How to Build Wealth by Founding Companies and Angel Investing with Jaclyn Johnson

Summary

Money Rehab Podcast Summary: "How to Build Wealth by Founding Companies and Angel Investing with Jacqueline Johnson"

Episode Details:

• Podcast: Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
• Host: Money News Network (Guest Host: Tracy D'Annunzio)
• Guest: Jacqueline Johnson, Founder of Create and Cultivate and Angel Investor
• Release Date: December 6, 2024

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Introduction

In this insightful episode of Money Rehab, guest host Tracy D'Annunzio engages in a compelling conversation with Jacqueline Johnson, a seasoned entrepreneur and angel investor. The discussion navigates Jacqueline's entrepreneurial journey, her strategic decisions in building and selling her company, and her ventures into angel investing. Additionally, Jacqueline shares personal experiences balancing financial success with personal life challenges, offering listeners a holistic view of wealth creation and management.

Entrepreneurial Journey and Create and Cultivate

Jacqueline Johnson begins by recounting the origins of her first company, a marketing events and influencer agency. After relocating from New York to Los Angeles in 2009 and facing a layoff, she transitioned to freelancing, which organically evolved into Create and Cultivate in 2011 ([04:30]).

Jacqueline Johnson [05:05]: "I realized like, oh, this is something that has real opportunity to sell."

Create and Cultivate quickly grew from a modest gathering of 25 women into the largest media and events company for ambitious women. By 2015, Jacqueline had brought on a partner and significantly invested in the company, marking a pivotal turn in its expansion ([07:05]).

Strategic Sale and Private Equity Experience

In 2018, Jacqueline faced the challenging process of selling Create and Cultivate. She navigated through multiple Letters of Intent (LOIs), experiencing both excitement and emotional turmoil when deals fell through due to market shifts ([13:05]).

Jacqueline Johnson [13:22]: "Selling a company is not easy. It is so challenging. There are so many ups and downs."

Ultimately, the company was acquired by a private equity firm during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jacqueline highlights how the economic climate played a crucial role in the sale, emphasizing the resilience and adaptability required to manage such transitions.

Angel Investing and Launching Cherub

Post-acquisition, Jacqueline delves into angel investing, describing it as a high-risk, high-reward strategy essential for diversifying one's investment portfolio. She founded Cherub, a platform designed to bridge the gap between angel investors and entrepreneurs using a matchmaking approach reminiscent of dating apps ([42:02]).

Jacqueline Johnson [44:38]: "Cherub is really democratizing the angel investing process, making it smooth and easy."

Through Cherub, Jacqueline has facilitated over $2 million in investments, focusing primarily on female-led startups. She shares success stories, including a $10,000 investment that yielded seven figures, underscoring the transformative potential of strategic angel investments ([43:27]).

Personal Wealth Management and Diversification

Jacqueline emphasizes the importance of diversification in wealth management. By maintaining a majority stake in Create and Cultivate and investing in real estate and angel investments, she ensures a balanced and resilient financial portfolio.

Jacqueline Johnson [50:37]: "Diversification is the spice of life. Always be diversified in your environment, investments... some risky, some less risky."

Her approach underscores the critical balance between reinvesting in her business and securing personal financial growth through varied investment avenues.

Balancing Personal Life with Financial Success

Beyond her professional achievements, Jacqueline candidly discusses the personal challenges that accompany financial success. She addresses the complexities of dating post-divorce while maintaining independence and the societal pressures women face regarding aesthetic standards.

Jacqueline Johnson [32:21]: "There's a lot of insecurity about successful women."

Jacqueline highlights the importance of building and maintaining genuine friendships, stressing that her longstanding relationships have been a cornerstone of her personal well-being amidst her career pursuits.

Future Directions and Legacy Building

Looking ahead, Jacqueline introduces her new initiative, "Launch to Legacy," aimed at guiding women through not just starting and growing businesses but also planning exits and building enduring legacies. This includes intimate masterminds and retreats tailored for high-revenue founders, fostering peer support and strategic growth ([29:00]).

Jacqueline Johnson [29:00]: "Our new philosophy is around launch to legacy, taking it through masterminds and retreats where founders can support and learn from each other."

This evolution reflects her commitment to empowering women entrepreneurs at every stage of their business journey.

Key Takeaways and Advice

Jacqueline's overarching advice centers on the importance of diversification, both in investments and personal environments. She encourages entrepreneurs to prioritize their personal wealth alongside business growth and underscores the value of mentorship and community support.

Jacqueline Johnson [50:37]: "Diversification is the spice of life."

Her experiences demonstrate the critical balance between taking calculated risks in investing and maintaining financial security through varied income streams.

Notable Quotes

• On Selling a Business:
  "Selling a company is not easy. It is so challenging. There are so many ups and downs."
  — Jacqueline Johnson [13:22]

• On Diversification:
  "Diversification is the spice of life. Always be diversified in your environment, investments... some risky, some less risky."
  — Jacqueline Johnson [50:37]

• On Personal Relationships and Success:
  "There's a lot of insecurity about successful women."
  — Jacqueline Johnson [32:21]

Conclusion

Jacqueline Johnson's narrative offers a profound exploration of wealth creation through entrepreneurship and angel investing, intertwined with personal resilience and strategic financial management. Her journey underscores the multifaceted nature of building and sustaining wealth, providing listeners with actionable insights and inspiring stories of success and adaptability. Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur or an established business owner, Jacqueline's experiences offer valuable lessons in navigating the complexities of building and maintaining financial prosperity.

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Note: This summary intentionally omits promotional segments and non-content sections from the podcast, focusing solely on the substantive discussions between Tracy D'Annunzio and Jacqueline Johnson.

Transcript

[Nicole Lapin]

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[Tracy D'Annunzio]

We've all heard of Boomerang employees, but have you heard of Boomerang founders? Hi, it's Tracy D'Annunzio. I'm an entrepreneur and investor and I've been your Money Rehab guest host this week while Nicole is on maternity leave. If you've been tuning in, you heard my episode with Nicole as well as a two parter with Tim Ferriss, the Oprah of audio RealReal founder Julie Wainwright, who was my direct competitor in my business. And now today you're going to hear from my good friend Jacqueline Johnson, the founder of Create and Cultivate, who started her company, grew it, sold it, and then bought it back. Later we're going to hear from Jaclyn on why she became a Boomerang founder and how she's created tons of wealth through both building businesses and angel investing and how you can do the same. We also talk about managing the personal side of being an ambitious woman, how we deal with rising money and beauty standards that seem to get higher and higher all the time. And at the end, we play a really fun game of Never have I ever. So without further ado, here's my conversation with Jacqueline Johnson. Jacqueline Johnson, welcome to Money Rehab.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I'm so excited to be here.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

I'm so excited to have you here. I want to talk about everything with you, but let's start with the company that made you famous and financially free. Create and Cultivate. Will you tell our audience, for anyone who has been living under a rock and doesn't know what Create and Cultivate is when you started it, what it does.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah, it has evolved over time, but essentially, Create and Cultivate is the largest media and events company for ambitious women. We're most well known for our large scale conferences which we host all across the country and hopefully world, where we bring together CEOs, content creators and celebrities to talk about business.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Amazing. And I have heard you say so we've known each other a long time. Yes, from back when we were both in the trenches. And what I always remember is that when you were building, Create and Cultivate, you said, I'm building it to sell it. And you don't hear that all the time. A lot of founders say, I just love my business. But you said you were building it to sell it. Why?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I had sold my first company, so I had a Company. Before Create and Cultivate, it was a marketing events and influencer agency. And I again, when I started that company, I had no idea about selling companies. I had no idea that company would even be sellable. And so essentially when an offer came through to acquire that business, it was a whole new world for me. I was trying to figure out, what does this look like, what is the financial piece of it, what's due diligence. So I was basically a masterclass in selling a company and kind of doing it on my own. And after I sold that company, I realized like, oh, this is how you make real money as a founder, obviously, creating something that someone wants that's valuable to that person. So I got a taste for it. So when I was launching Create and Cultivate, which had already existed pre the acquisition of that company, I realized like, wow, this is something that has real opportunity to sell. At the time, most women's media companies were about beauty, fashion, lifestyle with a sprinkling of career, whereas we were all careers. So we had this big opportunity, I thought, to create something that would be very much acquirable.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

And around what year was this that you started it? You had sold your last company?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yes. Okay, so the timeline is crazy. So the first Creating Cultivate actually happened in 2000, 2011. So early, early days, but so small, truly. I knew everyone that was there. It was maybe 25 women, and it grew organically year over year, I would say, as sort of a new business vehicle for that marketing agency. Like, I really didn't treat it like a business. It was really like selfishly to meet cool women and throw cool events. But I would say the turning point was, I would say 2015 for creating cultivate, where it got big enough that I brought on a partner into that company, invested my own capital into it, and was like, this is a serious thing. And then the other business was acquired in 2016, which again was another big year for Crate and Cultivate. I stayed on board with that company for a year after selling it and did both full time, which I highly do not recommend. Very brutal. Yes. And so I did that and then I went full time at Crate and Cultivate after that.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

So what made you an ambitious woman?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I think circumstance, really. I had moved to Los Angeles from New York. I'd always worked in corporate, so it was like a corporate girly. And essentially got to LA and got laid off and didn't know anyone. Yes.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

I can't even picture you being a corporate girl.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Crazy. So I worked for Interactive Corporation, iac. I worked at citysearch. I don't know if you remember city search, but yeah, so I worked for them and then basically was laid off after three months. And it was really challenging for me for a number of different reasons. One, I just moved to a city where I knew no one. 2 LA at the time, this is 2009 was entertainment and entertainment really only.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Like it was like pre tech, pre.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Totally really no industries. And I obviously had no experience in entertainment coming from New York. And three was like my identity was really wrapped up in being a successful career woman. So getting laid off was not part of the narrative I was trying to build. And so after that I essentially was applying for jobs, not getting anywhere and started freelancing for clients. And so built up that roster enough to bring on another employee, ended up getting office space, ended up launching an agency by happenstance Dance.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Just as an aside, you mentioned you got laid off, which can be so painful. Have you ever been on the other side of that? Have you ever had to do a layoff?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yes, we had to do a small amount of layoffs during COVID which was awful. I actually was very proud about how many people we kept on being that we were in events business. But yeah, it was awful. But I haven't had to do that in any other kind of circumstance. And I think Covid was a special one for sure to do. Not ideal though obviously for anyone.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

No, but it's a reality. It's like a reality especially for venture back companies.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Oh yeah, we were bootstrapped. So it was obviously everything is felt 10 times more I think when you're bootstrapped.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Did you. So for create and cultivate you grew this big events business over time, did you ever raise capital for it?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

No. So I put in initially $50,000. My partner put in $250,000 as like a loan to the company. We paid ourselves back actually within a year based on the profits and things like that. That's the only capital that was ever put into the business.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Did you guys. I hear founders ask a lot, struggle with how much to pay themselves. So founder or anyone who starts a business, even if it's a small business, like how did you figure out what to pay yourself?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

So I'm actually the worst person to ask about this because I paid myself the same salary for truly like 10 years. Like I had the notion and what's widely known is like the founder never pays themselves a lot. Like the high paid founder is usually a red flag depending on what your revenue is obviously. But for me I basically, I think I went in at like, 100,000 doll, and I stayed at $100,000 for truly, like, 10 years. And so I was really just putting everything back into the business, I will say, until I brought a CFO COO on probably in 2018. And she was like, you're grossly underpaid. And she was like, we need to change this. You need to make more money. And so that's when things shifted.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

You had already made some money prior to that. Right. So were you able to afford to live the lifestyle you wanted even while you were making $100,000 a year?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah, so I had a, like, a nice windfall from exit. So I use that money to actually buy my first house. So I had equity in the housing market, which was really great. And then I also had a really big windfall from an angel investment I made. So those two things were actually what really propelled me through the next few years. And then we did take distributions occasionally from the company as well.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay, so you were profitable, you're making money, and every now and then you'd be like, we hand out some of this money to ourselves.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Exactly.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Who run the company. Yes. Okay. And so what do you advise for young women starting businesses who maybe haven't had a prior windfall? How do you recommend that they navigate what to pay themselves versus put back in?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah, no, it's such a good question. And now I say, I always tell people, I'm like, you really have to prioritize your own personal wealth when building a company. Do you do that year one? Probably not. But like year four, year five, you really need to start thinking through your own personal exit strategy. What does the financial success look like for you? Because I think we often put ourselves on the back burner. So I would say it's typically. Typically a ratio of revenue. Right. So there's a lot of things online you can read about this, et cetera. But, like, the revenue you're making should be reflective of your salary. So if you're doing a million dollars year one, you can figure out what your salary is of that, 10% is probably hefty, but maybe realistic for your situation. As you grow your revenue, you should be increasing your salary over time. And again, that doesn't have to necessarily be a guaranteed salary. You can bonus yourself. You can create goals for yourself. You can do distributions. There's ways you can get creative when you own the company. Obviously, if you have investors, it's a little different, but I think it's about getting creative in that way.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Totally. Okay. I want to go back to, you said that you sold your first business and you made some money and then you had an angel investment. That also worked out well. How old were you when those things happened?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

So, great question. I would say I was 26 probably when I sold the company and the angel investment, I was probably 29.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

So that's huge. You were like a very young woman who was creating real wealth.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

That's very unique, right? That doesn't happen all the time.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

No, it was new to me too. I didn't know anything about it. I didn't know about like. Like what kind of checking or investing or anything like that as well. So it was like a whole new world for me. I will say I've been very lucky in the housing market and I've been really strategic with real estate, which has also paid off longer term.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

You built, create and cultivate to sell it, then you sold it. Tell us about what happened when you sold it and what's happened since you sold it.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

We actually had to sell opportunities. So in 2018, we had a few strategic buyers come to the table, which was early for us, I thought. I think we were $8 million in revenue. A team of eight people. I had no executive team. It was pretty scrappy and small, but growing fast. And so we went through a process. In 2018. We had I think like four Lois that came through.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

For people listening at home, that's a lot of Lois.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yes. And they were big money.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

An LOI is a letter of intent. It's a buyer of your company who's saying, I'm informally making you this offer and as long as your numbers check out, when I do diligence, I'm going to buy the company for this amount essentially means nothing.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

And that's important for this conversation. It literally means nothing. It's not binding because I was like, woo, buy me the buyers. Yeah, it was exciting. It was a very exciting time. We went through painful diligence with a public company that was interested in buying us and it ended up falling apart in the nth hour, which had nothing to do with us, but was very brutal. And I say that to say because I think a lot of people think selling a company is like very easy. And it's like you find the person, you do the thing. It is so challenging. There are so many ups and downs. Majority of deals, I would say, fall through. I don't know if you agree with that.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Vast majority of. In my business, we went through three separate sales processes. Each time we had what they call inbound we had a buyer who came to us, and then it's incumbent upon you to go out and go to all the other buyers, shoppers, and say, hey, are you also interested? See if we can get higher bids. And we did that three times. The third time, it culminated in a sale. But the first two, I was sleeping under my coffee table. Truly, the stress.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

And I wish I had known that Most deals fall through because I think I was so emotionally connected to this deal. Crushed me when it fell apart. Like, I just was, because especially when we had done nothing wrong, I was like, no, no. It's like the markets had shifted. And so that was devastating for me and really challenging. I had, like, literally picked out my office space, had told employees it was bad, bad, bad. But again, it was a very hard and expensive lesson. And then so cut to. I basically was like, back to the drawing board. Like, we need to focus on building out the C suite and really growing. Had a banner year. 2019, top of 2020. Absolutely crushed at Q1. And then we all know Covid hit. And luckily, like, we actually had a good story coming out of COVID Despite being bootstrapped and being an events business. And being an events business.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

It's kind of mind blowing.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

No, it is mind blowing. I. I think I just, like, I thoroughly threw my entire body and mind into that experience where I think most entrepreneurs were one or the other. They either completely shut down, which is understandable, or they were fight or flight mode and just went insane. I was definitely the person that went insane.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Yeah.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

And was just like, ideas move fast, go, go. So we moved very quickly. We pivoted to digital. We luckily had a membership in place that we were able to monetize quickly. We retained 90% of our sponsors in minimal layoffs. Yeah, we were very lucky. And we were able to pivot very quickly and took a revenue hit, but actually maintained ebitda, which was really exciting for us. So it was a good story for potential buyers. Now, what had happened was all the strategic buyers that were interested obviously had struggled during COVID or had lost a lot of money and were not in acquisition mode. But private equity was booming during that time. They were sitting on a ton of cash and were interested in buying companies that had done well during COVID So we ended up doing a deal with private equity.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay. For people who don't know what private equity is, can you sum it up in a nutshell?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

So private equity, essentially, the goal of private equity is to find companies that are highly profitable, high revenue, and have a lot of Potential to grow, to then do a secondary sale. So essentially the goal of private equity is to come in, provide infrastructure and expertise as well as cash, to basically pour fuel on the fire of an already existing company that's doing well to then sell it for a higher price in two to five years. Yes, that's essentially the goal.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

And so when private equity works, it's amazing. You get all these smart new partners, they take a majority interest in your business, they help you grow it, and then you as the founder, you get some money, you keep some stock, and then in a few years, you guys sell it together again to another buyer and you make even more money. And that's the good story of private equity, the bad story of private equity and the reputation that private equity gets when it doesn't work among founders is that a bunch of guys in suits come in and they start squeezing the margins of your business and taking the heart and soul out of it. And instead of making it more valuable, they make it less valuable because they don't understand a founder mindset and a growth mindset. And you can end up then with an asset that's less valuable. And so you do see in some circles of founders, an eye roll happen when you talk about private equity and when you see that it's because people have had that experience.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah. And really similar to venture in a way is they're basically going to invest in 20 companies and hope one succeeds. Like that's their model when they go into it. Failure is not even failure for them. It's just like another write off or write. Whereas you, the founder is like, this is my company, it's my baby. Like it's just a different mentality. And there's actually a really good episode of Freakonomics on private equity that you should listen to if you haven't yet. It's really, it talks a lot about the breakdown of what it's doing, why it's not great for some businesses, but great for other businesses. And it's really interesting.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay, I'll check that out. Because ventures, they know 9 out of 10 businesses are going to fail. They're gambling hard. Yes, Private equity is gambling a little less hard, but still hard. Right. They can have agreed and also venture.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Is not as involved in your business business depending obviously, but usually they're pretty hands off or maybe a little bit involved on the board. Whereas private equity is very much in your business.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay, so you sold to private equity.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yes, sold to private equity.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

It was a really interesting time. It was end of 2020 2021, obviously the world was recovering, trying to figure things out at the time, obviously we were making a hard push into digital and into membership. And so at the time I was like, I'm not the right CEO to run a digital media business. I'm an experiential person. I obviously love community. That's where I really thrive. I also had run the business for 10 plus years. I was exhausted, I was tired. And so it was well known amongst the private equity firm and the team that I was going to step down as CEO when we found a replacement. So we found a replacement who's amazing. She came in, she had that exact experience in the digital media world. I took a step back for probably two years and was on the board, obviously retained a little bit of equity, but really was not involved in the company which is, as you know, it can be very bizarro.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

What did you do?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

It was really odd. It's so weird to do something for so long and then to wake up one day and not do it. It's the strangest feeling in the world. But I basically, I bought a house in Napa, I started gardening, I started cooking, I started getting my sommelier accreditation, I started just doing hobbies. I think what normal people do, working out, just enjoying life for a little bit. And then I got a little antsy as you do. And so I ended up going to run a $20 million fund for a family office.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Wait, can you explain what that means? What the family office?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Family offices are typically high net worth individuals or families that create their own essentially like little mini venture fund where they invest in different companies and oftentimes are involved or their passion projects, things like that. So people who want to create more wealth amongst their family, they'll create a family office. And so this family office was based out of Chicago and they really wanted to get into the female founder space, which obviously is my jam.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Was it out of heart that they wanted to get into it or did they have a theory that like female led companies were going to outperform?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

So I think it was a combo of both. I think they typically had been in less sexy industries, insurance industry, blah blah, blah blah, and technology done extremely well. But they wanted to tap into the consumer space a little bit more, learn more about it. And so for them this was perfect for me. And so I was able to bring a lot of deal flow. And also being on the venture side was really interesting. I learned a ton about diligence because they obviously had a best in class team that was doing all their diligence for all their other projects. Got to work with really incredible analysts and really understand what it takes to diligence a deal and what to look for and all those things. That was really fun. So I did that for a little bit and then ended up launching the Blueprint, which is a mastermind with Ali Webb and Marina Middleton. After much convincing from Marina, because I was like, I don't know if I want to get back into coaching and events and things like that. And she basically convinced me to do it. And so that was what I was doing when things took a turn and changed. Yeah. So end of last year, I'm doing the Blueprint and essentially it comes to light that there's an interest in selling, Create and Cultivate again. So this was way quicker than we had ever imagined. And it was a surprise, I think, to everyone on the team, on the board, et cetera. And so initially my reaction was, okay, like, who can we sell this to? That makes sense. That's going to give it a good home. That, like, you know, obviously I know a lot of amazing female media, centric media companies have a lot of relationships there. And also there was a lot of people interested in buying us. So that's where my brain went immediately. And then essentially as things were happening, I went back to Marina, who is my partner on the blueprint, who is very young, very hungry. Did an amazing job at the Blueprint year one. We were able to do seven figures year one. It was amazing. And I called her and I was like, this is what's happening. I want to throw this out to you. And I. This is. This might be crazy, but what if we bought Create and Cultivate? She was like, in. I'm in it, like, immediately. Yes. And I was like, no, no, no, I need you to, like, think about this, because I don't want to go back and be the CEO, but I know there's so much value there and I think we could put our own spin on it. Looking at what we've done with the Blueprint, I feel like there's like, major opportunity for smaller, more intimate events. And she was like, no, 100%, I'm in. @ that point, I send this email out, essentially, that's like, I'm interested in buying it back. Which sparks, like, a lot of different emotions amongst the private equity firm and then of course, our lender and then the existing CEO. And so honestly, over two months of just like negotiations back and forth and falling through it, coming back it, like all the things that happen when you're in the midst of an M and.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

A kind of style transaction, the negotiations.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Like private equity, never likes to sell back to the founder.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Really? I didn't know that. Why?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Because typically I think it's considered a failure on their end. Right. So when you think about going back to the fact, it doesn't exactly make sense. I'm sure in some scenarios it might, but I think for them, it doesn't look good to their LPs. Like it can be perceived as the optics aren't great. Also, there was like a want to sell it to a bigger media company and things like that, which obviously makes sense too. And I was supportive of. Of the best possible outcome. Right. I wasn't like gunning to mess up any deals that they might have had. But I also was like, I do feel very strongly that I'm the best person to take this back because of a few different things. One, to your point, it's a community centric business. Yes. On paper there's a P and L and there's revenue and there's this. But at the end of the day, there's people and people related to that business in part because of me and my journey in building it. And so I think it's really hard. Whether it's a strategic acquisition or a private equity acquisition or any type of acquisition, it's very challenging. When you're so connected to a brand that was built around you and your vision and your story, to then sell it, it's just hard. It's a hard business to then grow and build separate of that person.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Totally.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

And I think they didn't realize that. Or maybe they thought because we were going more digital. But then events came backers that kind of go into it. Right. So basically net. Net through the negotiations, finally it became clear that it would basically come back to me, which was very exciting.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Wow. When you said we should buy this business back, did it feel like something from your gut coming up and being like, get me my baby?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Totally. Like, it was weird because it was like, again, I had already started another company, Cherub, which we'll talk about. So I would. And Blueprint. And so I was like, this feels crazy, but it weirdly feels timely. Like I am a big believer in everything happens for a reason. And I think like meeting Marina, launching the blueprint, like all those things led up to that moment because truly, if Marina was not in the equation, I wouldn't have done it.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Yeah. So she's the CEO.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

She's the CEO now. Yeah. So basically it was this, like, kismet reality that I think happened for the right reasons.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

So, Jacqueline, when you sold your business, can you tell us how much you sold it for? But not just that. Can you tell us how much of it you owned when it was sold?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah. So basically we exited for $22 million. That was the valuation that we exited at, which is amazing. I'm very proud of it. However, our valuation should have been much higher, but due to Covid, basically they did a blended EBITDA for the years. So it was a little different in that way. Typically, I would say most event businesses would have exited based on a $4 million EBITDA in 2019 for 40 to 70 million depending. Very happy with the way it ended. I owned a majority stake, but I can't tell you the full amount. But I own a majority stake because obviously we had no investors outside of myself and my partners.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Do you hear? That's amazing. Congratulations. And it's interesting, right, because $22 million is a lot of money, but you often hear about exits that are for like 200 million or 2 billion, but the founders don't.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

1%. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 1% of the company.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

So like, what's different about that versus versus what you did?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

It's. Yeah, so it's just a totally different strategy. So like selling a business. Yes. I talk about this all the time, but $22 million is like I'm going to get the majority of that cash right in that transaction because I own the majority because I didn't give up equity while raising money. Whereas founders, again, who are going to have these billion dollar exits need a lot of money to get to that mark in general. So they'll raise a lot of venture capital and therefore dilute themselves. So there's different ways to view equity and there's different ways to build businesses and there's different ways to exit businesses. I actually have a good friend who I think her, her exit was like 500 million, maybe 450 million. And we ended up making around the same amount of money. Is there any right or wrong way to do it? No, not necessarily. It really just depends on the type of business like you want to build.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

So my business was in a category that was very capital intensive intensive. Like all of the competitors were raising hundreds of millions of dollars. I raised $150 million, which meant $22 million would have been a failure. Yes, we had to sell for much more, but I also had a smaller single digit percent ownership in my business by the time we sold. So yeah, it's very, very Different. So when you hear the headlines about how much someone sold a business for, is it really even related to how much the founder makes?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

No, it's not at all. And also, it typically is. You don't know if it's cash. You don't know if it's equity. You don't have to roll equity. There's earnouts as part of it, and mine had all three. It's interesting because a lot of people were like, wow, congrats on making $22 million. And you're like, no, not really. And again, after taxes, it's like, even more. But I feel really happy with where I'm at. And like, as I mentioned, the sale of Crank was by far my biggest windfall and obviously has set me up for a life that I never thought I could have and is amazing. However, it was the decisions I made leading up to that that also has increased my net worth over time. And that's like the real estate, the angel investing, obviously bringing on a wealth advisor, all those things are making my money work for me. So it was not just, yes, I had a lot of eggs in that basket, but I also diversified along the way, which I think is important.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

It's also really noteworthy. Like, your story is not uncommon. I know so many founders who made X from their business and then some random thing that they did on the.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Side, that is my story. I hope that continues to be my story.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

So when you bought back Create and Cultivate from the private equity firm that had purchased it, how much did you buy it back for?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I can't tell you.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay. You can't say.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I feel really good with where I'm at. I think financial security is so important to me. I think I've worked so hard for this moment in my life, and I do feel very fortunate my life didn't change so drastically. My real estate changed. Maybe the car I drove changed, the trips I take change. But, like, nothing was so overnight completely drastic for me that it feels really good.

[Nicole Lapin]

Hold onto your wallets. Money rehab. We'll be right back. And now for some more Money Rehab.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

I'm so excited for the next chapter of Create and Cultivate. What's going to be different in V2?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Our new philosophy is around launch to legacy. And I think the reality is we've been speaking to the launch side of the business for a very long time, which is like, like starting a business, growing a business. But we've never really done the full circle of, like, how do you exit a business? What's your legacy look like? What's leadership look like? Like it was really all about just like getting it off the ground.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Yeah.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

So now we're taking this launch to legacy approach and we do that through a couple different ways. One is through masterminds, where it's really that like intimate one on one style training with experts, whether it's me or Ali Webb, et cetera. We also have retreats for 7, 8, 9 figure founders where you're really in the room with people who are at your level. Which I think for me early days of creating cultivate, it was all about the speakers on the stage. Right. And you're like sitting in the audience and you're listening to amazing people, which is great. It's inspirational, it's awesome. What I didn't really factor in was like all the women in the room where with blueprint, with our retreats, like all the women in the room have a lot of value to add. And so it really becomes this like mind meld or what they say, mastermind of women coming together and giving advice. Like I learned from people in the room, which is awesome. Like something that I never had experienced. So that's part of it as well. So all these intimate style specific events. On the flip side, we're also launching what we're calling Coachella for career women, the largest festival for ambitious women next summer here in Los Angeles.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

That sounds like so much fun. And so that's for all founders, early stage, everyone about getting something launched. It's funny, I didn't, I hadn't told you this, but I met a woman who has an amazing business, $20 million of revenue, and she told me that she's going to one of your events. Yeah. And I think it makes sense. Right. You've got like the top of the funnel, which is everyone who's thinking about starting and trying to get it off the ground. And then it gets fewer and fewer of us as we move on.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Until when you're at the point where you're a woman with a business doing 20 million or 100 million, it's a bit lonely.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

It is. And it's totally different problems and issues than when you're starting out. And I think that's the thing that was really challenging. Being at the seven figure founder retreat was really interesting where people were like, how do I, what's my exit plan? How do I find the right number two? What does this look like? And how do I grow my personal wealth? Those are the things you're worried about at that level where six figure, you're like how do I get to seven figures in revenue? How do I, like, do this out on the ball on a budget? Like, it's a totally different set of problems that require different solutions.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Yeah. I always tell women that your best mentors are like one or two steps ahead of you.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yes.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

And because someone who's just sold their business can be really helpful to someone who's got like a series C or a very mature business, et cetera. Interestingly so seven figure problems are their own thing. Eight figure problems, nine figure problems. Let's switch a little bit to personal life.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

What are the again, same thing. We know that being a woman with financial freedom, a wealthy woman at a young age is mostly great. What are some of the things on the personal side?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I think, to your point, like, one is like, you get fewer and fewer so people that can understand what you're going through as you're building become very small. I feel really lucky that I had a really great coach while I was growing the business towards so important. I was like, I don't know about coach. I was a little on the fence and I truly thank goodness because I think a lot of people tend to just talk to their therapists about business stuff. You need a coach.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

You need both.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Totally. You do need both. That's right.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

No, I'm like, why? When I was running my company and it was really big, I was like, how am I spending, like three hours a week being helped? No, but it really, in hindsight, it.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Could have been at a minimum. But so many things go to the wayside when you're building, like, your health, fitness, friendships. Like, I missed weddings. I missed. You miss a lot. Right. So there's things like that that you're definitely giving up along the way. And then I think it's really challenging. Like, I was married for a long time. I'm now divorced. And I think obviously I think being married was helpful while building my career. And then now being divorced and being successful, it's like insane to date. It feels actually crazy because I think there's a lot of. Not jealousy, but a lot of insecurity, I think is the right word. There's a lot of insecurity about successful women. Even if the men that you're talking to have the best intentions and are like, I love women. I'm so excited for it. The balance is really hard and tricky to navigate.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

What do you think it is? Is it like the masculine feminine energy cycle gets disrupted?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I think there's also just like hetero norms of wanting to pay for Things I think it gets really complicated around specifically vacations and real estate.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Oh, my God, it's so true. These are the two vacations. It's really.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Because if you take a. I want to take a nice vacation, like, me too. We spend on travel, right? This is something we spend on. And so as a partner, they can never surprise you with a trip because it's not going to be on the level. Then you feel bad because you're like, I don't want to, like, make you spend on this type of thing because I know you can't. So that's when things get tricky. And same with, like, real estate, where it's like you move in together, they can't possibly pay the mortgage or whatever. It becomes this challenging thing. And then you can be like, you do 20%, I'll do this. And then it gets like, un. Unsexy and not fun.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Were you in my relationship, Jack?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

It's not cute.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

It's not cute.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

It's not cute.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Wait, so do you have the answer?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

You have to find the right partner, I think, who really either is on your level or is like, nowhere near. It's one or the other.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Like, that's right.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Someone told me once, and I don't know if this is true, but they were like, you either need to date really young or really old, really rich or really poor. Like, it was like one or the other.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

I love that because I think that's true. If you're, let's say, dating another founder who's a few steps behind you and their business is struggling and you're like booming or you've already had a lot of success, it just introduces a lot of opportunity for like, weird tension that doesn't work in a romantic relationship. But if you date someone who's like, in a blue collar job and they're just like, check out my girl, she's so cool. She's like, really rich.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah. Or just starting out in their career where the advice doesn't feel condescending, it feels, like, exciting for them because they're just starting out, whereas they're not on, like year five, trying to make it work and it's. It becomes like all day and again, I don't know if that's the answer. I still don't know. I've not found out, like, what the secret sauce is.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay, but you just said you're solo. So you're single and you're dating.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yes. Trying. Yeah.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay. Are you planning on going young or old, Richer or poorer?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Gosh, I don't Know I'm trying to just get a date. I feel like I have taken aback backseat lately. I was early days was like on the apps, doing the thing, trying it all.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

After your divorce.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

After the divorce, yeah. You get. But you're trying to get back into it and then you start to realize how much of your time it's taking up. And I just had this moment earlier this year where I was like, I just want to get off the apps or limit to one app and barely use it and engage here and there. But I also just want to live my life.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Yeah.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

And I know that's tough because I think truly one of the only ways to meet people is being on the app. That's just reality. Especially for me. I'm like, I go to. I travel a lot, but I travel for work.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

And you go to events for women. Your whole job is for.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I run events for women. Truly. Even I think back, I'm like, I don't think I met a man in the last 10 years. Like private equity was the only time I ever worked with men. I was like, never happens. But I don't go out a lot. If I do, it's like my close friends, we get dinner. I don't organically meet people that often. However, I feel like I've been challenging myself to. When I travel or I meet a friend for dinner, try to go a little early, try to sit at the bar, try to be more open to meeting people. This is like my IRL at the bar. At the bar. Just like chopping it up.

[Nicole Lapin]

Google them.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

No, totally. I try to just be in the world a little bit more than I would be normally. But I'm trying not to do the app thing. I just, I think it's just like disappointing and really challenging and too time consuming. I don't want to be on my screen all day.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Would you ever do a matchmaker?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yes. So I hired a matchmaker. I don't know, girl. I feel like it's also disappointing and.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Also really, I need listen. We're counting on you. I need you to listen.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

If I have a success, you will hear about it. Trust and believe. But yeah, I also don't think my person and. And this is like a broad statement is in Los Angeles. So I think that's.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

That's interesting.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Also hard, right?

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

So did you tell your matchmaker to like cast a net farm wide travel?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

We'll travel for love. So I don't know. We'll see.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

We'll see. I hope it works out. I'll give you updates you have trailblazed so many things for women, for ambitious women. Can you please trailblaze this too? We are counting. What about friendships? Have you been able to keep the same friendships over the years as your career has taken off?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah, I actually. It's one of the things I'm most proud about is most of my friends are 10 years plus, have been in it since the beginning, have known me when I was struggling, have known me when I'm successful, and we all don't live in the same place. We all find each other and travel and things like that. So I'm really proud of that. There's been friendships that have grown apart, obviously, as time goes on. I think that's normal and natural. But, yeah, I'm really proud of the friend group I have.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Do you feel like it's complicated to navigate the same types of things, like vacations, et cetera, with friends, or is it easier than.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I think it's easier. I think it's just this weird inherent thing where it's. Sometimes I'll treat my friends the nicest. We all are just like, even Steven. Life's gonna work out. And I'm like, yeah, one day you'll be, like, rich and like it all. I think women just have, like, that natural.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

It's so much easier. It's so different.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I know it's so different.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

You know, people who have weirdness with their friends, but I always think they're weird. I'm around my friends, then they're like, weird with money. I'm like, why are we weird with money? With your friends, there's no stakes.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

No, no, no, no.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

And just like, buy me a piece of chicken.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, totally. The stakes are low, but I think that comes with longevity. I think, like, newer friends, that's maybe a little trickier to navigate.

[Nicole Lapin]

Hold onto your wallets. Money rehab. We'll be right back. And now for some more money rehabilitation.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay, one more thing on the, like, personal living life as a successful woman side, I. This might just be la, but I don't think it is. I feel like it's spread everywhere I go now. Most of the women I know who are successful are, myself included, are being sucked into a world of constant aesthetic treatments that are expensive and time consuming and risky, but it's like the bar keeps moving for what? So how do you deal with that?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

So it's really interesting. I've definitely been grappling with this a lot. I think with the dawn of the TikTok disclosures of all the things we're getting all the work I'm getting done. Like, all these things. I definitely. Because I'm 39, I'm turning 40 next year. Like, I'm definitely in that phase of do I need to get all this stuff? There's this really funny TikTok of this girl who was basically like, lip tape buckle fat. Oh, yeah. Like taping or mouth tape buckle fat. But she just starts naming all these things, like spray tan, Pilates. I'm like, women are so fucked. The amount of stuff that we have to do to just exist in the world in the narrative is actually crazy. And I think for me, I've taken the approach of one is I take care of myself in a way that makes me feel good, but I try not to buy into trends or fads. I'm also like, such a baby. Like, I'm so scared of everything. Yes. For the pain, for something going wrong. I don't have a lot of. I'm not a risky type person. I have friends who are like, oh, Morpheus, whatever. I'll get that. I'll get this, I'll get that. And they look amazing. And it's go. It goes so great. So I'm like, do I? But I think for me, I'm like, a little attached to the idea of aging gracefully. Yeah. And also just wanting to look different. I think a lot of women are just starting to look very similar.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

It's wild and beautiful.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Right.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

It's like the same face. It does look good, but it's the same.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

It's the same face. And I miss little quirks that people. Character.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Yeah.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Right. And so I'm. I'm holding onto that now. That being said, talk to me in 10 years.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Totally. Because it gets real. Yeah.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I might be getting a facelift. And I will report back.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

I always felt when I had my company and I had a lot of women in my community, customers and employees, I felt like, this obligation to resist the pull to all of that stuff. But then I would, like, go on TV to promote the business and be like, oh, I don't look good next to all these people who've had all this stuff done. And so it's really tricky.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I definitely get down on myself. I definitely look at photos. I try to also remind myself, you're a human being. This is what you look like. I don't know. It's tough. I'm the same way. I'm guilty of looking at photos and being like, oh, please don't post that, or I hate this. I filmed something the other day and I got my arm fat in the back. I was like, oh, my God. So we're so hard on ourselves. We're the hardest. And I think for me, it's really just about being as healthy as possible. I feel really good right now because I feel really healthy. I work out, I eat well, I have fun, I drink, I whatever. I have a good time. I'm not limiting myself into a place where I'm just constant deprivation. I want to live a full, fun life. I love food. I love, like, going out. I think it's finding that balance for yourself and feeling good and being who you are.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Yeah. And I hope more women start to resist the pull so that there are more examples of people who are just aging a little bit.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

That said, we're all, you know, striking the balance. Okay. You mentioned that in between selling, create and cultivate and buying it back, you were working for a family office. You started investing. You got to be on the venture side. Tell me a little bit about creating wealth through. Tell me about angel investing.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

What is angel investing?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Totally. So angel investing is really when you invest in the private sector. Right. So you personally as an individual, or maybe you have a little family office or whatever it is. Right. And angel investing, I think people are like, oh, I need to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's not the reality. Typically you can invest 5k, 10k, 15k. And if it's an SPV or a special purpose vehicle, sometimes you can invest as low as $1,000 or on platforms.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Yes, platforms.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah, exactly. So I actually launched a company and I'll tell you the origin story, but it's called Cherub. It connects angel investors and entrepreneurs using dating app mechanics. As an entrepreneur, you can go on, build your beautiful data room, tell your story, obviously put what you're looking for in angel investors, your check size, all that good stuff. On the angel investor side, you can join and talk about what are your mandates, what you're looking for, your personal expertise, and what you could be helpful with when it comes to supporting a founder. And then we'll match you based on that criteria. Since we've launched, over $2 million has been deployed to founders from chair angel investors, which is amazing. I started angel investing in 2011, maybe a little earlier, so writing my first checks into different female founded companies. And since I've grown my portfolio to 25 companies. So one of the companies that I invested in was a $10,000 check that, you know, early, early friends and family round. And that company ended up becoming a unicorn, which Again, not normal. One in a billion chance at this.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

What was it valued at when you invested?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

So I want to say the valuation was 10 million, something around that. And so basically the company actually didn't exit. I got a tender offer from investors.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

To buy your stock from you.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Exactly.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Like a sale of the business.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Exactly. So like sometimes when companies are prepping for ipo, they'll do a tender offer where they'll be like, we're going to give you a good price for your shares because they think they're going to get. Get more, but it dilutes your risk. Right. This was 2019 when that happened and I ended up exiting for seven figures, which was amazing. I know, super exciting. So that bought my second house in terms of the real estate, but I remember everyone being like, Craig and cold Speed must be doing so well. And I was like, no, I mean, yes, but this is actually from an angel investment. Yeah. So it was funny because I've had a few different exits now. Not at that level. Thank goodness. Thank goodness. Please bring it on. But not at that level. But I. Yeah, yeah. It's been really fun and really rewarding. And the way this sort of happened was I am like a well known angel investor so I get pitched all the time for investment but I also do a lot of mentoring. I'm on intro and things like that and all these founders are like, I need angel investors. Where are the angel investors? And I like LinkedIn. I don't know like I know people, but it's this like insular world.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Totally.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

The bet that we're taking at Cherub is that there's actually a lot of angel investors out there that would invest. They just aren't getting deal flow. And so my co founder, Angeline was that person. She worked at a YC back company that, that was acquired by a larger company and then went public three months later. She had a great windfall, did really well for herself and was like, I would love to angel Invest but no one comes to me. So there was problems on both sides. We're like, let's create something to solve this. So the way we're thinking about Cherub is the way I think Coinbase thought about crypto. Crypto previous to Coinbase, really hard to find, really difficult to buy, hard to know what's right or what's good or what's bad. And then Coinbase comes in, is connect your PayPal and you can buy Bitcoin.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

And you're transaction mechanic.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Exactly.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Like weird with Angel Invest.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Exactly. It's complicated. There's a million different places. You're storing stuff, you're on docs and you're on Dropbox, you're on Carta. You're like, oh my God, this is crazy. So basically that's how I see Cherub is really democratizing the angel investing process, making it really smooth, really easy, and also giving you the education for newer angels. So one of our goals for the platform is to increase the tam of first time angel investors. So it's been really exciting. Of the $2 million, 40% was their first check. And these are accredited angel investors.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay, I'm going to go on the record and say, I predict this is going to be your biggest success yet. I'm so excited about this, having been on both sides. Like, I raised angel and angel funding for my company a million years ago and it was such a painstaking, hackneyed process of just trying to hear the name of someone who had money to invest and sort of hunt them down and take million meetings. So streamlining it for the founders is great. But on the other side, what you just said about having made a $10,000 investment and then what it was seven figure. Yeah. So that opportunity should be available to more people.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Exactly.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

And so bringing angel investing to more people, to more women as a wealth creation tool. Now, of course, it's super high risk.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

It's super high risk. Yeah. Cherub is for everyone, men and women. Everyone always thinks it's just for women, but it is. No, but it is true. But actually there's been a massive increase in women angel investing in the last five years, which is awesome. Yeah, but yeah, it's inherently risky. But also buying crypto is inherently risky. Diversification is inherently risky. Yes. You can put money and I think diversification is the spice of life. You definitely want to be in the stock market, you definitely want to buy a house, you definitely want to do all the different things. You don't want to over index on anything. But you should diversify. And especially if you believe in a founder, you provide a specific expertise or value to that founder, they're more likely to be successful.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Totally. And like you said, you have 25 angel investments. So when you come in really early and you invest and you can I write 5 and $10,000 checks too? Like that's. Yeah, I just feel like it's fine and I don't have to put pressure on the founder, then I don't have to worry so much about my outcome. And when you invest like that, you have to invest across a lot of.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Companies, categories and Companies. Yeah.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

What are your favorite categories right now?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I love food and beverage. I do think there'll be a lot of, like, consolidation further down the line. My last investment I made was into Intro, which is a platform where you can book people like us on the app. And really that was because I'm a user of the app. Like, I'm on as an expert and I've had such a good experience with it. I've met so many amazing people. I truly believe in the product. The founder's awesome. I just felt compelled to be an investor in their future.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

And if you were going to start a company right now other than all the companies you are starting, like, for anyone listening who's. I've got the appetite I've got. But what are the right ideas and sectors right now?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

AI, I think, is like the big one. And we have a lot of AI on the platform and people, they get a ton of investment. I think anything in terms of workflow, I think we're entering a new era of working from home, working remotely. Any tools that help with that side of the productivity, I think are doing extremely well. You look at something like a canva that just completely disrupted the graphic design space. Space. The deck creation space. Unbelievable, right? So things like that where you're taking something that actually can be made much better using tools like AI, I think that's a home run.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay. AI productivity tools.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yes.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

It's going to get everybody their hundred x return.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Perfect. Yes.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

And we'll find those deals on Cherub.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yep. Perfect.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

And Cherub is like open to everyone.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Just go to invest with cherub.com.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Amazing. Jacqueline. Okay, before you go, do you want to play a game of never have I ever?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yes. Let's do it.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Never have I ever lent money to a friend. You have. Okay. Did it go okay?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay, good. Never have I ever treated myself to a six figure gift car. Oh, what kind of car?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I got post divorce. I got like a black Range Rover, kind of sexy baddy.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

All black.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

All black on black.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Yeah. Okay, good. I like that for you. Okay. Never have I ever had money stolen. Oh, yeah.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

You can read about that in my book Work Party. It's my first business, but it's. Yeah, it's a long time ago.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay. Check out the details in Work Party. Never have I ever signed a prenup.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Okay.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Oh, you did. You had one. Okay.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Took me a minute to think about that.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Do you? It's good that you didn't remember. Do you advise that?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yes.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Everyone get a prenup.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I Think so, yeah.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay, cool. Never have I ever paid on a first date.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I think I probably have because I didn't want it a second date. I was like, I got this.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

See? Totally. I feel like it's the same for me.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

It's like I just wanted it to end.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Yeah, I just wanted it to end. Is that like a signal to men that if you.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Probably not. They're probably like, she really likes me.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Well, if it comes to us, it's a sign that we're not.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Yeah, I think just in general, though, it's a bad sign. It's not good. That was fun.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Okay, Jacqueline. We end Money Rehab episodes by asking our guests for one tip that listeners can take straight to the bank. It can be anything personal. Find it. What is your big money tip for our audience?

[Jacqueline Johnson]

I think I said it earlier, but diversification is the spice of life, I think. Always be diversified in your environment. Investments. Some risky, some less risky.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

Amazing. Jacqueline Johnson, thank you so much for coming to my rehab.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Thank you. That was so fun.

[Tracy D'Annunzio]

And that is the end of my last guest hosting episode, at least for now. Next week, be sure to tune in when Peter Tuckman, a broker at the New York Stock Exchange and host of Eminen podcast Trade Like Einstein, will be guest hosting Money Rehab. But I'll be back, maybe as a guest host, maybe as a guest. All depending on what Nicole and her baby daughter need. Thank you all for giving me your ears this week. It's been a lot of fun and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

[Jacqueline Johnson]

Foreign.

[Nicole Lapin]

Rehab is a production of Money News Network. I'm your host, Nicole Lapin. Money Rehab's executive producer is Morgan Lavoy. Our researcher is Emily Holmes. Do you need some Money Rehab? And let's be honest, we all do. So email us your money questions. Money Rehab, moneynewsnetwork.com to potentially have your questions answered on the show or even have a one on one intervention with me. And follow us on Instagram @moneynews and TikTok MoneyNews Network for exclusive video content. And lastly, thank you. No, seriously, thank you. Thank you for listening and for investing in yourself, which is the most important investment you can make. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you can save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.