BiggerPockets Money Podcast

495: The Digital Nomad’s Guide to High-Income Skills and Making Money Online

Jan 23, 2024

Jo Franco, entrepreneur, YouTuber, and digital nomad, shares her journey of developing high-income skills through internships, leading to multiple successful online businesses. She emphasizes the value of unpaid internships, reducing expenses, and money management tips for entrepreneurs. Jo also discusses the impact of living a frugal life as an immigrant and the transformative power of work experience leading to financial independence. Additionally, she highlights the importance of curiosity, initiative, persistence, and building wealth through opportunistic business.

55:59

Episode guests

Jo Franco

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Leveraging any situation to learn new skills for free is crucial in becoming a successful entrepreneur and digital nomad.

Growing up as an undocumented immigrant, Joe Franco's early lessons in frugality and the power of saving shaped her money story.

Embracing uniqueness, challenging societal expectations, and taking risks are key factors in achieving success as an entrepreneur and content creator.

Deep dives

The Power of Leveraging Any Situation to Learn New Skills

Joe Franco, a traveling language learning entrepreneur, emphasizes the importance of leveraging any situation to learn new skills for free. She shares how she designed her career to fit her calling and not the other way around, and how she used her experiences as an undocumented immigrant and her love for languages to shape her path. By leveraging her resources and skills, Joe shows that anyone can build a life that is personalized and unique, without resorting to traditional paths of wealth building and gaining freedom.

Introduction

4min

The Impact of Living a Frugal Life as an Immigrant and Its Influence on Relationship with Money

3min

The Transformative Power of Work Experience and Financial Independence

5min

From High School to Success: Curiosity and Initiative

12min

Persistence and Challenges: Cold Pitching a Travel Show Idea

6min

Building Wealth Through Opportunistic Business

26min

Cash Needs, Entrepreneurship, and Bigger Pockets Sponsor Ad

3min

Learning high-income skills can help you make money online—and a LOT of it! Just ask today’s guest, who worked not one but SEVEN internships to develop professional skills that would help her launch several successful online businesses down the road!

Welcome back to the BiggerPockets Money podcast! Jo Franco is an entrepreneur, YouTuber, podcast host, and digital nomad with multiple income streams. Born to undocumented immigrants, Jo didn’t have much growing up other than her family and a chance to pursue the American Dream, but what she lacked in money and resources, she made up for in pure work ethic. Throughout her teens and twenties, Jo worked all kinds of jobs, side hustles, gigs, and internships that allowed her to save money and even travel the world for FREE.

Since then, Jo has had her own Netflix show, built a successful YouTube channel, and launched her own journaling company. In this episode, she shares exactly how she made all of this happen, the keys to her success, and important money management tips for entrepreneurs. She also talks about the biggest mistake she has made in her career to date: hiring the wrong people!

In This Episode We Cover

The high-income skills you NEED to become a successful entrepreneur

How to become a digital nomad (and travel the world for FREE)

Reducing your financial risk by keeping your expenses down

The true value of unpaid internships (and how to make the most of them!)

Crucial money management tips for all entrepreneurs

How to save money WITHOUT the consistency of a W2 paycheck

How to get the highest return on your investment in people

And So Much More!

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