Born in Los Angeles and raised in Bakersfield California, Joanna Lopez has embarked on an entrepreneurial journey with the mission of helping to bring financial literacy to the masses. She has started her own business focused on educating, enriching and empowering the lives of those who are looking for a new way to achieve their goals and ultimately financial and time freedom. Today Joanna is here with us to share her story of turning adversities into advantages as she traverses the entrepreneurial world.
Joanna, let’s start at the beginning of your journey. What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?
What inspired me is my desire to be able to rely on just myself. Growing up I worked at multiple jobs and I saw my parents working so hard. Within this business I’ve realized that a nine to five job is not going to retire my parents or give me the life that I want for myself. I’ve always wanted a business that can represent who I am. I didn’t want to work for other people. I wanted to have something for myself and my family.
That is a very inspirational way of thinking. With the business you’ve created today, what is the concept?
I’m part of a network marketing platform where I’ve been able to create my own business focused on helping people to learn the skill set of trading in the financial markets by providing live market analyses and trade ideas. Ultimately, we’re giving people the opportunity to really learn a skill set where you can’t get fired. Once you learn a strategy or a skill it’s with you for a lifetime, it’s something that can’t be taken away from you. With a job you don’t have that same amount of freedom to utilize your skills as you see fit.
How does your business help people?
We’re helping people to create an additional source of income. I work with a lot of different families and what they really want to achieve is more flexibility and freedom with their time to spend more hours with their kids and their family and through this business we’re helping people achieve that. This opportunity gives them the chance to still make money wherever they are, no matter what type of background you have, any type of record that you have – it’s a second chance for some and the first time they’ve been able to take real control over their time and finances. In addition, trading cryptocurrency is the way of the future and having the resources to learn to invest responsibly and successfully is very valuable especially in helping to achieve generational wealth.
That is amazing that you’re so dedicated to bringing a new skill set to people who can really benefit from it. What are some of your goals that you have for yourself personally, and for your business?
After realizing from the 9-5 job I was at previously that I was waking up and going to work everyday to fulfill someone else’s dreams instead of my own. After starting my business I’ve been able to pursue and fulfill my own purpose. So some of my goals are to help everyone on my team achieve this same level of fulfillment within themselves. Something that I stand for is educating, empowering, and enriching individuals. Education is something that can take you so far. It’s like your passport to freedom so my goal for my business is to educate as many people as possible on this skillset so they become empowered to enrich their lives in their own way.
Through this business I want to help break every generational curse that my family is connected to, and not just within my family, but for people that are connected to me and families that are connected to me, all around the world. I want to be able to leave a mark on this Earth by taking everything that I’ve learned, all the life experiences I’ve gained and knowledge that I’ve obtained from building my business, and use that to leave a legacy by positioning people to create the life they desire, not just now but in generations to come.
Those are some very ambitious goals that I’m sure you will achieve very soon. Starting a business must have been difficult. Tell us what kind of adversities did you face growing up and growing your business?
Growing up my mom was a single parent raising three girls and my dad has also experienced a lot of struggles of his own. Seeing these things has brought out a side of me that I could never even imagine, a hunger and a desire that I can’t even describe. It’s like, I need this for my family, you know? I need to end their struggles and break those generational curses. With everything that’s going around the world you start to feel like life is not fair. I’ve always had to be independent. My dad hasn’t had an easy life he has been through many obstacles that has taught me to never give up.You need to have discipline to get where you want in life. From my mom, something that she’s taught me is to be self-sufficient. Never rely on anyone except yourself to get where you want to go. Both of my parents have worked so hard to give us the best life they possibly could.
From my aunt who I live with now, I’ve learned to trust in God and walk in faith. That is what kept me the person I am today and kept me going, just having that faith and making sure that no matter what I never give up. I’ve taken care of my family and been independent to put food on the table for my younger siblings and I’ve always known that soon I would put all of us in a better situation than we’re in. I’ve always said that I love my parents to death and I want to put them in better positions. God put me in this family for a reason and I understand that now.
Thank you for sharing your story with us Joanna. In closing, please share your best pieces of advice for an aspiring entrepreneur.
- Believe in yourself – whether you think you can or can’t, you’re right. Believe that you can and you’ll see opportunities. Believe that you can’t and you’ll see obstacles. If you don’t believe in yourself, who’s going to believe in you?
- Trust in a higher power. Trusting and believing that God is guiding you on the right path will help you to believe in yourself. On your entrepreneurial journey there will be people who will tell you can’t do it but staying rooted in your faith will show you that there’s nothing that you can’t do.
- Surround yourself with people with the same goals as yourself. Find mentors and peers who are striving to achieve the same things you are. Follow the people who have the success that you want.
- Learn from your mistakes and don’t let the fear of making a mistake stop you from moving forward. Entrepreneurs make plenty of mistakes. As an entrepreneur you’re learning as you go. Making mistakes is your best teacher and when you learn a mistake, you just move closer to your success. I know overcoming fear isn’t easy, but it must be done.