Hi! I’m Joanna
I’m a mom, coach, and creator with deep experience in life transitions, personal branding, and strategy — helping women navigate what’s next.
Hi! I’m Joanna
I’m a mom, a coach, and a creator with deep experience in life transitions, personal branding, and strategy… helping women navigate motherhood, identity shifts, and reinvention while building lives that actually fit.
Nesting Story has always been about real life
I created Nesting Story in 2013 as a place to document and process my own life… the beauty, the mess, the questions… and over time, it became something much bigger: a globally recognized lifestyle and parenting platform, a long-running YouTube channel, and a community rooted in honesty rather than perfection.
At its core, Nesting Story has always been about real life.
Not the polished version. The lived one.
And that hasn’t changed.
How Nesting Story Began
When I started Nesting Story, I had two young children and had just left my interior design job to launch a design and mural painting business. The blog lived quietly on my website… a creative outlet, nothing more.
Then, later that year, I found out I was pregnant with surprise twins.
That pregnancy was hard… physically, mentally, emotionally. I spent most days on the sofa, a pillow between my knees, parenting my older kids while craving connection and reassurance that I wasn’t alone.
I searched endlessly for honest stories from other mothers of multiples. I devoured blogs. I wanted the details… the truth.
I promised myself that once the dust settled, I would tell my story too.
When Honesty Changed Everything
After my twins were born in 2014, I relaunched Nesting Story as a personal blog.
By 2015, with four kids under six, I started sharing what life really looked like… no filters. One post in particular, “What four kids (including twins) has done to my body and my confidence,” went viral and opened conversations about postpartum bodies I never expected to be part of.
Suddenly, Nesting Story wasn’t just a blog. It was a conversation. A permission slip.
I began being interviewed and featured by outlets like Cosmopolitan, People, Today Show, and major Canadian networks. What resonated wasn’t aspiration… it was honesty.
As My Life Changed, Nesting Story Change With It
What began as a personal blog grew into a global platform as I navigated motherhood, career shifts, identity changes, and reinvention in real time. As my children grew, so did the content… expanding into YouTube, lifestyle, wellness, home, and identity, and eventually becoming my full-time work. In 2017, Nesting Story was named a YouTube Creator on the Rise, but behind the milestones was the same question I kept asking myself over and over: How do you build a life that actually works for the season you’re in?
That question became personal in a deeper way in 2019, when my marriage ended and I found myself rebuilding as a single mom of four. I stepped back publicly, focused on my kids, and quietly figured out how to put the pieces back together. Like so many women, I was navigating grief, responsibility, career pressure, and identity… all at once.
In 2021, my kids and I moved to Burlington, Ontario for a fresh start. That same year, my now-husband Ben and I co-founded The Water Cooler, a branding and digital marketing company that grew quickly, supporting creators and brands across North America. Later, I served as Head of Talent at a large talent agency, mentoring creators, leading teams, and guiding growth, strategy, and personal branding across platforms.
Along the way, I learned how to build businesses, lead teams, and navigate careers… but more importantly, I learned how to adapt, recalibrate, and keep moving forward when life doesn’t go according to plan.
Today, I’m a mom of five and a Life Transition Coach… and by necessity, a problem-solver. I’m in my forties, in a new season, with a blended family, a forever home, and a clearer sense of purpose than ever before. Nesting Story is once again the place where everything comes together: real-life storytelling and life transition support.
This chapter is about helping women navigate change… motherhood, career shifts, identity evolution, reinvention… and come out the other side grounded, clear, and thriving. Not by having all the answers, but by learning how to work with the life that’s actually in front of you.
Here’s How I Can Support You Now
If you’re here, chances are you’re in a season of transition, or standing on the edge of one.
Maybe you’re a mother trying to balance career, identity, and family without disappearing in the process. Maybe you’re rebuilding after a major life shift… divorce, burnout, reinvention, aging, or starting again. Maybe you’re craving clarity, steadiness, and a way forward that doesn’t require burning everything down.
Through workshops, one-on-one support, and ongoing storytelling here on Nesting Story, I help women slow down, get honest about what’s actually happening in their lives, and figure out how to move forward — practically, sustainably, and on their own terms.
This isn’t about fixing you. It’s about helping you find yourself where you are.