How I Got 1 Billion Views From My Living Room Floor (& Why I Almost Didn't Share It) | Grow With Jo

A billion views. Twelve million women. All of it started on a living room floor, postpartum, in lockdown, with a phone and no plan. Jo had gained fifty pounds, she was in the middle of postpartum depression, and she has said her body was nothing she recognized. She almost didn't press record. She thought if she showed up looking like that, people would look away.

Listen On

Spotify IconApple Podcast IconAmazon Music Iconpandora icon

Show Description

A billion views. Twelve million women. All of it started on a living room floor, postpartum, in lockdown, with a phone and no plan. Jo had gained fifty pounds, she was in the middle of postpartum depression, and she has said her body was nothing she recognized. She almost didn't press record. She thought if she showed up looking like that, people would look away.

She showed up anyway. Not for an audience, not for the algorithm, not even for the woman she used to be. And that quiet decision, made on a bad day when nothing felt possible, is the whole reason twelve million women found her.

We got into the girl before all of it. One of eleven kids, a family band, university at sixteen. Why she gave up training athletes to train regular women. The husband she met on a shoot, the one who never pulls her down. The woman in China who told her that her smile through a screen was the only thing that got her through the pandemic. The first stage she ever walked onto turned out to be an arena of forty thousand.

And she said the smartest thing about consistency I've heard anyone say out loud. It isn't a daily workout. It's knowing what season you're actually in and showing up for that one. Two fifteen-minute workouts a week after a baby counts. So does a workout every day when life lets you. Neither one is failing.

We talk about transformation like the point is the after photo. I don't think it is. The real story is the woman who got on the floor when nothing felt possible and chose herself anyway. Coming home to yourself isn't a transformation. It's a decision. Quiet, daily, usually made when no one is watching.

You can find Jo on:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growwithjo

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@growwithjo

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@growwithjo

Follow Valeria:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valerialipovetsky

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@valeria.lipovetsky

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ValeriaLipovetsky

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/valerialipovetskyblog

Follow Not Alone:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/notalonepod

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@notalone.pod

Podcast: https://www.notalonepod.com/

Shop

Shop my look from this episode: https://shopmy.us/collections/6634193

Amazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/valerialipovetsky

What We Talked About:

3:00 The girl before Grow With Jo

3:41 One of eleven kids, and a family band

8:52 University at sixteen

11:04 A new school, and learning to adapt

14:03 Why she left training athletes for regular women

17:26 The moment she knew she could reach more people

19:46 This is what I actually look like now

21:50 The first baby, and the lockdown

22:57 The weight, and the out-of-body feeling

24:19 It gave me purpose instead of feeling sorry for myself

24:44 The first step was the living room floor

25:19 Too embarrassed to film at first

26:01 I didn't want to do my therapy in public

26:56 Moving to Florida, four months postpartum

28:19 Posting it on YouTube, and I guess that's what I do now

28:41 Meeting her husband on a shoot

32:33 China, and the woman whose day her smile got through

35:47 Her first stage was forty thousand people

38:30 Consistency is not a daily workout

40:13 Stay consistent to stay confident

41:04 Faith, and crying through a workout

44:10 Coming home to yourself is not a transformation

45:21 Larry, the husband who never pulls her down

46:44 The loneliness of building alone

48:34 Why she sought out Creator Method

50:58 London, and the power of the right environment

52:41 Where Grow With Jo goes next

54:53 Not alone, and women meeting in person

55:21 Keeping the team small and the culture intact

56:45 One thing she'd tell the woman on her couch

58:14 Rapid fire

1:01:52 Close

LISTEN ON

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Johanna Sophia

Johanna Sophia, known to twelve million women as Grow With Jo, is a fitness creator, entrepreneur, and mother who built one of the most recognized at-home workout communities in the world. A kinesiologist by training, she started filming no-equipment workouts on her living room floor while postpartum and in lockdown, and grew it into a brand, an app, a team, and a YouTube channel that has surpassed one billion views. Ten years in, the same Jo from the living room still shows up in the content. She is a wife, a mother of three, and a woman who built a global movement one workout at a time.

Credits

More Episodes

View all
HomeEpisodesAboutPresscontact