Connecticut. As the world does again, it puts you right where you're supposed to be. Like, mama knows best. So then the pandemic hit while I was shooting the Netflix show and they gave us like one hour to decide where we were going. And even though my apartment was in LA, I decided to go to Connecticut. Cause I was like, if the world's ending, I'm going to be close to my family. And I'm super close to my siblings as well.

Precious LaTonia Williams (12:05.617)

HAHAHA

Jo (12:22.88)

So I came to Connecticut for what I thought would be two weeks. And as we know, it lasted a lot longer than that. And so in the first two months of just like waiting, I didn't know if the show was coming back. This is when I launched my journaling company, but I was staying at my aunt's house where my mom was staying. And my mom had sold our child at home. My mom has always been like a free spirit, very rebellious, was always like trying to go against the grain from marrying my dad who was like a smelly musician, even though she came from parents that wanted her to take piano and go to France. My mom was like, no, I want to do what I want to do. So anyways, being the rebellious spirit, my mom has always been she was living with a friend in a friend's guest room. And I'm like, Mom, like, are you going to rent something? Are you going to what's your plan? She's like, I don't know. I'm just going to go with the wind. And I'm like, OK, well, all of this free spirit has taught me that I've always had to have the responsibility that I think has helped all of us in the sense of like a lot of people, they have parents that have truly supportive financial situations, they have houses. Like many entrepreneurial friends that I have, their parents have houses, have a house, at least one house. Most of them have multiple houses. So of course you as an entrepreneur are gonna be okay to take risks because if all else fails, you can go back to mommy and daddy's. That was not my case, that has never been my case.

Precious LaTonia Williams (13:42.417)

Mm -hmm.

Jo (13:43.104)

So from a young age, I was always like an old lady in a young kid's body. And my mom always jokes that I was acting like her mom. So her rebellious spirit, while it like opened my eyes to what a woman could do, to the power and independence that a woman could achieve, a lot of what I learned from her was actually because I wanted to kind of like counteract the free spirit, because I saw what happened. Like I saw what would happen if you don't have a plan. So I think I have a balance of both being willing to take risks and seeing that there is a benefit to having more of like a wild spirit and to dream big. But I also have this very responsible side of me that when I saw her living at her friend's place, I'm like, you know what, even though I want to buy a condo in Marina Del Rey, I'm going to buy a house in Connecticut because I can afford this house and I can pay this off in one fell swoop, put my mom in this house, we're good. And then whatever happens next, I'll build from there. And that's literally what happened. 

Now my mom is happy as a clam. She's like living her retirement life downstairs. Other things too, it's just like, she always says like, you don't need no man. And I think that's hilarious because it's true. Like I had never been raised. Well, here's the thing. I have a beautiful, lovely relationship right now. My boyfriend is lovely. It's the first time in my life that I've seen what a partnership could do as far as like, wow, one plus one is not two, it's actually four. If I have my life together and you have your life together, imagine what we can accomplish.

Precious LaTonia Williams (14:51.953)

HAHAHAHA

Jo (15:11.008)

Prior to this, and this is a relationship dynamic I saw with my grandparents, because my grandmother was super independent way ahead of her time, retired at 45, was like a boss, always rooted in the education. She was a woman of color, a black woman in Brazil. Her and my grandfather created an amazing life. And because they had this dynamic of partnership, my mom on the opposite hand didn't. She got married a bunch of times, divorced a bunch of times, and she was always the constant. So I saw like,

Precious LaTonia Williams (15:11.505)

Huh.

Jo (15:39.328)

dang, we could do it all. She has power tools. We build like this bookshelf behind me. She's a boss. So there's so many things to learn, I think.

Precious LaTonia Williams (15:45.361)

Excellent, beautiful.

Lisa Zeiderman(15:49.829)

Great.

Precious LaTonia Williams (15:50.129)

I feel like...

Just hearing the varied experiences that you've had, you're the perfect guest for the Power to Ask podcast. Because to, I love you talking about mom free spirit, but you've also had to be responsible and marry those two together. Was there ever a time that you didn't have such a positive money mindset? And what did you have to do to bridge the gap into positivity?

Jo (16:17.92)

There's no, I'm just like, when I think about where I am today and when I read the journal entries that I've had, because I've been journaling since I could hold a pencil, which has been really beautiful. So if people out there haven't journaled yet, I think it's an amazing tool to actually grow self -confidence because you start documenting the good and the bad and the good and the bad and you start seeing it almost like on the subject of finances. You see it like the trends of the stock market. You have ups and you have downs, but eventually if you keep going, it'll all kind of scale upwards.

When I was in college, I remember thinking, how am I going to pay this? Even on day one, I remember thinking, how am I going to pay this? I was in a private school, out of state, going for international business. And I didn't even have my citizenship when I first got to college. And when you're not a citizen, you're not qualified, you don't qualify for like Pell grants and extra support. So the first year that I was in school, I had a green card. So I was a resident. I couldn't get deported, but I didn't have the benefits that like a U .S. citizen would have.

Lisa Zeiderman (17:10.245)

Wow.

Jo (17:18.56)

And I remember like, how am I going to pay $30 ,000 for one year of college? And that weight just compounded year after year. And year after year, I found all of the jobs. I found all of the scholarships. I became a citizen, which was just luck. But I was like a resident advisor. I was paying off the interest within the first month. Literally first month, I'm paying interest. So all of this was building until graduation, because of course you can defer your loans. You don't have to pay while you're in college.

Precious LaTonia Williams (17:35.153)

And I'm gonna do whatever I gotta do.

Jo (17:46.976)

There was a grace window of like six months. So I applied for that, got that. And then there was this horrible, scary, hairy time where I wasn't able to live on campus anymore in Manhattan. Cause I couldn't, I graduated, right? Like the, my bosses at the college, they loved me, but they're like, Jo, we've like milked this. You got to get out. So I didn't have a place to live. I was just starting with my YouTube channel. So I started pitching different executives in New York, like different TV networks, anything that I could find, I would start pitching, but I had to.

Precious LaTonia Williams (18:00.209)

Bye.

Jo (18:16.992)

decide where was I gonna go? None of my friends, they all came from immigrant backgrounds. None of them had any housing situation that could help me. And the loans were kicking in because it was like right out of that grace period. So it was like bad on bad on bad compounded. Again, as life does when you say, hey, this is what I want, the universe kind of listens, I get taken out on a coffee date to just meet up with a person who like a student of my business school, because the Dean was a mentor of mine and he connected us and she was like a leader in the business school a year before me. She happened to have an apartment in Manhattan. She was like, hey, live on my couch. I had met this girl twice and I was like, I literally don't know you, but I genuinely have no other option. It'll only be for a few weeks until I figure it out. She became one of my closest friends. I stayed with her for maybe a month, two months and then I had to find my own place. I went on Craigslist. I found an apartment.

That was heavily wanted. Everybody was trying to get a spot in this apartment. And it was to share a room with a girl from Craigslist in an apartment with six other people. And I got the, I was selected after several roommate interviews. And then this was another money moment where I was like, my God, how do I pay for this deposit? Cause they wanted like three months of upfront rent. I asked my mom, hey mom, can I borrow $200? I have everything else and I'll pay you back on Monday. It was like a Friday. It was a Friday.

Precious LaTonia Williams (19:34.929)

Thank you.

Jo (19:43.936)

I was like, I need to submit this money by Sunday. She was like, I don't have the money. And this was the first time that I had asked my mom for money. And I was like, my God, this is like when it hits. Like this is when the reality hits where like I'm really by my, like I'm alone on this journey as far as like my mom could support me emotionally all she wants, but financially I'm on my own. Friday night after I got the note from my mom, I got a text from a friend being like, hey, are you free tomorrow? There's a catering gig. I go to the gig and I get tipped $200.

Precious LaTonia Williams (19:50.801)

Yeah.

Jo (20:13.12)

And it was just one of those moments where you're like, does this happen by accident? Right? Like, and then that was another moment where I was like, dang, I thought I could just do what must be done, but I need to do what must be done. And then some. So I have money saved up for a rainy day. Two weeks later, my mom asks me to borrow money and I had it. And I'm just like, literally, this is, this is what I'm talking about. Like it doesn't, these lessons don't come for no reason. And that was when I was young. I mean, since then it's just compounded, but...

Precious LaTonia Williams (20:15.857)

CROSS!

Jo (20:43.2)

I think that was a really big gigantic moment for me to realize I need to help myself because no one is coming to help me.

Lisa Zeiderman(20:52.741)

So as you started to get your amazing gigs, like your Netflix show and some of your other great gigs, did your money narrative actually change? Did it remain the same? If it changed, what was the new narrative?

Jo (21:09.6)

So when I finally started making enough money to move out of the apartment with 17 people, I was like, I need to learn. I felt like there was a big skills gap because I think innately I had curiosity and I have the savers mindset. I've heard many times people say, know your money language, are you a spender or are you a saver? I was always a saver because I saw my mom spending and I was like, I don't wanna spend too much because I don't wanna be in that position.

So I was always a saver, but there was a moment where when I started paying off my loans and I started getting a little bit more money, I started seeing the trajectory. I was like, I don't think I'm gonna go backwards. I mean, at least I don't hope I go backwards. And so let me get some books. And this was around, I started getting into it around like 2016, 2017. I went full time in 2015. So around 2016, when I was like, okay, my basic needs are met, let me learn about investing. And I took out that friend.

Her name is Paige. I took her out to dinner, because she comes from a money narrative that's completely different than me. And I literally sat her down at dinner. I was like, can you please tell me everything that you know about money? Because people like me and you, we don't exchange this kind of information. My family, we don't talk about money the way your family does. And she was so lovely. And she just told me about compounding interest, about these different investment apps that I could start with $5 today.

Precious LaTonia Williams (22:20.817)

Say it.

Jo (22:33.12)

And that was around 2016. That was the first time that I opened my investment account. And that was the first time that I realized if I wanted to change the legacy and if I wanted to really change the impact that I have on my life financially, but also the people who come after me, I need to learn. And this is not education I can get from anybody in my socio -economic connections. And this is the thing too, like as humans, we gravitate towards people who are similar to us, but the problem is this only increases wealth gaps.

I think the most beneficial thing we could do is be friends with people in different socioeconomic backgrounds. This is not innate as humans. This isn't. Because most of us will walk into a room and we share, I don't know, we go to the same restaurants and like that's a socioeconomic connection right there, whether you think of it or not. Our families go to the same country club, like clearly right there, we know what that means. Our families are both, you know, your dad's a halal car driver, my mom is a cleaning lady. That's how my best friends and I became good friends in college. The problem though is that...

If your dad is a halal car driver and my mom is a cleaning lady, we know the same stuff. We're going to just exchange the struggles. But if my mom is a cleaning lady and your dad sold his company and you inherited millions of dollars, I know wisdom you don't know about what it means to work and not have a security net. And you know wisdom that I don't know about what it means to compound wealth. So I call them rich people problems and I'm not so rich people problems, but at the end of the day, they are problems that we can learn from each other. And so this changed everything for me.

Precious LaTonia Williams (24:03.313)

I just got to say, I want to scream right now because that is something that I have learned being with savvy ladies and now on the board that how I grew up wasn't conducive to the different levels I was going into. And with Queen Lisa, Queen Stacey and all of them embracing me and not making me feel small because I didn't.

I might not have come from certain places, but I was so hungry. And so thank you for saying that, especially for our listeners who may feel like, can I go into certain places? Yes, please do. Because there are things you need to learn and there are things that people need to learn from you. And in terms of even saying that again, I want to scream, I want to run and scream and be like, thank you for saying that. Over your lifetime, as you look back, were there any other patterns or lessons along the way? That truly made a difference to you that would be beneficial for our listeners too.

Jo (25:03.04)

I think the long game is the bottom line here. And I think the earlier we can get our hands on the books and on these conversations and the earlier we can take some action and start looking at like invest or don't invest, but like save your money and put it in a high savings account. And you can start seeing how it moves and you can run these different experiments so that you learn. But the time is everything. I mean, we all know this if you're in...

Precious LaTonia Williams (25:05.361)

Mm.

Jo (25:31.648)

The money world, that time is the greatest asset that you have. And so me having this conversation with her in 2016, how much have I learned since then? But how glad am I that I had that conversation in 2016 and not 2025, right? Because a lot of people, they know that it's something that they should be looking into. It's like one of those things on the very bottom of your to -do list. Like, yeah, I heard that it's a good thing to start putting my money away and have an emergency fund. You never get to it, but I think there should be a...

Big sense of urgency because when you start seeing the compounding work for you and you start realizing like, wow, this is a really long game. And that's something that I learned from my grandparents, from even watching them gardening, like even knowing that they planted a tree when I was born and the tree was still tiny by the time I was 25, right? But it's like still the tree is growing every single day, whether we realize it or not. I think that is something that I would like to pass on to anybody who

Precious LaTonia Williams (26:05.169)

Yes.

Precious LaTonia Williams (26:12.017)

Okay.

Jo (26:31.064)

It's like learn about this stuff, get into the game and also investing in yourself. The other thing that I highly suggest is investing in your skills. And how many times have I sat down and like really studied a language and then that language opened a door to an opportunity that paid me X amount of hundreds and thousands of dollars that I would have never made.

Had I not sat down and invested. So you don't need the money to invest. You can invest in your knowledge and go to the library, get the books, learn the skills. What a time to be alive, honestly.

Precious LaTonia Williams (27:03.921)

Come on, come on.

Lisa Zeiderman (27:06.949)

So Jo, you know, I was so impressed about the fact that you sat down with your friend, Paige, and that you had this very transparent conversation about your different backgrounds and were able to ask the questions that you were able to ask and learn from Paige. And that took a lot of courage to be able to ask those questions, frankly. What's a question that...

You specifically remember asking that helped you move ahead in life.

Jo (27:39.072)

with page specifically or just in general?

Lisa Zeiderman (27:40.549)

Doesn't have to be with Paige, with anyone. Could be anyone in your life that one question maybe that you remember asking that really propelled you to that next spot.

Jo (27:53.568)

I think back to when I was a kid and I had nothing. Like when I really had nothing, as in like I just had my physical youth, my body, my like brain and just like willingness. And I think the number one question that I would recommend or like that I used to ask that got me in many rooms was like, how can I help? Can I help? How can I help? And it was like from being able to help my mom clean the office to her being like, there's a job painting, let me teach you.

Lisa Zeiderman(28:13.445)

Love that.

Jo (28:21.984)

And then me getting an internship at the marketing agency, that was something that I did in high school. And I asked the owner of this marketing agency who happened to be the father of the family that my mom nannied for. So I go up to him and I'm like, hey, Mr. Mark, can I help? And he's like, hey, we'll find a spot for you. So it was always like, how do you make yourself useful? And how do you just show up with this attitude of eagerness to learn? And that was the first asset that I used to leverage.

Precious LaTonia Williams (28:40.529)

Mm.

Jo (28:50.752)

Because the minute that I was in the room and I was able to ask people, can I help you or can I learn from you or just interviewing people and asking them to share whatever they could share that I felt was interesting and asking them how they're, did they like what they did? What does it look like to be from a rich family? Give me insight. Like maybe we think that we want something and actually we don't, but we won't know until we ask these questions. But that willingness to help got me very, very far.

Precious LaTonia Williams (29:10.833)

Woof.

Jo (29:19.776)

And then just having work ethic. I think when you're raised by an immigrant mom who takes you cleaning and just Saturdays and Sundays are for cleaning offices and houses, you grow up with a different kind of grit that when you're put in a situation like filming a TV show, you're on set for 12 hours and you're awake for 14 hours and you have to look cute and then you have to wait for five hours and then you have to have explosive energy when the camera runs. That's like the endurance I was bred for as a daughter of a cleaning lady. You just can't make that up.

Lisa Zeiderman(29:50.82)

Great, and I love that answer, how can I help? That is the best answer that I have heard. It's just such a powerful question that really opens doors and helps you learn. It's great.

Jo (30:06.592)

Thank you.

Precious LaTonia Williams (30:07.025)

I think so too. Queen Lisa is the managing partner of Miller's Items. So she hires associates and things like that. As a former attorney, I remember thinking that if I had the right question, I'd get better answers. So for you, Queen Jo, how important was it to ask that question?

And how does it still make you feel to ask that question?

Jo (30:40.544)

I think when you have in your mind, I think we always have something. We always have our goodwill and we always have our attitude. Let's say we all lost everything today. We still show up with a lot, right? Whether that's like your sensibility that you're not even aware of because it's yours. But what I'm saying for the sake of this is like when you are a kid and you feel like you don't have anything, you're starting from scratch, you have no experience, you have no money, you have nothing. Having that as a question, it's an interesting question because then you end up learning so much.

Precious LaTonia Williams (30:52.689)

Right.

Jo (31:10.208)

And you can help the person. So it's a double kind of, it's a symbiotic dynamic. The other thing that I would say is just interviewing people in general and being curious about people, that's got me very far and it's so much more of an interesting way to live. I always like to point out in a conversation, when you see, I'm sure that we all know experiences where you're at a dinner and there's a person who is nonstop talking about themselves and they're, talking about themselves anytime somebody else is sharing a story. It's like, I just installed the pool. I installed the pool. my nephew just grabbed it. my nephew just grabbed it. It's like, okay, this is not a conversation. This is a tennis match. And I always think of the people that never ask questions to follow up and follow the train of thought or follow the story that the person has deemed interesting enough to share. And I think it's a missed opportunity because you know what you know. You already know what you know, but you don't know what they know.

So for me being curious, it's interesting, it's entertaining, but it's also a way to learn and like get the other person talking and making them feel seen and heard. And I think when you have the ability to make somebody feel seen and heard, the connection will be so much stronger. And then that's how one, relationships are formed, but that takes you so much further in life than if you're just spitting out what you know.

Precious LaTonia Williams (32:35.057)

I agree.

Lisa Zeiderman (32:35.269)

So Jo, you know we are on the power of the ask and I love that we are talking about asking questions and we're not gonna just move away from this now. We're gonna dig in deeper to find out what tips you can share with women looking to advance their careers or even find a job that they want by asking questions. So what are the tips for them to be asking these questions?

Jo (33:03.008)

I mean, it's like a dance. Asking questions is an art and it's something we could all get better at. I think it means that you must be an active listener. Doing as much research as possible is the way to go. And I think, I mean, this podcast is a perfect example. You all had basically a script for this interview and...

Precious LaTonia Williams (33:03.152)

Bring it down.

Jo (33:26.304)

We've kind of gone in different twists and turns because sometimes you might have a roadmap, but you need to follow the conversation where it goes and have the skill to go back to the point. I think that's also a very powerful skill. And that's a skill that TV hosts have to have where you have to deliver the talking points, but make it natural. And then you kind of like segue, you facilitate and smoothly vibe, vibe it out to get to the bottom line of like, what's the point of all of this. But for women who are trying to advance, whatever it is, whether it's relationships, career, these important relationships that could change the course of their life, I think having a one -on -one is the first thing. Finding that common ground, whether it's a common interest or a common experience or something that connects you to the person immediately. And this is again, something that we do naturally as humans.

It's called homophily, which is basically you walk into a room and you gravitate towards people that you feel share something. You don't even do this consciously, none of us do. For me, it's like I walk into a room, if there's a woman with curly hair, I'm gonna gravitate towards her. It's just what I do. And it's so bizarre, but we all do this. And I think it's a tribal kind of wiring that we have as humans. But so that is something to think about next time you walk into a room, why are you gravitating towards the person that you're gravitating towards? And just being aware,

So you could either catch patterns or try to break them and try to find people that you might not gravitate towards because that could lead to interesting places that you might not even know. But getting to know people, don't really think of it as professional. I would always think like, how are you doing as a person? What's going on? What do you hope to achieve? What's standing in your way right now? Can I take you out to coffee? No one really offers anything. People wanna take, take, take. So the minute that you offer something, whether it's coffee or...

Can I help you? Or I heard this podcast and I was thinking of you. Or here's an interesting quote. What do you think about it? Like just giving people is things is better than trying to take. And I think following up and maintaining the relationships, it's something that not many people are good at, but is a superpower in disguise.

Precious LaTonia Williams (35:41.457)

I can see one or two of your superpowers just coming out from interviewing and knowing how to do it well to make people feel comfortable pitching yourself for, you know, new opportunities, new gigs, television shows and things like that. Like, I think that's freaking amazing. Is there one particular pitch that stands out to you because of how you move forward with it? Maybe the way you didn't expect, but just you. You asking the right questions, you pitching in a different way led to some unexpected and beautiful journeys.

Jo (36:15.168)

I just think it's funny because most of my pitches failed and that was the best thing that could have happened. I think most of my pitches, especially in the beginning, I didn't have anything to show for it. I had a beautiful pitch deck. I had a million ideas. But at the time I was trying to sell a young travel show and all of the buyers were like, young travel shows are not good investments because broke people who watch are not gonna buy the products that we're trying to advertise. So it was like a very basic one plus one does not equal two.

Precious LaTonia Williams (36:25.585)

It makes sense.

Precious LaTonia Williams (36:38.705)

HAHAHAHA

Jo (36:43.488)

And of course I was young and excited and I didn't care and I was like, screw it, I'm gonna do it myself. And therefore I turned to YouTube and again, this is why I think it's such a great time to be alive because we have access to this unfiltered source of entertainment where we could just decide tomorrow we have a TV show and we learn the skills that we need and we put a TV show on YouTube. Sure it's on YouTube, but it's still a TV show or whatever you wanna make of it. You wanna podcast, you can put it online. So my pitch is...

Lisa Zeiderman (37:07.077)

Exactly.

Jo (37:11.616)

Failing actually made me do the hard work that I was trying to skip by pitching So when I pitch someone it means that I'm trying to get them to solve a problem that I could actually solve myself It would just take a lot more years And so it always ended with me being like let me try to pitch and get an investor Let me try to pitch and get on a network TV show They would say no and I'd be like, okay. Do I still want to do this? The answer is yes So let me go on a seven -year journey building a YouTube channel where I have to create videos every single week three times a week and then grow this audience. And then what ended up happening, I got what I wanted, but I had way more ownership in it. I gained so many more skills and now I can edit videos in my sleep. And then I work with clients like Hightower creating the Money Baggage podcast. And I work with different brands doing whatever I feel like doing because I did the painful long game work that I was trying to avoid. So when I think about pitching, I actually stopped pitching. Now when I pitch,

It's not even much of a pitch because the brands are like, Jo, we trust you. Just what do you want to do? So now I literally don't have to pitch. And that I think is, is a gift for starters. But also it's like, okay, it's funny because now I'm entering a new stage in my career where maybe I do want to start pitching, but now I'll have so much more to show for you for what I want to accomplish,

Lisa Zeiderman(38:34.533)

Jo, you've really accomplished so much. I mean, it's incredible. You told the story of how you were such a young girl in Connecticut and your mom having really nothing and you having very little, except obviously a lot of determination and a lot of grit and a great family around you. But somehow you made this incredible career for yourself and you were able to actually get onto a path to create your own wealth. I think you kind of did it that day that you decided that you were buying your own dress, although I'm still kind of stunned, I guess, by the fact that your mom did not let you buy that dress. I am still a little stunned there, but.

Precious LaTonia Williams (39:15.601)

Hahaha!

Jo (39:20.8)

She didn't want to lose the grip, you know, I think at the end of the day, she says, no, my mom always says she created a monster and she did, because I'm like her on the independent level times a million, because it's like, you know, she came to this country for that. It just manifested like way bigger than I think we could have imagined.

Precious LaTonia Williams (39:22.641)

Yeah, that's what it was. It's control.

Lisa Zeiderman (39:24.485)

I get it.

Lisa Zeiderman(39:39.045)

Yep, yep, so it sounds like you really, you created your wealth, you created your career, you created a whole life really for yourself and for your family also. And our listeners who many of them are women, they are trying to create their wealth, they are trying to create their careers to move themselves forward.

Precious LaTonia Williams (39:51.633)

Yeah.

Lisa Zeiderman(40:02.789)

What would you tell them to do to kind of shift their financial mindsets if they have not yet made that inroad for themselves yet? What do they need to do?

Jo (40:17.536)

This is kind of controversial, but I stand by this a million trillion percent. Look at who's around you and ask yourself the serious and tough question of do these people inspire you? Do these people help teach you things? Do these people make you feel motivated to accomplish whatever you want to accomplish? Or do these people bring you down? Do they complain? And I created almost like a classifying system in my brain for this because I think friendships are like the most underrated.

Precious LaTonia Williams (40:26.609)

Mmm. Mmm.

Jo (40:45.952)

Piece of financial success. We have friendships that are very important to us because they're from childhood. And those people really know who you are and it doesn't change anything. But sometimes those people are not the ones who evolve us. They're the ones that remind us of where we come from. So I've created this philosophy of you have legacy friends, which are the ones that maybe have learned who you are. They've grown up with you. They are a piece of your heart in your home. But then I said, there's also evolutionary friends. And these are the friends that I've learned.

Jo (41:15.488)

I want to actually spend my time around. And I think that mindset when you're in an environment where people are just striving and they're good, they're good wholesome people, but they're, you know, they're working every single day to improve their lives financially or in whatever other way, whether they're learners and your partner too makes a huge difference. Like if you have this ambition to be financially literate and healthy and you're dating somebody that doesn't give a crap and they're eating fast food, like that's going to trickle into your behavior. So I think so much of how our lives manifest, it's actually just a culmination of the people that you choose to have around you. And this is painful because a lot of people have a really hard time separating from these friendships from a long time. But I think when I look at my friends who are still kind of in this loop of like, I wanna pay off these credit cards and I wanna do this. I'm like, look at who you're around. And it's painful, but I think that to me is one of the most important things.

In addition to that, doing your own due diligence, doing your research, getting the books, whether you can buy the books or rent them from the library, there are so many amazing resources to teach you about financial literacy, actionable books that you could start changing your financial landscape today. But having that community of support around you that really evolves you is key.

Precious LaTonia Williams (42:19.505)

Come on.

Lisa Zeiderman(42:34.405)

Great, I love the evolutionary friendships. I think that's amazing.

Precious LaTonia Williams (42:36.529)

I love the way, come on, that was beautiful right there, Queen. And so Queen, Jo, we're gonna rehearse a question we ask of all of our guests. Why is the power of the ass so important to women, especially financially right now? Why is it so critical?

Jo (42:55.616)

Because if you don't ask, you won't receive. It's like the very basic, the closed mouths don't get fed. And maybe you don't ask flat out. Maybe you feel like it's a little weird to ask flat out of like, I want this, give it to me. Instead, you could ask a question from a curious standpoint. And then it's not so much of a, I want this for myself. It's like, how can I be of service? How can I help you? How are you doing? What is your end goal? Like it's just curiosity. Is that skill that will open so many doors, doors that you might not even have known existed, but you won't discover those doors unless you ask.

Precious LaTonia Williams (43:30.609)

Proof that.

Lisa Zeiderman (43:35.365)

Jo, thank you so much for joining Precious and myself on the Power of the Ass podcast. Thank you all. For listening and I hope that you got as much out of this podcast as we did. I love your advice, Jo. You were amazing, really amazing. And for all of our listeners, please listen and subscribe and review and get your friends to listen to.

Precious LaTonia Williams (43:53.361)

Yes.

Precious LaTonia Williams (44:04.785)

Tell a friend, tell a friend to tell a friend. Come listen to the Powered -Ass Podcast, because we get better and better and better. You see, with a guest like Jo, woo! Let's go.

Jo (44:17.696)

I love this, I'm so excited to just be a part of this conversation and cheering all my ladies on. Gotta make it happen.