Jo Franco - How Journaling Transformed My Life (and Can Transform Yours Too)
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When you learn a new language, you're floundering, you're failing. You're an adult, but you're completely starting from scratch. You are a child again, right? So as a kid, I had to observe. I had to observe body language. I had to observe if the kids were getting up and like lining up for something. I had to observe the physical environment around me because that I could understand. Some people are very lucky and they get in the right career path and they thrive.

But many of us either never really find it right off the bat or we fall out of love with something. And that's when you have to ask yourself the question of what do I do about this? If we're talking about productivity versus like, "Dear diary, it's not this or that, it's connected."

You start with understanding the patterns of thinking and what is valuable to you, and then you cross-reference, "Am I taking action that makes sense with this? And if not, what can I put on my calendar to start making actions happen that are connected to this truth that I've just become aware of?" -Hello. Welcome to How I Think. We can read what someone writes, we can see what they share, but I want to explore how they think. How does the sausage get made? Today, my guest is Joe Franco.

How are you doing, Jo? - I'm doing so lovely. And I'm so happy to be sitting with you because we've had great chats, but I feel like a podcast is a way to kind of condense all the tangible takeaways. - I think so too. And that's what's really amazing about you just generally speaking, because we're just coming off of this amazing summit, the Second Brain Summit. We're pushing through, we were making this happen. And you, most people saw as the MC, you gave us all the energy and you are outwardly such an extrovert.

And yet I'm not really you. Yeah. You do have journaling. It's such a dichotomy. Yeah. So one of the funniest things that I tell people is like, yeah, you think I'm extroverted and I am, but I'm actually deeply introverted and it's because of

the backstory. And I think anytime you grow up feeling like you're different or like you're an other, and in my case, it was growing up, I was born in Brazil. I was very much Brazilian. Everybody spoke Portuguese in my life. And we moved to the USA, small town USA, when I was about six. When you lose the ability to communicate with basic language, it just hits differently. It's not a regular childhood. So from a very young age, I was completely just

unable to express myself and grew very much introverted because every time I tried to speak, they couldn't understand me anyways. So I definitely identify with being the other and understanding what it looks like to not fit in and what that does to your self-confidence and how that kind of dims your light. And in those earlier years, I found

That being introspective and being a writer and journaling and talking about my feelings, which is something that I started immediately after I learned English, was like the main way I would actually start hearing my voice. That is so fascinating. Yeah, because you can't speak the language. So expressively, physically, you can show things that way, which might also have influenced maybe how expressive you are. Maybe not. Maybe that's just part of it.

part of family and everything. Well, I think I'm Brazilian. Being Brazilian, I'm at all like, it's definitely a more expressive culture. And that's what made it even harder than when you come from a culture, like I was taught how to read and write before I turned four because my grandmother was a retired school principal and a teacher. And so I was super, super

high level in the communication, but in Portuguese, like so much so that I was surprising my grandmother that I could write and read in Portuguese before I was four. And then you go to the States and all of that disappears. And then, and the thing about language, and this is why a huge thing in my life, a huge value system that I have is like to learn new languages is it is the key to unlocking everything. You can't have

conversations. You can't have friendships. You can, but it's not as deep, right? Like you can't communicate how you're feeling, how you're thinking without language. So anyways, when I first learned what a different language was in a painful way of not being able to speak it, it gave me tremendous pain and also motivation to hurry up and learn it. And in that time of learning it, I was

on my own pretty much. And not just learning the language, but with all this destabilization, I mean, taking away, it's like a chair and you take away a leg. Yeah. How do you, how does one communicate now? And so it seems like it's, it's, it's learning about yourself in the process. It's a lot of

observation as well. Like I remember in those early days when I had to... Yeah, what was an early journal? Well, pre-journal. Pre-journal was like little Joe walking into a classroom and if you're just listening, I have brown skin, big curly hair and I was in a classroom with kids that had like milky white skin, straight hair. I was so different that it was like literally like a freaking black bean in a pile of rice. Like it was like so different that it was...

And when you couple that with the language barrier, the only way that I could really get through the day was observation.

So as a kid, I had to observe. I had to observe body language. I had to observe if the kids were getting up and like lining up for something. I had to observe the physical environment around me because that I could understand more or less, definitely more than the language. So before the journaling came the keen sense of observation because that was the only thing that could get me through a challenging time.

And then when I acquired the language came the introspection and I was able to like process all of that observation through pages in my journal. Wow. It's like there are obvious things that we can learn. We can like, hey, this is algebra. You can learn this thing. You can learn grammar and syntax of a language, English maybe. But in your case, you're picking up these invisible lifelong skills that translate and

Wherever you go. So now, I mean, how many languages do you speak? So the language journey was wild. So I learned English...

And relatively quickly, as children do, you know, we're very adoptable as we're young. And the thing about when we moved, no one in my family spoke English. So it was my mom, my brother, my older brother, older sister and me. And we were all split up in different schools. So it's not even like if I was scared or nervous or couldn't express something that they could put me with my brother and sister.

we were all on our own when you also speak more language eventually than your parent does because when i was in school i was learning english and my mom went to being a housekeeper and a nanny so she didn't have this language ability the way that we did in school and there was this wild moment where i realized like wow my mom can't really mother me in the way that a regular mom would or a parent in general where she could help me with homework she can't help me with homework

We were both sitting there with an electronic translator crying because I picked a thick book thinking that I got to take a book home free, picking the thickest one out of the pile in this observation. So eventually when I learned English, I was like, wow, this is a superpower. I can tell mom what to do. And it was this like little bit of a- A strange dynamic, I bet, where especially, you know, a young growing up girl, like you, and if you get in fights, that's almost a thing that you can hold over your parent. Yeah.

By speaking in English. I don't know. It was just like an other. It was a feeling of an otherness. Like my friends in school, I didn't have many friends. I had one friend who was Puerto Rican, the closest thing to like understanding my background. And she had a mom and her mom was like always on top of everything, told her, you know, permission slip this and field trip that. And I remember thinking like my mom cannot even try to do this, not only because she's working 12 hours a day, but because she can't understand most of this stuff.

So I need to figure this out on my own. So there was a self-reliance that started growing deep within me because most kids have relationships with parents that kind of guide them. It's not that my mom wouldn't, it's that she couldn't. And that is kind of like the seedling that planted this idea in my mind that language unlocks this incredible power, this superpower of being able to communicate and

When if you don't speak the language, you cannot communicate. And this is when I was like, imagine if I could do this in French, in Portuguese, Spanish, in Italian. And then I started learning all these languages. So today...

I've traveled a bunch and when I travel it's actually expressly to learn a language because I want to connect with the people. And so now I speak many of those languages that I mentioned. Portuguese obviously, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, and now I'm learning Dutch, speak a little bit of Egyptian Arabic. And it's a lifelong habit because the more language I learn, the more connected I feel to that younger Joe.

- Wow, oh. - Which is also funny because that younger joke was not a, that wasn't a fun time. - How does it make you feel more connected? - When you learn a new language, you're floundering, you're failing. You're an adult, but you're completely starting from scratch. You are a child again, right? You're learning this basic vocab, you're putting sentences together like Frank and bite.

For most people, it's daunting. For most people, it's so scary. And it's still scary for me. But it's funny, now I'm 32 and I'm like connecting to that past version of myself. And I've hung out with enough curious people that have asked me enough questions that made me realize that actually when I'm chasing a new language, I'm chasing that feeling of discomfort.

Because that feeling of discomfort is what grew me in all the ways that have been so ridiculous that have created this quote unquote American dream on steroids that I was able to carve from being undocumented as a kid to like hosting a Netflix show to being a founder of a journaling company and all the crazy things that are happening now. It's because I'm comfortable with discomfort, not by choice really. In the beginning it wasn't by choice, but now it is.

So I love that so much. And in our community, when we start these workshops, one of the key things that we say is be comfortably uncomfortable, which is exactly basically what you said. And but that's wild that that's how you reconnect to a little Joe is that feeling of discomfort is comfortable because it's so it's filled with tension. And in that tension, you're coming alive. It's making all those neurons and synapses fire. And it's

it taps into your observation, like this ability to observe things. And I really feel for that sense of you having to become self-reliant at an early age because of all the circumstances. And it's just, it's really, really cool to hear. Now, to have a challenge like that, to go travel somewhere to learn the language, that is wild. And it's still wild today, Nick. And I'm like, I...

I genuinely can't believe it's so hard, even though I've learned seven languages. I'm on my seventh language now. And I was talking to my partner and I'm like, I don't think I can do this because I'm learning Dutch. I just moved to Antwerp, Belgium. They speak Flemish. And I'm like, first of all, that is not a language I ever thought I'd be learning. Second of all, can I ever learn it? And my level in Flemish is way more advanced than people that have been living there for many years. And so people in Flanders are always shocked. But to me, I'm like...

My verb order is always wrong. Like I still feel this tension. I still feel this like, like frustration. So I told my boyfriend, I'm like, will I ever learn this language? This is impossible. And he's like, yeah, of course you will. You've learned so many languages before. But even me having learned all of this, I still get into those dark moments of being like, I don't think this is possible. And then of course, when you push through, you're

And one day you wake up and you're speaking Flemish. You're just like, wow, I can't believe the brain is capable of that. - I'm curious about those dark moments. What you're saying also describes this creative process, like putting together, we were both speaking at that summit and I really didn't feel like it was going to come together. - Really? - Oh yeah, totally. I was like, I just,

so much to say and I was like what about this angle and that angle and I was like I'm running out of time like how am I going to pull this off I thought I had more time because I didn't read the instructions I had half the time I was like there's no way this is going to come together and then I was like okay you you've been here before and you trust the creative process and eventually it'll come together but it

But like I could tell myself that in my head, but here in my gut, I was like, oh, all this tension. And of course, in the end, it turned out okay. It turned out great. Okay, for everybody unaware of Nick's amazing talents, you were the most talented keynote speaker. I was in shock, jaw delight, jaw dropping delight. It was like amazing.

And I can't believe you felt that. And it's funny because the recent time I felt that tension, not only with Dutch, but with editing my TV show pilot, which you graciously watched and gave me great notes on. Translated. My show translated. I know we need to talk about journaling and it's all connected. It is. It's all been linked. But so crazy recently, like as of the last, whatever, three weeks, I'm in film school getting my master's in one of my projects. Did you know that? I don't think I know. I don't.

I didn't register if you told me. So you're about to get your master's in film school? Yeah. So, okay. I signed up for a master's degree, not to get the degree. It's going to be cool. Of course not. Yeah. But it was because it was a negotiated program where I could assign myself my own final project. And I'm an entrepreneur. I've been for 12 years and I know myself well enough to know I need accountability to like get the thing I want to get done. Yeah.

After I filmed my Netflix show, I filmed two seasons, I was on set and I was like, "I think I want to do this. I think I want to do this." As in, I think I want to make a show and I think I want to learn more about storytelling and just infuse what I love about language learning and self-development and exploration and how to use language not as a tool to just be smart and say you speak a bunch of languages, but as a tool to deeply understand humanity in a way that you couldn't if you didn't speak this language.

So once I had this idea, I signed up for this grad program.

And my final project that I assigned myself is to create a docuseries using language as the vehicle to tell the stories. And so what you watched is the first draft of the pilot. And I was knee deep in this footage. I'm editing everything myself. I put it off for three years. I shot this footage three years ago. I didn't even open the files to the point where when I imported the files in my timeline, I realized that they filmed it in a different frame rate. And I had to like...

Three years later, I know I fixed it in the end. But as I'm combing through and as I'm putting it together, Nick, I was struggling and I was having major imposter syndrome.

And same thing. Then I was talked off the ledge by my lovely partner who was like, you are going to make something great. And then I started thinking like, why am I so critical of this moment right now? I've edited challenging things before. I know I can do it. And then it occurred to me, you only feel that bad when you really want this to be good. Yes. Oh, yeah. And that contributes to that dark doubt.

Because you want it to be so good. That makes so much sense. And I have to say from watching the cut of your pilot, so it's translated and it works like this. So after this really cool introduction, you go something to the effect of,

Because some things have to be lived to be translated. Oh my goodness. And I just got goosebumps at which I'm getting now. And I, and I, I was like, oh my gosh, that is the spine. It's so hard to find the spine, you know, like just searching for what is like the core of this piece. And I was like, it is so clear. It's right there. It's compelling. I'm interested. And I was like, yeah, so you, you had me hooked.

and then going across Greece and seeing how you're communicating with some of the locals there. And it was just this really fun mixture of really intimate human conversations with words coming on screen that I'm like, that's cool. I wanna know that. Yes, there are annoying people in LA too that have loud cars. And it's like, there's a term for it in Greece. What was that? Yeah, Kaguras. So funny. Yeah, it just was so relatable.

And yeah, so you just sucked me in. And so you're obviously a natural storyteller. You've already been on Netflix with your own show. So it's really cool to see. And last thing I'll say here is though, hats off to you for taking something from three years ago. Like it's so hard to pick up an old project like that. It's terrible. There's like so many mind games, there's psychological whatever's and it's like dusting all this stuff off. Yeah.

You're at a different point wherever you are now versus where you were then. And for you to get it going like this, it's quite remarkable. - Well, it's funny. I was actually speaking to somebody at the summit about this idea of like, when you have a passion, it doesn't just go away. It doesn't go away. Like if you have an idea, it literally won't go away unless it's not supposed to be your idea. If it's a real, truly connected and aligned idea. I've had this idea since 2012.

And I pitched this idea to the one and only film school that I took in undergrad. I studied business, but I took one creative class and it was film one. And the teacher told us to pitch two concepts for our final project for that semester. And I pitched, hey, I want to make an episode or a video about me telling a story in five languages. And he said, no one cares. The teacher looked at me dead in the face and said, no one cares. He was also one of those artsy fartsy teachers that thought he was so cool. Yeah.

Because he had like one feature in paper magazine in the 70s. And it came up in every class, I'm sure. In my feature. Yeah. I don't know if you are aware, but I have a feature. Every single class. And so he told me to pursue the travel show concept that I pitched instead, which then actually was the next decade of my life. I did this pilot for the film school with a business partner. And then we started this YouTube journey that initially was just to pitch movies.

It was like, I want to just prove that we have chemistry because I want to pitch a young travel show.

And when many executives said no, and this is with me cold emailing and getting on the call and getting the meetings and flying to LA, I was like, you know what? Screw it. We're not going to wait for somebody to give us permission. We're going to do this ourselves and put it on YouTube. And that was a big pivot in like the thinking and- And radical at the time. Radical because it was 2012. Yeah. That is so radical. Like today everyone wants to do the YouTube thing, but yeah, that's, so that's-

So bold and brave and like thinking outside the box and working really hard to make something out of nothing because you I mean that I

That's 12 years ago. Yeah. But like talking about linking thoughts, what was always so challenging in my career, and it still kind of is, but it's a beautiful challenge that I love so much. This is not a challenge we ever solve because it just keeps getting more and more complex. But what has always been challenging is that I had this weird disparate set of skills and passions. Here I am.

I'm bubbly, sort of. Like after I kind of started coming out of my shell, people were recognizing like, oh, you're bubbly, like you're fun and light. I love languages.

And I am obsessed with entrepreneurship. In high school, I started this school store and I did blood drives and they won awards and I did a fashion show. And I was like, how cool is it to start literally nothing and turn it into something and that something generates revenue that then can fly us to a leadership conference and you keep building and building. So I had these three angles of fun, personality, language learning, and business. When I went to university, I studied business, international business,

And it was so clear to me that if I were looking for a job or an internship that checked all those boxes, I would never find it.

And so I did seven internships because I was shopping. I was like, okay, is it going to be media? And I did ad sales and I liked it, didn't love it. Is it video editing? Liked it, didn't love it. Is it new business in an ad agency? Liked that a little bit more than other things, but didn't love it because everything wasn't giving me everything. It was like, okay. One of those parts just wasn't checked off at least. At least one, but most likely it was two or more. And so by the time I graduated university,

I'd kind of like known exactly what I didn't like, but I didn't know what it was. And so a lot of my process was in journaling and writing and connecting the dots. I have all of these papers by the way, and it's so cool to look back and be like, oh, that was the moment that I wanted to grow a community. Oh, that was the moment that I realized I wanted to talk about more intellectual facing things as opposed to just being fun and entertaining. And I have all of that paper trail in it and like basically receipts

Because it helped me process because no one was giving me an answer. Because when you're living in a lined path, usually there is no example that you can easily copy. You have to customize it. You have to. And that's, I think our communities have a lot of individuals who are kind of very similar that way, where we have many interests.

We don't fit something so neatly like we can, we can make it happen there, but there is something missing. And so we're searching, we're seeking out what, what, how can all my interests align in a certain way? Very similar for me because, you know, right before doing linking or thinking, I was doing a picture editing and TV and it was amazing. I loved the learning. I loved the creative process of making something, all the ingredients coming in the kitchen and,

Um, from the film, like everyone filmed footage. We have it now. Let's tell the story for the third time, as you know. Yeah. The editor really has the final cut. You write it, you direct it, and then you edit it three times to make it, but it wasn't scratching certain itches. The, the, I guess the nerdier part, like the self-reflection, the, um,

what matters in life, what are my values, my virtues, am I going in the right direction? All these big existential, like kind of inner questions. It was, well, with the entertainment industry in general, it can be lacking. Yeah. It's just a little bit on the surface. Well, I think anybody who's following a path that's kind of like, that's, that's aligned out or like it's a career path that you kind of see the trajectory. Some people are very lucky and they get in the right career path and they, they thrive. Yeah.

But many of us either never really find it right off the bat or we fall out of love with something. And that's when you have to ask yourself the question of what do I do about this? And many people want to do many things. Just the other day, I was talking to a woman who, as I told her, I was like, yeah, I had my footage for three years on a hard drive and I decided I was tired of feeling like crap. So I was going to take it out and film and edit and film some more to patch up the fact that it's three years old.

And she was like, I've wanted to do voiceover acting for 10 years. It's going on 11. I'm like, okay, so what is more painful? You know, the idea that you put it out there and it quote unquote sucks or this nagging feeling that if you've had for 10 years, odds are it's going to be there for another 10 years if you don't take action.

The nagging feeling. That nagging feeling. Yeah. Yeah. And so I feel that you've discovered something with your ability to journal and not just journal. That sounds like, okay, anyone just opens up a book and they record thoughts, but you've kind of made it in like, not just an art form because that doesn't, I think,

touch on the rawness of what everyone who's done it so far has been telling me with the prompts and like, oh my gosh, I mean, I heard something, I can't say who was from or something, but one of your exercises recently there, you know, you take a picture. Yeah. Okay. So just generally speaking to set the scene and then you fill in all the gaps. But the idea was take a picture of yourself and

the person said, or the person was smiling. And then what was the prompt? - The prompt was like, just take a selfie. Part one is take a selfie. And then part two was write what you cannot see in this picture. And when you get asked these simple but effective prompts, it goes to show that there's so much going on inside of our minds that we cannot see. And that's why journaling is so important and it's so powerful.

Just today I was in a live one-on-one call with my facilitator was leading it, but I was there to support her. And we were going through like the basics of journaling and why it matters and why it's not just journaling to say like, dear diary, today was a rough day.

And somebody said like, what's the point? Is it just to like journal? And I'm like, no, it is not just about journaling. There are so many reasons why this is like the way I explained to them. I'm like, you don't just go from being this like broke kid with a cleaning lady mom and

to like going on Netflix and hosting a show and then having a company, this is my second company, to traveling the world. Like that doesn't just happen. You don't just like fall into that. That's not something that happens. And especially when every person that I was speaking to was like, go be a translator in the EU, be an ambassador, which would be awesome, but like it's not me. So it wasn't easy to find my exact path, like the intersection of all of these things that I love.

And the only way I was able to chisel away at this like marble to create what is now a little bit more visible, but I'm so excited to see the clarity that comes in the next decade was through editing, writing, editing, writing. And when I say editing, I mean, I'm writing a lot and I'm writing various kinds of things. I'm writing free flow, like stream of consciousness. I'm writing with prompts, um,

And the most important thing is to reread it and kind of like separate yourself from what was written as in look at this writing as if you're somebody else. And this gives you tremendous compassion because if you look at your writing as though you're observing it, like you're just studying mankind, you can start picking up these patterns and highlighting things.

these either negative things that you're talking about or positive things and you can start clicking in to be like, huh, that's funny. All of my favorite moments are when I'm near my family. So maybe even though I want to travel, living abroad is not the right thing for me because actually family is a bigger value than I thought. And this was the cycle that I was in for, I mean, I've been journaling now for 17 years, but it was definitely the best compass that I could use on this wild entrepreneurship path that I've been on for 12 years.

Because it was the one thing that was true and it would bring me back home to the truth of what I really wanted. So I would take aligned action as opposed to just doing the thing that looked shiny. The one thing that was true, a North Star, if you're in the Northern Hemisphere, a compass, you said. Yeah. Chiseling away the marble. Chiseling away the marble. And yeah, that's the power of...

and hearing how you express it is really important because I think there are a lot of conceptions that it's, I don't know, something that's-- - Frivolous, that it's like silly. A lot of people, especially in the productivity space, say, "I like taking action. "Like, I wanna take action." And listen, I get done. Like, I really work a lot. Like, if you look at my to-do list, it's crazy. I'm like, "Wow, I cannot believe "this is three months worth of stuff."

And yet there's always time. Like I really find the time. And again, because it's not like the separate thing. It's not like journaling is this bonus. Journaling is at the core of what I look at to make better decisions. Like this is my canvas. This is like my workshop.

Without that, you're just blindly going into things without checking in to seeing how you're feeling about things. Yeah, absolutely. And just to circle back quickly to the aha moment from your one simple prompt was smiling picture. Person took a smiling picture. And then when you asked the question, what was the question again? What can you write about that you cannot see in this photo? I am depressed.

That's what the person told me. And that started an introspection of, well, why taking back to, you know, maybe I have some not big T traumas, but like little T traumas and starting a process. And that process is like the most invaluable thing.

in life because you can work hard, you can get shit done. But if the bad analogy, it's the wrong ladder, you know, like why, why work so hard and be misaligned with things that could actually be more of who you are and keep you more in that alignment. It's the awareness. Yeah. It's the awareness. It's ironic. You could smile in a picture, but you're sad deep down and you have to ask yourself why.

And many of us don't take time to ask ourselves anything and even to each other.

Like when people say, hey, how are you? Like who's actually listening to the response? And that is what I'm trying to stop. I don't want that to happen anymore. I think what we're getting at a lot is that no matter where you are in life, you might have some nagging questions and you can keep working hard. You can go the whole toxic productivity angle and just, I know how to solve this problem because I'm a hammer and to hammer everything's a nail. But at some point you want to reflect and like,

have a more fulfilling life and you have an inkling of an idea that the solution is something to do with reflection, awareness, journaling. - Okay, so I have always loved writing and I didn't even think what I was doing was interesting or special. The first journal that I ever got was my sister telling me that I needed to journal about the boys that I liked because she was annoyed.

It was a black page journal. I had gel, you know, metallic gel, ink, whatever, the gel pens. And she did me the best favor she could have done as a big sister because she was right. I had a lot on my mind. And when I was in my early stages, like, you know, that awkward preteen stage, I started realizing that I wanted to workshop my thoughts before I expressed them out loud because I would hear myself saying a lot of things that I didn't really mean.

And more importantly, I would observe other people saying a lot of things that were like not very nice or like not very positive or just not good to hear. And then I was like, that's kind of not what I want to be. And so let me workshop my thoughts before I say them out loud. And as I started journaling and rereading, rereading was always a practice because I had this innate curiosity to go back and be like, what was me one month ago? I want to put a spotlight just on rereading because I think...

I think it's so important and we can just put stuff out there. And that's good enough, yes. But there seems to be something really important about the going back to it. I feel like sometimes it's scary for me to go back to old writing. It's almost like I don't want to look at it. I'm not sure if you have people like that. Yes, yes. I see that a lot and I hear that a lot of people being either afraid to even put ink on page because they're so afraid of what the pen is going to reveal. And to that I say...

it's probably scarier not to let those thoughts out because they will ruminate inside of your head, heart and body. There's scientific research that says that journaling improves immunity, improves long-term health, memory, all of these insane things. If I were to talk to somebody that's like hardcore productivity and they're challenging me on why journaling is important, I would say, listen, this just entered the stage as far as like the mindfulness and wellness suite of things.

yoga, meditation, breathwork. I really think journaling is like the new kid on the block. To me, it's not new, obviously. But every other week, there's a new scientific paper of people doing research on severe depression symptoms being significantly reduced through 15 minutes of journaling every day. So when I think about this fear of writing, what I have experienced personally, what I've seen in the hundreds and thousands of people that I've journaled with in my

in Joe Club. When you write things down, it might be scary at first, but you are immediately putting a barrier between that

thought and yourself. And when you look at it through this observational lens of curiosity, and you have to kind of switch your mind. So I always make a joke like, look at your journal like your name is Phyllis from Chicago. You just found a journal on a plane, read it. Like really change your perspective as much as possible and read it with compassion and just be aware that this person is in a journey. This is a process. They're not supposed to be perfect. They're going to have terrible days. They're going to say things that they don't mean and that's okay.

So that's like the kind of intro to that rereading portion of it. From my experience, when I started rereading, I actually wasn't happy with what I was reading. I really wasn't happy. I would read page after page of wasted ink. It felt like literally wasted ink on dumb kids in school and boys that didn't like me back and like all of this stuff that I was like, this is so silly. I didn't write about the things that I do want to remember now.

And then I started carving that into the writing. And I was like, instead of just focusing on the negative, what I want to reread is the positive. So I started journaling actually with a more positive lens because I knew in a month's time or in a year's time or in 10 years time,

when older Joe rereads this past entry, she will be so happy to know that I focused on the coffee that I had with my mom and she told me this family story I didn't know. - Yes, yes. And I have to dig in more into this because that's a great question, especially for everyone who might be listening is, how do I start? What should I journal about? Because oftentimes it's like, yeah,

was a little dehydrated. Yeah, too much coffee. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Stuff like that. And then, and to your point, and I think there's this really amazing person. I think you know her too. Her name is Anne-Laure LeCompte. You know, I love that girl. She's amazing. And so her book that's coming out, Tiny Experiments,

So, you know, I will do this action for this duration. So what I what I notice and what you're saying is you did this action, you were journaling and for a duration of time where you observed, you didn't like all the negative. You didn't like the direction focusing on these other things. OK, so that takes us to what you're just saying. You changed it to focus on.

your written word, your thoughts on memories. On positive memories. Positive memories. And therefore, I was able to actually observe more positive things. Because when you live your life as a journaler, you are keenly more observant because you know you're going to write about it later. So I think it also builds this relationship with like in real time life, when you're a writer or a documentarian, you observe the world with this lens of like,

This is a beautiful story. When I noticed that I was only focusing on the bad stuff,

I didn't like that. So then when I wanted to focus on the good stuff because I wanted to entertain my future self with better writing, it made me literally live a better life because I was only looking for the good stuff because I only wanted to remember the details of the good stuff because I knew that in the long term, that's what I would want to remember. A couple of things going on there. One is it's like this feedback loop where you're building a sense of repetition around your intentionality by those positive things where it becomes...

screaming at you over time like this is my direction I must go in this is my direction and the other thing that I think is fascinating is just the idea of you know time travel yeah it's like alright message to future Joe totally and then you know future Joe is like thank you past Joe absolutely thank you for recording this yes for being vulnerable at the time

I'm in debt to what you wrote back then. - And not just to what I wrote, but to the actions that I took based on the observation of what I wasn't liking anymore. So sometimes when I'm in a crisis or like in a conundrum of thought, I actually just pull off a journal from my shelf and I open to a random page and I swear I always find exactly what I need to read.

And I'm like, dang, younger Joe. It's so crazy. So all of this to say that this practice, it's also a practice. This isn't something that you do once and you're like completely over it. It's a practice. It's like a catalog of your life. If people are listening and they want to get started and they feel like it's overwhelming, all you need to do truly is like five to 15 minutes a day.

Even like three to five minutes, there are so many different methods. We train people how to journal and kind of teach this. And you do that in Joe Club, which is an online community. And a company. Okay, and a company. That I launched in 2020. So in 2020, I was filming a Netflix show. It started in January. I was hosting the world's most amazing vacation rentals. Nothing happened that year? No.

Nothing happened that year. We don't remember what happened. But basically three months after I started filming the show, the whole world shut down. And I had stopped this YouTube channel that I initially started my journey on, which had over a million subscribers. I stopped that channel to do the Netflix show. I did this Netflix show that I had only started scratching the surface of. I was contracted for two seasons and we were like not even in the middle of the first. The world shut down indefinitely. And this is when I start posting photos of my personal journal entries and

I had journaled this entire 12 years where I was like publicly kind of sharing my life. I had never told people about journaling. But even when I look back at my pictures of like 2015 and my travels, I'm always with a journal.

And it was just always a part of me, but this was the first time I was sharing it. And what happened? The most aligned thing, obviously, you know, the thing that you don't expect to happen. A bunch of strangers on the internet wanted to journal with me and I did a 90 day free journaling challenge where every morning I would ask them a prompt, a super deep question because some people don't know what to write about. So I'm like, you know what? Let me like guide our train of thought.

And the questions range from all different themes of like, what do you define power to be? When do you feel the most empowered to like, how do you perceive yourself? How do you think others perceive you? And these prompts that really zoomed you in and out of your being. And by day 70, people were messaging me saying that they were so happy doing this journaling that they had helped. It had helped them so much. And I'm like, what would happen if I put us in a Zoom room and did this in real time?

And so then I launched my company, which was again, a happy accident that now is the most beautiful thing I could not even imagine. Like little Joe could not imagine this. And it's funny, I keep talking about little Joe, big Joe, and now the current Joe, because when I was younger, I would talk about how much I loved writing and curiosity and conversations and connecting to people of all ages and just loving these stories as I was writing this in my journals.

And now I have this big, beautiful global journaling company. And we do retreats as well because we, after COVID stopped, we're like, take it in person. And that's crazy. I mean, was there ever a place to go before where people could go with their notebooks and just journal? No, no. And even the journal club was a thing that no one had ever done. Like people think of book clubs. Yeah.

But there are no journal clubs until now. Now they're popping up. But I started before there was an example. So I literally made it up. And now our live journaling format is like super tight because every session we improve. And with the retreat, same thing happened. I was like, which strangers come to the middle of nowhere down a dirt road in like Croatia and meet me? And they did.

And people had gone to Tony Robbins training program and they were like, Joe, this is like that on steroids. I'm like, what? Oh my goodness. So now we host these global retreats. I bet you it is. I just have to interrupt because while you get the raw, raw, the energy the same, but there's going to be something more intimate, something more raw, connected with the type of retreat that you're doing. Yeah, yeah. So the transformative retreat is like the flagship retreat that now I can say is like

also dialed in. Everything I do is a great experiment and I'm very hands-on. So when I decided I wanted to do retreats, I wanted to actually find the property, connect with the hosts, organize the itinerary and curate this experience where I'm taking people out of their regular environments. Something else I need to add

my traveling in my seven years, especially in the beginning of entrepreneurship, they were tremendous to helping me think in different ways because environment is so important to help you change how you think. So when people come to the retreat, what I'm really curating is this like,

very, very different environment that innately will make you think about different things that coupled with the intentional journaling, with the exercises and prompts and all of the things that we do. And even like not journaling, like we always do an offsite day. I'm hosting a retreat in Italy. We're making pasta because you need implementation time, right? Like it's not just about sitting there and thinking about your thinking or thinking about your thoughts and

It's like thinking, taking action, thinking again, taking action. And that's the relationship. And the environment, the switch. I mean, that's where the magic happens.

So much magic happens with in person that way. I mean, us being in person now coming off the back end of the second brain summit and the sparks were flying. There just is nothing can replicate that digitally. When you're like hunched over a chair, like looking through the screen. Hey, that's way better than not having it, but doesn't compete, doesn't compare with.

with in-person and the transformational. - I do have to say, yes, it's true that in-person is better, but you gotta come to a joke club session because the vibes in the joke club sessions are so different than anything that I've ever experienced. I was just at a session this morning and I'm like, how is this the company that I created? Like, how does this happen? And it's people from all walks of life.

Such good energy and they're saying like wow I never knew that a space like this existed and it's really because of the intentionality of the prompts and the journey of thought You know how I can explain it It's like you know how when you're editing or storytelling in general you have the setup and the inciting moment and then like the the Climax the tension and then like the reflection that's what we do but we do that through asking the questions that will have the journalers themselves script out

their journeys so every single session will have this like beginning a middle and an end and in between are breakout rooms and and also moments of connection and when you experience your thoughts and somebody else's thoughts to the same prompt it makes you zoom out it's like a multi-cam kind of experience it's so cool you gotta come to a session i love it and just got me thinking it's like oh how to make a live session like the hero's journey and like tell stories and

Oh my goodness. And we're going to be out of time soon. I feel like we just barely scratched the surface, but before we wrap a few things up, I'm very curious for myself for one, sign me up. I'm going to make it to Joe club, zoom session or whatever the digital platform is. Sign me up. We're definitely, you know, my community will definitely be hearing more from you. I know for sure, generally speaking. And for myself, like how can I get started? If you know, is there a specific prompt that,

that you have in mind just so I can get a quick win and then, you know, like how can I get this thing going? Okay, so first of all, Journal 101 workshops happen every other month and or we have like a starter kit that you can get. I can give you the link. Okay. Because the way that we kind of show journaling is that it's not one size fits all. This is not something that I can give you that works for you. Like I can give you the whole menu and then tell you like this is what this is good for, this is what that's good for.

Some people really like journaling with prompts. Some people really like journaling with visuals, so we do art journaling. Some people really like journaling with music, so we do BYOS, bring your own song. So you extract a lyric and you make a question out of that lyric. Some people really like journaling with photos, so we have photo journaling. Anything that you experience in your life that you want to remember, here's a great way to start. Make a list of things that you want to remember.

So that's all that you need to do if you don't have any time for anything else. Literally write on top of the page, list of things I want to remember, and then please date your page and write where you are because the more context you have, the better it'll be when you reread it.

and make a list of everything that you want to remember. Because when you look at it through that lens, you're going to be capturing the funny moments, the beautiful things that you saw. It can be about your physical space, about the connections. It doesn't need to be about any one thing, but you know that you want to remember these things. And so they're innately beautiful and valuable to you. I think that's a wonderful way to have a...

a clear action that we can take to kind of propel us into this amazing direction before we wrap up though is there anything else that you're just feeling like you just want to definitely say i feel like journaling and introspection in general is something anyone can benefit from i think you need to find the flavor that works for you in your life

I don't believe that it needs to be this thing that you spend hours and hours doing to get the benefits of. I really don't. But I think that if we ask ourselves these deep questions, we will innately become not only closer to ourselves, but live a more aligned life. Because when you see an answer to a question,

And you realize that it's completely different than the action that you're taking. It means a lot. And then it's up to you. And then it becomes a matter of scheduling. Then it becomes clear. If we're talking about productivity versus like, dear diary, it's not this or that. It's connected. You start with understanding the patterns of thinking and what is valuable to you.

And then you cross-reference, am I taking action that makes sense with this? And if not, what can I put on my calendar to start making actions happen that are connected to this truth that I've just become aware of? - You said something earlier and just to kind of wrap up, thank you for that so much. To wrap up the thoughts, you mentioned kind of like the upcoming trends.

you know, breath work being one of those trends. But I think you have me really hyped about journaling. And here I am, I take a lot of notes. I connect a lot of ideas. I, you know, I communicate a lot of things, but I really feel something that I need is more of this skill, the skill, the joy around journaling. And I just, I'm like, wow, there's this whole world, this whole frontier that you've opened up for me.

You know, another really cool thing is journaling with friends because you think you know someone until you journal with them. And that's what we're going to do. I'm going to coordinate a little like journaling with friends online session because it's so hard for all, you know, crazy people to meet in person. I love it. I love it so much. And I just want to say this has been freaking phenomenal that we carved out a little moment to have a connection and just get to know even more about you, Joe. You're an amazing person. You're inspiring so many and that number is just going to continue to grow and we're

and we're all better for it. So thank you so much. Thank you. I am so happy to know you. Isn't it crazy to think this is only the beginning? It is. It is. Thanks for tuning into this episode of How I Think. We'll be sure to add all the links and resources we mentioned in the video description or show notes, depending on the platform you're watching or listening from. And if you're curious for more, then feel free to check out another episode. I'll see you there.