019: Pivoting from Early Career Decisions and Disasters with FBI Agent-Turned-Founder Jo Riley

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Today we are joined by a true entrepreneurial powerhouse, Joanna Riley, aka Jo. Jo has a diverse and rich background as an entrepreneur, investor, and technology advocate. During her undergraduate year in college, Jo was recruited by the FBI and deployed to Africa and the Middle East to work on case management, terrorism, and drug investigations. After her stint in the FBI, Jo pivoted her focus into entrepreneurship, where she built and sold her first company after only two years in her early twenties. Jo pursued the next chapter in her life by jetting off to China and founding another company called 1-Page. However, she, unfortunately, lost that business to a hostile takeover shareholder situation which we discuss today. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Jo and her many accomplishments have been featured in Fortune, Fast Company, Forbes, The Financial Times, and Huffington Post. Starting again from the ground up, Jo is the epitome of perseverance as she has created and co-founded the company Censia, which is growing exponentially. Tune in to this episode as Joanna shares the experiences and mindsets that helped her become braver, rebuild after setbacks, and how to stay fearless in the face of daunting obstacles.</span> </p> <p><strong>In This Episode:</strong></p> <ul> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">[05:14] In order to feel like she would fit in as a child, Jo was a bit of a rule breaker. </span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">[11:32] How Jo ended up at UVA in Foreign Affairs and then began a career in the FBI.</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">[23:51] The lack of being able to drive her own destiny at the FBI created a new opportunity for Jo to become an entrepreneur. </span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">[30:26] Jo’s company 1-Page that was inspired by her father’s book</span></li> <li><span style="font-weight: 400;">[45:15] What Jo’s main takeaway from working at her company 1-Page for six years  </span></li> <li><span sty