10 Years, 10 Lessons: When You Turn Over the Power
READ TIME: 10 mins
Who do you trust most in this world?
Think about that person.
Now ask yourself:
How many times have you laughed with them?
How many times have you cried together?
Trust isn’t built through compliance. It’s built through shared experience.
In traditional microcredit, weekly meetings are an early warning system. If people show up, repayment is strong. If attendance drops, risk rises.
Meetings = compliance. Compliance = repayment.
But when starting JUST, we had a different hope.
What if meetings weren’t about compliance? What if they became a wellspring of support and strength?
What if entrepreneurs wanted to attend?
LESSON 3: Turning Over Power
The JETA Experiment🔬
At the start of 2017, we made a big bet that the community could lead itself. We would stop running all the weekly meetings ourselves. Instead, we would train leaders from within the 106 Pioneras.
We called these leaders JUST Entrepreneur Trust Agents — JETAs.
As we were designing the JETA training program, I explored other successful models of entrepreneur communities.
"Most of us freely share 90% of our lives with others."
Tim Hamilton led the Austin chapter of EO (Entrepreneur’s Organization), exclusive to CEOs of companies with millions in revenue. He shared the structure that allowed small support groups to function without oversight. The hallmark is the Forum — small groups of six to eight peers who meet regularly. The hope is that entrepreneurs feel comfortable enough to share the “5%” that you can’t with anyone else.
Tim explained, “Most of us freely share 90% of our lives with others. What EO demands is that we share the 5% of things we are most proud of and the deepest fears trapped in the bottom 5%. We share things in the Forum that we can’t share with anyone else.”
The idea is simple but very difficult. Safe spaces are needed for vulnerability, and true vulnerability is needed for change to happen.
One simple principle stood out:
Share experiences. Don’t give advice.
That idea traces back to the Gestalt method of therapy. No fixing. No preaching. Just honest experience.
We built our community structure on simple principles that almost anyone could follow. We knew that community was the asset, so leadership had to come from within.
The Timing Problem (And the Crack in Trust) 💔
Shifting to this new JETA model introduced a timing problem and a choice to be made.
We were shifting power to the community to lead, but there was an eight-week gap before the new JETA program would be ready.
We had to decide: renew loans with the original 106 women — even though they no longer had groups and no one even knew what a JETA was — or not?
To find the answer, we returned to our fundamental question, “Does this build trust?”
There was little debate. We had to renew loans to fulfill our end of the trust bargain.
So we did two things:
Every borrower would have a co-signer — another entrepreneur from the 106. This is their Trusted Partner, inspired by Sponsors in AA.
The original small support groups would decide the loan amount for their peers. JUST set a “do not exceed” limit of $2,000.
We believed this would reduce risk and build a sense of shared accountability. Everyone would reach the lending maximum.
Except one.
Let’s call her ‘Kelly’.
Her group felt she was risky and thought we should offer her a smaller loan. There wasn't really a rhyme or reason — they simply felt she wasn't responsible.
When I handed Kelly the check, her face said it all.
Surprised. Hurt. Angry.
She asked why.
At that moment, I made a conscious decision.
I was going to take full responsibility and was not going to blame her group for the decision to reduce her loan amount.
The reality was I did have the power and did make the final decision. And to be clear, it didn’t feel right. She showed up in the way we asked. She paid us back. Came to group meetings. The group dynamic was tense at times, so the decisions were more emotional than analytical.
Yet, Kelly took the check. She cashed it. And she decided not to repay. Not because she couldn’t, but because trust had ruptured.
Ivonne and I took a number of steps to get repaid and rebuild the relationship. Kelly wasn't interested. Our new model had removed the social pressure of the group. Kelly's Trusted Partner was hardly a friend. She felt little sense of responsibility — little awareness that her choice would affect someone else.
Kelly was the first loan we ever wrote off.
The Hard Lesson: No Surprises 🚫
That moment changed JUST’s point of view in building trust.
Trust is fragile at the beginning. A surprise — even a small one — can fracture the delicate balance between trust and distrust.
This painful lesson led us to create policies with clear, black-and-white criteria — no ambiguity. So much so that today, we have fully automated the entire process of making trust-based business loans.
Today, every entrepreneur knows exactly what to expect — no surprises.
Since then, we’ve deployed over $50M with a 99% repayment rate — without requiring weekly meeting compliance.
Some JETAs meet weekly. Some take breaks during busy seasons. Some gather monthly. Some connect virtually.
Compliance has become a systems issue. Trust is and always will be a human condition.
The job of JUST became building new, more, and better ways to support our community.
Share experiences. Don't give advice.
Inside the Casita🏠
We built the first eight-week JETA leadership program in the JUST “garage” — the Casita.
As a team, we got clear on what the training program was and was not. We needed to build deep trust with the JETA-in-training. We wanted her to become a confident facilitator of conversations. She didn’t need to be an expert or a teacher.
She would be an extension of trust. A role model. A believer and champion of her community.
We built the eight-week leadership program around two simple ideas:
Practice facilitating
Building trust
Practicing facilitation was easy. We’d brainstorm topics. Put them all in a hat and pick a topic. The JETAs-in-training would have a conversation. Our mantra was printed on each small group breakout: “Share experiences. Don’t give advice.”
“Anyone can learn the lesson they need to.” Ivonne would remind everyone why sharing experiences feels different, better. We were building a judgment-free community, and we knew that giving advice often misses the point.
But before we started the conversation, we would take three deep breaths together and share one word. This grounding exercise still anchors every JUST meeting 10 years later.
Designing a leadership program that would build trust was more nuanced.
I thought deeply about who I trusted most in this world. I kept seeing the faces of the friends I trusted most. We laughed until we cried. And tears of sorrow were met with love and support.
This introspection gave me hope that we could build a different version of microcredit. One that inspired laughter and was a safe space to share your biggest fears.
So for eight weeks, every session ended with a game.
Musical chairs. Bingo. Celebrity.
It sounds ridiculous. But laughter builds connection.
We also found moments for depth. In one session, we took time to breathe and imagine ourselves at 80 — the life we would have lived, the legacy we would leave. Those tears built a different kind of connection.
Yet, in hindsight, I still didn’t trust. I feared we would fail and knew we only had one chance.
"We have to take care of ourselves to care for others."
Mari: A Wallflower Capable of More 🌷
During the first JETA sessions, we tracked everything.
Did they look at their phone? Did they bring their notebook? Were they prepared?
I thought I could assess who had potential, or worse yet, who was worthy of being a leader. Ivonne, Erika, and I were going to create a scoring system to control who would and would not qualify to be a leader.
I worried it would be too much for some.
Mari was one of the original 106. She signed up to become a JETA. She was always present. But she didn’t have the loudest voice. She almost hid her laugh. She was already carrying so much: her business, her children, caring for her mother.
I wasn’t sure Mari could really lead.
Then one day, during a discussion, we asked the JETAs-in-training:
“Why does supporting our community matter? What will make this successful?”
Mari spoke up. “We have to take care of ourselves to care for others.”
It was simple. Clear. Grounded. Who was I to decide she wasn’t ready? Mari became one of our first JETAs. Over the last decade, she has approved over 100 loans and unlocked more than $200,000 for herself and her peers.
I learned something uncomfortable: Do not underestimate the community. And do not overestimate your own judgment.
What Changed ✨
The JETA model shifted something fundamental. In traditional microcredit, risk shifts to the group. We, however, turned over power to the group.
JUST stopped requiring weekly meetings to ensure repayment compliance. Financial transactions were removed from group meetings. Individual responsibility emerged. Delinquency of 1–7 days became invaluable data, not something to eliminate.
JETAs offered a more efficient model with a growth path that fostered less stress and more joy. JUST now focuses on equipping leaders rather than managing compliance.
Today, our role is clear:
Encourage, equip, and support JETAs to lead the community.
Everything JUST offers — capital, coaching, and community — is in service of our entrepreneurs' dreams.
The Lesson: If You Want Trust, You Have to Let Go 🧠
Two things became clear:
If you control everything, you don’t actually trust.
You’re just managing risk.Community leadership is messy.
There will be a rupture. There will be doubt. There will be moments where you realize you don’t know, and that is the point.
Letting go felt terrifying. I didn’t ignore the fear, but found ways to mitigate the risk. The loan is where most of JUST’s risk lies. So, entering the JETA-led model, we cut the loan amount and duration in half.
We didn’t hold on to control. We realized exploring something new and scary left room for the unexpected.
The JETA model allowed us to scale trust. Small groups could now be the wellspring of support.
And in doing so, radically shifted power toward the women we serve and how JUST shows up for our community.
Practical Exercise: Power Audit 🛠️
If you lead an organization, ask yourself:
Where am I holding power that the community could hold?
What decisions am I making “for efficiency” that might be limiting ownership?
Where might clarity eliminate surprises?
Map one decision this month that you could co-design instead of dictating.
Start small.
But start.
Up Next 👣
Building with and for the community is one thing. Funding it is another. When it came time for the rubber to meet the road and raise money, I went back to what we believe: Community is an irreplaceable asset.
So I asked my friends for help. But we did something just a little different.
Next: How we financed a trust-based experiment.
