hi! i’m joanna
(and yes, waterfall is my real last name)
I’m a brand consultant, founder, facilitator, speaker & community builder. I LOVE helping brands create better (and more effective) experiences for their customers, both online and off.
Scroll down to read a bit more about me and my story. So glad you’re here!
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Are you old enough to remember the OG internet blogging days? Let me tell you. Before there were “influencers” there were “bloggers”. And it was a glorious time. This is where my career journey started.
Inspired by the many female designers blogs I followed back in the day, I switched my major from Fine Arts to Graphic Design & Digital Media. I blogged almost everyday and started to build up my freelance design career. After working as a a graphic designer at an agency for a few years, I eventually went fulltime freelance and moved into my own creative studio, Waterfall Creative.
After running my creative studio for a few years, I began wondering what was next for me. I was feeling desperately lonely while working from home (pre pandemic!) and the creative part of me started craving space to be free outside of client work.
After an idea struck me in the shower, I decided to create a conference called Yellow Conference. A gathering for entrepreneurial creatives who were using their businesses to make an impact for good.
Turns out, people were impacted by the spaces we were creating, and the Yellow community started to form.
We went from hosting 100 women at a photo studio in El Segundo to hosting over 500 women Downtown LA in just a few short years.
With the desire to connect this community outside of an annual conference, we launched the Yellow Co. membership community.
I led the team as we developed and curated a quarterly box of do-good product, alongside a magazine and monthly gatherings for our members hosted all over the world while still continuing to take on clients through my design studio.
Somewhere throughout this timeline, I got married and had my two babies (who I guess aren’t actually babies anymore??). They’re my everything and all the cliches are true.
Saying I’m obsessed with them doesn’t even cut it.
CUE 2020 AND A GLOBAL PANDEMIC
When the pandemic shut down most of our ongoing initiatives for the Yellow Co. community, we stayed strong and pivoted to Zoom, a testament to their passion for this space.
We began meeting in virtual Guidance Groups, having digital co-working sessions and goal setting events to stay connected, inspired and motivated throughout the pandemic.
Today, the Yellow Community remains strong. Meeting both virually and in-person, as we brought back our annual conference just in 2023 (imagine connecting virtually for YEARS then being in person to hug. It was GLORIOUS).
MERGING ALL MY EXPERIENCE TO HELP
YOUR BRAND THRIVE
There’s nothing I love more than taking what I’ve learned both as a founder and a designer to help other brands build community with their businesses and create impactful experiences for them both online and off. With 13+ years of experience, I believe we can make the world a better place through merging creativity, business, and social good.
Ready to begin our journey together??
Let’s chat!