26JJ-CPM_Working-Skeleton-Layout_20260406-NT - Flipbook - Page 25
is showing up for your city, your community, and
the people who protect both.
“Loving America is being part of making it a
better place,” she says. “Whatever space you’re
in, whatever job you do, wherever you live. Just
always improve that space. Improve someone
else’s life.”
It is an uncomplicated philosophy. And maybe
that is the point.
Grounded in Something Bigger
Every morning begins the same way for Joanna.
She wakes up next to Utah, her French Bulldog.
She unrolls her yoga mat on the beach. She does
a devotional. She reads.
Faith is not incidental to her life. It is
foundational. She attends Hope Lutheran Church
with her mother, and has also connected with
Destiny, one of the larger churches in the area.
“Being part of that church, having Bible studies,
keeping everything in check,” she says. “Having
family and your best friends around you. That’s
what keeps me grounded.”
In hard seasons, whether a hurricane, the BP
oil spill, or navigating a global pandemic with
multiple businesses on the line, she turns inward
before turning outward.
“What keeps me centered is taking care of
myself. Mind, body, and soul. Getting good sleep.
Staying close to myself during dif昀椀cult times so I
can be a strong leader for everyone around me.”
It is a lesson most leaders learn the hard way: you
cannot pour from an empty cup.
She also 昀椀lls that cup with intention. Steve
Bartlett’s podcast is a regular rotation. She
spends 30 minutes a day reading. She is taking
昀氀ight lessons again, and 昀椀nds a peace in the
cockpit that is hard to describe.
“Being up in the air, concentrating on just the
instruments, no phone. That’s where I 昀椀nd true
peace.”
What She Leaves Behind
Ask Joanna about legacy and her answer
is immediate, and completely in line with
everything she has already said.
“Personally, I want people to know I was a kind
and giving person. And through business, I
want Coyote Ugly to be a world-known name for
hundreds of years to come.”
That is it. No complicated legacy statement. No
brand manifesto. Just kindness, generosity, and
the quiet pride of having built something real.
Her advice to younger women is equally clear:
“Go for that business idea you’ve been thinking
about. Do it when you’re young. Calculate the risk
and go. What are you going to lose? If it doesn’t
work out, you go back to what you were doing
before.”
She lives by the Nike code, as she calls it. Just
do it. And then, when the roadblocks come, and
they always do, just do not quit.
“Never giving up,” she says. “That’s why the
strong entrepreneurs get through. Not because
they were never scared or never struggled.
Because they kept going.”
No Toning It Down
There is a question that has been circling this
conversation from the beginning. What does it
mean to live without dimming yourself down?
For Joanna Olsen, the answer is not complicated.
“I do not tone myself down anymore. When
you’re young, you do. Because that’s what
females are taught. We apologize. We adjust. We
live a little smaller. But I live in my true skin now. I
do what I want to do. I go where I want to go. And
that comes from having strong independence,
昀椀nancially and personally.”
She does not say this with bravado. She says it
the way someone says a fact they have earned
the right to say.
And when she walks into a room, no
announcement necessary, you understand
exactly what she means.
Joanna Olsen is the owner of Florida’s Coyote Ugly
Saloon locations and a longtime supporter of the
Anchorage Kids Foundation. She is based in Destin,
Florida.
