Rad Livin’: Meet Joanna Waterfall

I don’t even remember how I landed on The Yellow Conference because it was one of those internet searching days where you just feel like you are being led. The splash of yellow across the screen drew me in, but scrolling down and seeing what was next was when I really got chills…

“Are you a creative lady who wants to change the world? You’ve come to the right place.”

Tick. Tick. What is this thing?

“The Yellow Conference is a gathering for creative women who desire to ignite passion and bring goodness to the world through everyday living.”

There was going to be passionate, world-changing speakers, a network of like-minded people and it was going to be in California… it literally felt like I had just found the Coachella for young people who want to create good in the world. I had to know who was behind it, and that’s what I did.

Meet Joanna Waterfall…

Where are you in the world?

I’m currently living in a little bungalow in Burbank, CA with my husband, Nolan and two adorable cats, Pickles and Mochi.

How do you follow your bliss all year round?

There’s a quote by CS Lewis I constantly find myself referring back to. “You can’t get second things by putting them first. You get second things only by putting first things first.” My faith is the center of my life. Pursuing that first makes me want to do good things, to live an inspired life, to embrace every moment. When things are out of whack, I find that rearranging my priorities always brings me back to living a life I’m proud of. So to sum it up, keeping my priorities straight is the thing that allows me to follow my bliss year round!

When did the inspiration for The Yellow Conference first come about?

It was an idea that came to me in the shower – a place where our brains can finally slow down for a moment, allowing us to pay attention to our ideas. I had recently met some amazing women who were doing such great things in the world. I was thinking about how cool they were, and how it would be so awesome to get a group of women like this together to talk about and teach others how to use your gifts to spread good. I have a lot of ideas on a day to day basis (too many!!) but this was one I knew I had to follow through with. It was one of those things that made my heart beat fast, made me feel extremely scared, yet totally excited at the same time. I knew it had to happen!

If fear ever shows up in your life, how do you move passed it?

Fear shows up all the time in my life!! It’s honestly a daily battle for me to fight off fear. Being that my faith really is the center of my life, I’m always reminding myself that I don’t have to rely on my strength alone, but in God’s. Even though I am weak, He is strong. I’m not sure if I’ve ever experienced a moment where I’m completely free of fear, but I think having the courage to still act, even when you are fearful is the key.

Why do you love what you do?

One of the biggest reasons I love what I do is because of the freedom I have. I LOVE working for myself- having the freedom to work from the beach, a coffee shop, or leave town for a week and as long as I have my laptop and a wifi connection, I can work! I also love that I’m able to be creative, if I have an idea I want to do, I don’t have to take it up with the boss- I can do it! It’s very freeing to know that the sky really is the limit with what I can do.

What’s one of the biggest risks you’ve taken, and how did it feel to go for it?

This is a tough question! It’s hard to analyze what makes a risk “big” or “small”. As far as life change goes, I think the biggest risk I’ve ever taken is getting married. To commit your entire life to doing life with someone is a really big deal- there’s so much that can go wrong! It takes a ton of trust in your partner and commitment on both ends. I’m thankful to say that marriage has been one of the best things that has happened to me, but making that jump was definitely risky!

Tell us a time when something totally synchronistic happened…

I feel like this kind of stuff happens to me all the time! We live in such a small world and with the internet it’s totally getting smaller. The most recent one that comes to mind is that I really desperately needed someone to do a job for me at The Yellow Conference. I needed someone with a very specific skillset. I didn’t know anyone and was kinda panicking over what to do. I prayed and asked God to help me cause I was feeling very helpless. Literally that same day a woman emailed me asking if she could help out at the conference, and it turned out she had the exact skill set I was looking for. Totally cool and crazy!!

What advice could you give to someone who knows what they love to do, but haven’t gone for it?

I would tell them to think about why they love what they love. What their strengths are and what their weaknesses are. What kind of help will they need to get to make their dreams a reality? What will they need to sacrifice and are they willing to do that? Doing what you love is the best thing ever- it’s an opportunity that we have in modern times with resources being so accessible to us. But it also takes a lot of hard work and sacrifice to do it right. Don’t get me wrong- it’s SO worth it! Anything worth having takes hard work, right? So if you are debating whether you should reach for your biggest dreams or not- I say go for it, IF you are willing to work your booty off, ask for lots of help, and not stop at failure. When you’re able to do these things- the world is your oyster! Make the world a better place by coming alive and doing what you love.

Joanna Waterfall runs a little graphic design studio called Waterfall Creative. Her goal is to inspire others and keep things real around here. This space is an outlet for her and her connection to the creative people who are hanging out around this internet land. Enjoy!

Check out her beautiful blog here and follow her journey on Instagram x