Meet The Founder/CEO

My name is Joanie Teaken but I go by “JoJo.” I would love to take the opportunity and share my personal story with all of my potential “Glam Squad” clients. 

My background

I was born in Haiti and my father brought me to the United States at the age of five. I reside in West Palm Beach, FL during my younger years up on to my senior year in high school. My parents moved to a city called Port Saint Lucie, FL approximately 45 minutes from West Palm Beach. I stayed there for a few years and soon after made the big move to Orlando, FL. I attended University of Central Florida (GO KNIGHTS!!) where I received my bachelor’s and my master’s degree in Human Resources.  I’ve been in Orlando for 12 years now and loving it! 

Skip forward to present day….

I am a Human Resource Manager and an Event Planner (who says you can’t have your cake and eat it too? LOL).  I am a mother of three handsome boys (yeap! all boys lol) by the name of Julian, (11) Adam, (5) and Colin (2) my “JAC3.” They keep me busy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am a Christian and an active member at The Experience Christian Center. My father is a Pastor, so I’ve been in church my whole life, so excuse me if I get a little “churchy” as I write this bio-LOL.

What led me to open my own event planning business?

Outside of Human Resources, event planning has always been my passion. I have been doing event planning for over seven years. I love the idea of looking at an empty space and turn it into something magical. I get satisfaction of seeing the smile on my clients, family and friends faces when they see how I transformed their vision into reality. 

I lost my corporate job during the pandemic and that was the push I needed to officially launch by event planning business. I was scared and nervous and questioned if I was good enough. I struggled tenaciously with my mind on whether I should open my business for months. sometimes, we get comfortable in our comfort zone and often it will take us losing something to get out of our comfort zone and walk into our purpose. I would have never had such a burning passion and desire to start my own business if I was never laid off. I wanted to wait for the perfect time or for things to align but then I realized there's no perfect time and I needed to take a leap of faith and trust God to guide me along the way. I knew if I just took the first step, then God would do the rest and provide me with the resources, the right connections, the funds, vendors, and the favor I needed to start my business and open my own wedding venue. Here I am, living my dream!

My purpose in life

My passion and my purpose: to be a servant leader, be an example of Jesus Christ Love, and to do kingdom work for God.  when you book an event with JoJo's Glitz & Glam Event Planning, you are not just investing in my business, but you are doing something bigger than yourself. You are sharing in the kingdom work vision that I have, which is spreading the love of Jesus Christ and giving back to our communities. With Faith, Hard Work, consistency... I am living my dream!