26JJ-CPM_Working-Skeleton-Layout_20260406-NT - Flipbook - Page 23
liberation. She leaned into independence. She
began traveling. She invested in properties. She
ran her businesses on her own terms. She rebuilt
her home, her income, and her sense of self
simultaneously.
She is honest about the timeline. She married
in her 30s, not because the relationship was the
right one, but because she was ready to say yes
when someone asked. It is a familiar story for
many women of her generation, and she holds
no bitterness about it. What she holds instead is
clarity.
“I love the idea of marriage,” she says. “I hope I fall
madly in love and get married again. But having
your own money and your own independence is
so important, in a relationship and out of one.”
Twenty-six years of entrepreneurship have a way
of teaching you exactly that.
The Business of Being Bold
Joanna was among the 昀椀rst franchisees to join
Coyote Ugly alongside founder Liliana Lovell,
and she has since built the brand across every
Florida location she owns. The bars are lively,
unapologetic, and exactly as the movie promised:
dancers on the bar, cold drinks, and an energy
you cannot manufacture.
“What you see in the movie is what you’re going
to see,” she says simply. She has worked to
preserve that integrity at every location, while
carving out her own distinct identity within the
brand.
Getting there was not without friction. The bar
industry is a male-dominated space. She knows
this 昀椀rsthand. Only about 3% of bar owners are
women. In her early days, being taken seriously
required something extra: poise, steadiness, and
an almost stubborn con昀椀dence in herself when
the room was not offering it freely.
“When I started at such a young age, it was
de昀椀nitely a challenge to walk through that,” she
says. “But you just hold yourself high, walk with
con昀椀dence, and believe in yourself. And that
makes all the difference.”
Her leadership style re昀氀ects that same approach.
She is not the kind of owner who sits above
her team. She works alongside them. Nothing
in her bars, nothing in her buildings during
construction or renovation, is beneath her.
The Trade-Offs Nobody Talks About
