Joahna TupasJoahna Tupas
AuthorSpeakerCoach
Writing a book, planning a meaningful trip, or looking for a way forward? Joahna helps you see new possibilities, understand more deeply, and take the next step with courage.
Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award. Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. Marquis Who’s Who Top Professional Women and Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators. Contributing author to bestselling anthologies.
Also featured by Kennedy Center / VSA, She Rises Studios, Stardom101, and more. See all appearances and affiliates
How Joahna can help
Author
Read her books. Write your own.
Five current books are available, including bestselling anthologies on education, professional speaking, entrepreneurship, purposeful travel, healing, and resilience. Her publishing service turns your experience, expertise, or idea into a published book.
Publish your bookSpeaker
Book her. Watch the show. Be a guest.
Joahna speaks on courage, experiential learning, creativity, character education, resilience, and reinvention for conferences, organizations, schools, podcasts, workshops, and events. See her previous speakerships, and watch her TV show, the Courage 1st Talk Show, on Apple TV and Roku.
Book Joahna to speakCoach
For individuals, parents, educators, families, and organizations.
Life coaching and education for awareness, communication, perspective, resilience, and intentional action, backed by certifications in NLP, ACEs ToT, CPI, and SPED, a Master's in Education Management, a Bachelor's in Multimedia Arts, and ongoing applied Psychology study. Through BohoChic, travel with intention or build your own travel brand.
Book a discovery conversationHelp Joahna become the next Top Host
Take courageous conversations to a bigger stage.
Joahna is competing in the 2026 Top Host Competition. For her, hosting means discovering the person behind the story: the experiences, music, and communities that shaped them, and the moments when courage had to come before confidence. Voting is free and opens October 5.
Competition rules, eligibility, voting, and prizes are governed by Top Host.
Courage 1st Talk Show
Real stories. Courageous conversations.
Courage 1st Talk Show is a digital TV show hosted by Joahna on OnStage+ Digital TV, streamed in over 50 countries. Its pilot season was released in 2023, and the show is making a comeback in 2027. Watch encouraging and motivational stories from individuals from all walks of life on Apple TV and Roku.
The Courage Project
Your story could give someone else courage.
The Courage Project is a social campaign. What does courage look like for you? Record a 30 to 90 second video about one decision, one conversation, one beginning, one life-changing experience, or one lesson, and add it to the project.
Share my courage storyWhy a culture of courage?
Courage makes every other value possible.
Innovation, leadership, compassion, and change all require courage. It gives you the ability to take the first step, challenge limiting assumptions, and keep going when the familiar feels safer.
“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities…because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”Winston Churchill
“Courage is the first of human qualities because it’s the quality which guarantees the others.”Aristotle
BohoChic: travel as therapy
Sometimes changing your perspective begins by changing your view.
BohoChic is Joahna's travel-advisor brand through InteleTravel, built on The BohoChic Brand Bible.
Travel as Therapy • Empowered Women • Global Adventures
Its journeys make room for rest, reflection, connection, discovery, learning, celebration, and renewal.
Plan a journeyBuild your own travel brand
Become your own agent.
BohoChic is also a way into travel as a business of your own, with your own brand. Ask Joahna how it works.
Become an agentInnovate. Educate. Inspire.
Three words that guide how Joahna lives, learns, and leads, and why she believes courage comes first. Her story runs through art, education, service, travel, and the lessons life taught along the way. Read the story behind the work.
Read Joahna's storyThe next chapter does not have to look like the last one.
Tell the story. Ask the question. Start the conversation. Take the journey. And when you are not completely ready, courage first. Legacy forward.
Start the conversationStay connected
Get updates on books, speaking and events, the Courage 1st Talk Show, The Courage Project, coaching, BohoChic travel, and new projects.
About Joahna Tupas
Not boxed in.Built to expand.
We are not meant to be boxed in. We are meant to expand. Joahna is living proof that a life can be limitless, not limited: I am possible, not impossible.
Some people know exactly what they want to become. Others, like Joahna, collect experiences first and watch the pattern take shape. Her path has moved through art, entrepreneurship, education, service, travel, writing, speaking, coaching, and social emotional competence, and each chapter expanded the next until they told one story.
In brief
Joahna Tupas is a best-selling author, global speaker, entrepreneur, and certified educator who champions women of resilience and people of courage. She is Founder and Chief Consultant of School in a Backpack, an initiative focused on experiential learning and character education, and Co-Founder of MustardSeeds Solutions, a Philippine-rooted business supporting international founders and brands. Guided by her philosophy, Innovate. Educate. Inspire., she promotes courageous living, travel therapy, and innovative entrepreneurship.
Artist. Entrepreneur. Educator. Philanthropist. Sojourner.
Before she became an author, speaker, or coach, Joahna was learning to look at life through different lenses.
- As an artist, she learned that creativity is how we express who we are, and to see possibility before it was visible to everyone else.
- As an entrepreneur, she learned that confidence grows from knowing who you are, and that ideas only matter when someone has the character and courage to act on them.
- As an educator, she discovered that people do not all learn, communicate, or experience the world in the same way, and that every person has strengths, their competence, to build on.
- As a philanthropist and volunteer, she learned that knowledge and opportunity mean more when shared, and that compassion and the connections we build with others are where service becomes real.
- As a sojourner, she discovered what happens when people step outside the familiar long enough to see themselves, and the world, from another perspective, and found a core, rooted in faith, that stays steady wherever she goes.
Each role changed her. None required her to abandon the others.
The questions changed too.
An early interest in Psychology drew Joahna toward understanding people. Each chapter after that added a question.
- Creativity: What else could this become?
- Education: How does this person learn?
- Special Education: What might this behavior be communicating?
- Travel: What changes when we experience life from somewhere else?
- Entrepreneurship: What happens if we stop waiting and build the thing anyway?
And life kept asking: what do we do when the next chapter arrives before we feel ready for it?
That question is central to everything Joahna does today.
Innovate. Educate. Inspire.
Joahna's personal philosophy since her college years. Less a slogan than a way of moving through life.
Innovate.
Deviate from the norm.
Question the obvious answer, step off the well-worn path, combine experiences that do not seem connected, and look at a problem differently enough to find another way forward.
Educate.
Learning is a way of life.
A love of learning does not end at graduation. Every experience, relationship, mistake, and story carries a life lesson, and those lessons can build us and rebuild us instead of tearing us down. Learning is not something we finish. It is how we live.
Inspire.
Be the change you want to see.
Actions speak louder than words, and yet words have power. Inspire by doing, then encourage and empower others by sharing enough of the journey that they think: maybe I can take my next step too.
Sometimes courage has to come first.
Confidence often comes after the courageous step.
People wait for confidence to write the book, start the business, have the conversation, ask for help, change direction, speak up, or begin again. Joahna's own journey taught her to move first.
Underneath it is an anchor Joahna returns to again and again: get up. Keep healing, keep rising, keep living life to the fullest, no matter what you face. It quietly steadies everything in her personal philosophy.
That anchor is the root of Courage 1st, her talk show and conversation platform, and The Courage Project, a social campaign inviting people to share their own moments of courage. Courage becomes more relatable when it has a face, a voice, and a story.
Explore Courage 1st and The Courage ProjectDifferent people. Different questions.
Joahna sees through seven lenses: education, social-emotional competence, creativity, communication, entrepreneurship, leadership, and lived experience. Together they help her see more of the person in front of her. The work begins with understanding where that person is.
A foundation for the work
Joahna's approach is informed by professional training and study across communication, adversity, behavior, learning, and personal development.
Training and study
- NLP: Neuro-Linguistic Programming
- ACEs ToT: Adverse Childhood Experiences Training of Trainers
- CPI: Crisis Prevention Intervention
- SPED: Special Education
- Master's in Education Management
- Bachelor's in Multimedia Arts
- Psychology studies, including ongoing study in Modern Applied Psychology
- Art therapy experience
Recognition
- Presidential Recommendation Message, Office of the 16th President of the Republic of the Philippines
- Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award (2023)
- Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award (2022)
- Marquis Top Educators (2022)
- Who's Who of Professional Women (2023)
- Three-time Amazon Bestselling Author since 2022
- Hoinser Top 50 Innovator (2023)
- Making Headline News International Women’s Day Woman of the Year (2023)
- Who's Who in America
Appearances and affiliates
Where Joahna's story and message have appeared in print, online, and on air, with the organizations she serves alongside.
In the news
Also featured by Kennedy Center / VSA, Stardom101, and in additional interviews.
On magazine covers
Podcast guestings
Hosting a show? Invite Joahna as a guest.
Super Bowl LVII Media Week, Arizona (2023)
Leadership Experience Tour (2023)
Recognition moments
Affiliations and service
- Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary
- International Women Artists Inc., New York
- Arizona School Health & Wellness Coalition
- School in a Backpack (Founder and Chief Consultant)
- MustardSeeds Solutions (Co-Founder)
Along with publishing, education, media, and community collaborators.
What becomes possible
What can become possible when we understand more, and have the courage to act on it? Healing. Rising. Living life to the fullest, whatever comes. Today, all of Joahna's chapters meet in three places.
Maybe your life does not fit neatly into one box either.
Maybe you have changed directions more than once, or you are still working out how your experiences belong together. Maybe there is a story you have been carrying, a conversation you have been avoiding, or a project you have been postponing.
Joahna does not begin by telling you who to become. She begins with curiosity about where you are, what you have lived, what you already know, and what may now be possible.
Start a conversation with JoahnaInnovate. Educate. Inspire. And when certainty has not arrived yet, courage first. Legacy forward.
Author
Stories aremeant to move.
From experience to words. From words to impact.
Joahna Tupas writes from the places where courage, resilience, learning, healing, legacy, travel, entrepreneurship, and reinvention meet.
Five books. Five chapters. One thread.
Across five collaborative books, Joahna has turned different chapters of life into stories that invite readers to reflect, learn, heal, begin again, and live more courageously.
The stories are different, but the themes keep returning.
Some stories began in classrooms.
Some began on journeys.
Some came from adversity.
Some came from starting over.
And some began with the people whose influence continues long after they are gone.
A story does not have to end with the person who lived it. Sometimes it becomes the story that helps someone else begin.
The books
The Legacy of Resilient Women
Bold, Brave & Beautiful. Featuring Joahna's chapter, “Unbothered.”
The Legacy of Resilient Women celebrates women who transformed adversity into impact. Joahna's chapter, “Unbothered,” is a powerful reflection on courage, healing, and personal freedom. Drawing from lived experience, she invites readers, especially women, to rise above fear, criticism, expectations, and the pressure to seek permission for the lives they want to live.
Her story explores what happens when someone stops letting other people's opinions decide how fully she shows up in the world. Scars do not have to become shame. They can become evidence of survival. Healing can become freedom. Courage can become authenticity.
Bold. Brave. Beautiful. Whole. Radiant. Unapologetically unbothered.
Buy on Amazon
Dare to Dream Big
Scaling, Innovation & Success in Entrepreneurship. A USA best seller.
What happens when life asks someone to begin again? In Dare to Dream Big, Joahna reflects on resilience, creativity, faith, entrepreneurship, and the courage to start over after setbacks.
At the heart of her contribution is something deeply personal: a tribute to her father. His story became part of hers. His lessons became values she carried forward, and his entrepreneurial spirit shaped how she understands perseverance, possibility, courage, and new beginnings. Legacy is not simply what someone leaves behind. It is what continues to live through the people they shaped.
Starting again does not mean starting from nothing. People begin again carrying the lessons they learned, the love they received, the mistakes they survived, the wisdom passed down to them, and the legacy of those who helped shape who they became.
Every ending carries the possibility of another beginning. And sometimes choosing to dream again becomes one of the most meaningful ways to honor the people who shaped us.
Buy the paperback on Amazon
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
Purposeful Travelers Share Their Stories of Healing
Purposeful travelers share their stories of healing, and Joahna is one of the contributing authors. The book became an Amazon best seller, and it explores how stepping outside the familiar can become a path toward healing, understanding, and a new perspective.
Buy on Amazon
The World's Greatest Speakers
Stories of global speakers
A collaborative book about the road traveled to become a global speaker. Joahna’s chapter shares the 4 Keys to Courage and dives into her own journey, especially as a third culture speaker. The launch was hosted by Shawn Fair, owner of The Leadership Experience Tour, with the authors talking about the book and their journeys.
Buy on Amazon
World Schoolers
Innovative Parents Turning Countries Into Classrooms
Authentic stories written by passionate homeschooling moms who know that travel is the best education. Joahna is one of the contributing authors.
Buy on AmazonInvite Joahna Tupas for a book reading or author signing.
Bring Joahna to your bookstore, library, school, church, conference, or community event for a reading, a conversation about her chapters, or an author signing.
Invite JoahnaPublish with Joahna
You have lived, learned, built, survived, or discovered something worth putting into words.
Through her publishing service, Joahna supports aspiring authors who want to turn experience, expertise, or an idea into a published book.
- Books
- Story development
- Self-publishing
Neisha T. Mulchen, FNP-NP
Scientist in neuro, psych, and wellness. CEO and co-founder of Diversely Geek, and owner and CEO of Living Bangtan 7.
Seven Gems & Seven Doors
The Healing Messages of Bangtan Sonyeondan
We Are Now Ready to Progress… Step 1
Written as a narration of how spiritually influential Bangtan's stories and messages have been in Neisha's life. While hosting live shows during the group's hiatus, she had deep, life-changing conversations, and from them came seven stages of self-transformative healing. Each stage connects to a chapter, and each chapter follows part of her own journey to find her voice.
Dedication: This story is dedicated to you (BTS) ARMY!
Your story may be the one that helps someone begin.
Tell Joahna about your idea and where you are in the process.
Publish with JoahnaSpeaker
Courageto begin.
Joahna Tupas speaks about what happens between adversity and possibility, and why courage is often the first requirement for meaningful change.
Her core belief
Courage comes before confidence.
We often wait to feel ready before we act. But courageous action creates experience. Experience creates evidence. Evidence builds confidence. And confidence expands what we believe is possible.
Joahna helps audiences move from
- Uncertainty to action
- Adversity to possibility
- Self-doubt to taking charge
- Personal courage to meaningful leadership
Why a culture of courage?
Courage makes other values actionable.
Innovation
requires courage when the outcome is uncertain.
Leadership
requires courage when the decision is difficult.
Compassion
requires courage when speaking up would be easier to avoid.
Change
requires courage when the familiar feels safer.
“Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities…because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”Winston Churchill
“Courage is the first of human qualities because it’s the quality which guarantees the others.”Aristotle
Courage allows people to
- take the first step
- challenge limiting assumptions
- solve difficult problems
- innovate
- pursue opportunities
- speak when something matters
- recover from failure
- safeguard themselves and others
- make difficult decisions
- reshape systems that no longer serve them
- lead through uncertainty
Courage is not simply a personal quality. It can become a culture.
A culture where people are encouraged to think, ask, question, create, speak, try, fail intelligently, learn, rise, and try again. That is the kind of culture Joahna wants to help leaders build.
Get up. Keep healing. Keep rising. Keep living.
What happened matters. But it does not have to have the final word.
Courage is not pretending fear, pain, failure, uncertainty, or loss do not exist. It is choosing to keep moving while they are still part of the story.
Courage first. Because sometimes confidence comes later.
Courage looks like
- rising while healing
- beginning before feeling completely ready
- moving while uncertain
- rebuilding after disruption
- choosing possibility after disappointment
- living fully instead of letting adversity make life smaller
- using what you learned to help someone else rise
Courage grows through the 7 Cs
- Confidence
- Character
- Creativity
- Competence
- Compassion
- Connections
- Core
From courage to legacy
Raising a courageous generation of leaders.
Joahna's work does not end with helping individuals become more courageous. Her larger advocacy is about cultivating a generation of leaders who become:
Wisdom-walkers
Leaders who think critically, discern carefully, listen deeply, and use knowledge responsibly.
Forceful in purpose
Leaders grounded enough to know what they stand for and courageous enough to act on it.
Fearless in action
Not because fear disappears, but because fear no longer makes every decision.
Wisdom to discern. Courage to act. Conviction to lead.
Courage first. Legacy forward.
Signature talks
Choose a talk as written, or shape one around your audience.
Courage to Begin
Why action may need to come before confidence.
What audiences take away
- Stop waiting to feel ready
- Understand the difference between fear and incapability
- Build confidence through courageous action
- Move through uncertainty
- Rise without erasing the past
- Begin again without beginning from nothing
Best for: Universities, TEDx-style stages, leadership, entrepreneurship, international conferences
Building a Culture of Courage
What becomes possible when people feel empowered to think, speak, act, and innovate?
What audiences take away
- Courage as a leadership competency
- Psychological and relational conditions that support voice
- Innovation and intelligent risk
- Courageous communication
- Learning from failure
- Giving people the power to act
- Challenging complacency
- Courage in decision-making
- Protecting the welfare of people and organizations
- Turning values into behaviors
Best for: Leadership conferences, organizations, universities, entrepreneur rooms, changemaker forums, education, policy
Raising Courageous Leaders
The generation we build today becomes the world we inherit tomorrow.
What audiences take away
- Wisdom, character, voice, and choice
- Critical thinking and resilience
- Service, purpose, and legacy
- Are we teaching people to comply, or to think?
- Are we simply building confidence, or creating opportunities to practice courage?
- Are we preparing people only to succeed, or also to serve?
- Are emerging leaders being given meaningful voice and choice?
- What values and behaviors are we passing forward?
Best for: Universities, education, youth leadership, policymakers, parents, international changemaker stages
From Self-Doubt to Self-Trust
Embracing courage, building resilience, and thriving in business.
What audiences take away
- Identify self-sabotaging patterns
- Challenge internal narratives
- Move beyond perfectionism
- Address fear of visibility
- Reduce dependence on external validation
- Build evidence of capability
- Lead before feeling completely qualified
Best for: Entrepreneurs, founders, women in leadership, professional associations, colleges
M.O.V.E.
A courage-centered framework for growth and leadership.
What audiences take away
- M: Master yourself. Awareness before influence.
- O: Overcome obstacles. Adapt without letting an obstacle write the ending.
- V: Value the victories. Recognize evidence of progress.
- E: Encourage others. Turn personal growth into service.
Best for: Leadership, students, entrepreneurship, professional development
Innovate. Educate. Inspire.
Three responsibilities for people who want to create meaningful impact.
What audiences take away
- Innovate: deviate from the norm and see another possibility
- Educate: make knowledge useful, and keep learning for life
- Inspire: be the change, and expand possibility for someone else
Best for: Universities, innovation, education, entrepreneurship, leadership, changemakers
Understand Before You React
Behavior is communication.
Drawing from Joahna's background in NLP, ACEs ToT, CPI, and Special Education.
What audiences take away
- Behavior as information
- Adversity and protective factors
- Communication
- Environment and behavior
- Learning differences
- Escalation and response
- Regulation
- Understanding before judgment
Best for: Education, health and wellness, parents, youth organizations, policy
The Power of Talk, Art, Music & Travel
How conversation, creative expression, and travel can support healing, especially in responding to trauma.
What audiences take away
- Why being heard and telling your story matters
- Art and music as ways to express what words cannot
- Travel as distance, perspective, and restoration
- Trauma-responsive awareness and protective factors
- Everyday practices that support healing and connection
- Knowing when to reach for professional support
Best for: Health and wellness, churches and faith communities, women’s groups, parents, education, nonprofits, retreats
Shared as education and lived experience, not clinical treatment.
Courageous Systems
Are we asking people to become resilient without creating environments where they can thrive?
What audiences take away
- Individual resilience matters
- Environment matters
- Voice and choice give people the power to act
- Human-centered systems begin with listening
- Lived experience belongs in decision-making
- Policy affects real human beings
- Sustainable change requires courageous people and courageous institutions
Best for: Policymakers, health and wellness, education leaders, nonprofits, foundations, changemaker forums
Where Joahna fits
Colleges & universities
Commencements, convocations, student leadership, entrepreneurship programs, women's leadership, education programs, creative arts, human development, resilience and wellbeing, career and life transitions
TED / TEDx-style stages
Courage before confidence, courageous action as evidence, voice and choice as the foundation of the power to act, courageous systems, raising courageous generations, turning lived experience into useful knowledge
International stages
Courage, human potential, leadership, education, resilience, creativity, entrepreneurship, service, legacy
Entrepreneur rooms
Starting before certainty, self-doubt, reinvention, innovation, entrepreneurial resilience, courageous leadership, purpose and legacy
Health & wellness
Adversity awareness, resilience, protective factors, healing and identity, behavior and communication, human connection, courage after difficult experiences, the power of talk, art, music, and travel in healing
Policy & changemaker rooms
Human-centered systems, education, special education, student and parent voice, school health and wellness, adversity awareness, community participation, voice and choice, creativity and access, protective factors
Churches & faith communities
Church services and workshops, women’s ministries, retreats, conferences, youth and family events, and other religious functions
Book Joahna for
- Keynotes
- International conferences
- Colleges and universities
- TED/TEDx consideration
- Leadership summits
- Entrepreneur conferences
- Health & wellness forums
- Policy conversations
- Changemaker gatherings
- Education conferences
- Professional development
- Women's leadership events
- Youth leadership
- Corporate learning
- Panels
- Fireside conversations
- Workshops
- Church and religious functions
- Retreats
- Virtual events
Selected speaking experience
2024
- Panelist, Dare to Dream Big Authors Panel (August)
- Speaker, Classical Leadership: Courage to Begin
2023
- Speaker, Leadership Experience Tour, United States
- Speaker, Project World School Summit, Mexico
- Speaker, Philippine College of Criminology, Philippines
- Workshop Speaker, TheChurch AZ, Arizona, USA
2022
- Speaker, The Kennedy Center Office of VSA and Accessibility
- Speaker, Traveling Teachers Summit
2021
- Presenter, National Art Education Association Conference
- Speaker, Neuroscience in the Classroom Virtual International Conference
2020
- Presenter, WUSD #20 Summer & Pre-Service Trainings, Arizona, USA
2010
- Speaker, Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary Conference, Palawan, Philippines
2009
- Speaker, Rotary Club, Bangkok, Thailand
Courage 1st Talk Show
Stories behind the courage.
Courage 1st extends Joahna's speaking philosophy into human conversation. The pilot season was released in 2023, and the show is making a comeback in 2027 on OnStage+ Digital TV, streamed in over 50 countries. Watch on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV.
The show explores
- what happened before the success
- what almost made someone stop
- what helped them rise
- the courageous decisions behind visible accomplishments
- lessons learned through adversity
- what those experiences can now teach others
Real people. Real turning points. Courageous conversations.
OnStage+ is available on Apple TV, Android TV, Fire TV, Roku, Android and iOS apps, Chromecast, and Apple AirPlay.
Have a story worth sharing?
Apply to be interviewed on Courage 1st.
Joahna welcomes conversations with entrepreneurs, authors, educators, artists, leaders, advocates, coaches, creators, and changemakers. The show gives guests a platform to share their stories, businesses, and brands with a global audience.
The question is not simply what have you accomplished. It is: what did it take to get there?
Apply to be a Courage 1st guestPartner with Courage 1st
Reach a global, purpose-driven audience.
Courage 1st airs on OnStage+ Digital TV, streamed in over 50 countries on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV.
Sponsorship opportunities
Courage 1st Talk Show with Joahna Tupas on OnStage+ Digital TV is an inspirational show streamed in over 50 countries, with a potential reach of millions of viewers. It captures the inspiring testimonials and success steps taken by entrepreneurs.
Why sponsor
- Extensive reach. A global presence in 50+ countries gives your brand a vast, diverse viewership.
- High visibility. The show is available on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV, so viewers can engage with it effortlessly.
- Brand association. Align your brand with the show’s positive reputation and loyal audience to strengthen perception and credibility.
- Longevity of exposure. Episodes stay on the platform as watch-on-demand shows, so your visibility continues long after the first airing.
Packages
Packages to suit your brand’s needs and budget.
Custom sponsorship packages tailored to your requirements are also welcome.
The Courage Project
Your courage could become the story someone else needs.
The Courage Project is a social campaign. Submit a 30 to 90 second vertical video answering: What does courage look like for you? One decision, one conversation, one beginning, one life-changing experience, or one lesson.
Courage may have looked like
- getting up
- starting over
- asking for help
- using your voice
- setting a boundary
- choosing healing
- building something new
- standing for someone else
- trying again
It does not have to be polished. It has to be real.
Submit your courage story
The work is bigger than one stage.
Joahna believes courage can become a personal practice, a leadership competency, an organizational culture, a community value, and ultimately a legacy passed forward. She wants audiences to leave asking:
What do I need the courage to begin? What kind of culture am I helping create? And who will become more courageous because of how I choose to lead?
Innovate. Educate. Inspire. Courage first. Legacy forward.
Book Joahna to speakCoach
Clarity for where you are.Courage for what comes next.
Joahna Tupas coaches people navigating change, self-doubt, reinvention, resilience, leadership, and purpose.
The work is practical: understand where you are, clarify what matters, recognize what may be holding you back, and decide what comes next. You do not need every answer before you move. You need enough clarity for the next courageous step.
Where are you right now?
Pick the sentence that sounds most like you.
“I feel stuck.”
For people who know something needs to change but are not sure where to begin.
We may work on
- clarity and priorities
- self-doubt and confidence
- internal narratives
- difficult decisions
- communication
- goals
- next steps
The goal: move from “I don’t know what to do” to “I know what I need to do next.”
I need clarity“I keep responding the same way.”
For people who want to better understand how they respond to stress, relationships, pressure, change, and recurring situations.
We may work on
- self-awareness
- social-emotional competence
- recurring patterns
- communication and boundaries
- adversity awareness
- regulation strategies
- intentional response
The question shifts from “What is wrong with me?” to “What is happening, and what choices do I have now?”
I need a reset“The old version of my life no longer fits.”
For people entering a new chapter personally or professionally.
We may work on
- identity
- career or business transition
- purpose
- creativity
- personal brand
- values
- reinvention
Starting over does not mean starting from nothing. You bring your experience, skills, lessons, relationships, creativity, and perspective with you. The goal is a next chapter that fits who you are now.
I’m ready for my next chapter“I want my leadership to matter.”
For entrepreneurs, educators, founders, professionals, and changemakers who want their leadership to create impact beyond achievement.
We may work on
- self-leadership
- courageous decision-making
- leadership identity
- communication
- organizational culture
- developing others
- legacy
Two questions guide the work: What kind of leader are you becoming? What kind of leaders are you raising behind you? Wisdom to discern. Courage to act. Conviction to lead. Courage first. Legacy forward.
I want to lead with purposeGrowth rarely fits inside one discipline.
Joahna works through seven interconnected lenses, so coaching considers the whole person, not just the immediate problem.
Education
How people learn, develop, adapt, and grow.
Social-emotional competence
Self-awareness, resilience, relationships, regulation, and intentional response.
Creativity
Seeing possibilities beyond the obvious.
Communication
Language, listening, perspective, expression, and connection.
Entrepreneurship
Building, adapting, deciding, and moving before certainty arrives.
Leadership
Leading yourself, developing others, and navigating meaningful change.
Lived experience
Recognizing that some of life’s most important learning happens outside classrooms and credentials.
The foundation behind the work
Joahna’s approach is informed by seven areas of academic and professional preparation.
Master’s in Education Management
Leadership • Organizational Change • Systems Thinking • Culture • People Development
Bachelor’s in Multimedia Arts
Creativity • Storytelling • Communication • Branding • Innovation • Reinvention
Psychology studies
Undergraduate Psychology coursework plus ongoing diploma-level study in Modern Applied Psychology, informing her interest in self-awareness, motivation, relationships, cognition, and personal development.
NLP: Neuro-Linguistic Programming
Communication • Internal Language • Patterns • Reframing • Goals
ACEs Training of Trainers
Adversity Awareness • Resilience • Protective Factors • Supportive Environments
CPI: Crisis Prevention / De-escalation
Communication Under Pressure • Prevention • Escalation Awareness • Intentional Response
Special Education
Individual Differences • Strengths • Voice • Choice • Adaptation • Social-Emotional Needs
Her Psychology studies do not represent a Psychology degree or clinical licensure.
Built from experience, not theory alone.
Joahna began her entrepreneurial journey while still in college, launching her first Multimedia Arts venture and serving local and international clients. Selected professional experience has included work connected with:
- PeopleBrowsr, Sydney, Australia
- Getaround, San Francisco, USA
- Embassy of Spain
- Zuellig Pharma
- MyShelter Foundation
Today, she continues to lead and co-lead work across education, consulting, publishing, travel, entrepreneurship, and international operational support. She understands firsthand what it means to build before everything is certain, adapt when circumstances change, communicate across cultures, turn ideas into real-world work, and reinvent without losing what matters.
For the full résumé, career history, and portfolio:
View Joahna on LinkedInResearch that shapes the work
Joahna’s academic research reflects a recurring interest in identity, change, wellbeing, and systems.
Bachelor’s thesis
Rebranding a decades-long company. An exploration of identity, relevance, reinvention, legacy, and continuity through change.
Master’s thesis
Health & Wellness of Third-Culture Educators. An exploration of culture, belonging, adaptation, identity, wellbeing, and sustainability among educators working across cultures.
What should remain? What needs to change? What deserves to move forward?
Need something beyond personal coaching?
Joahna’s other businesses and consulting relationships serve specific needs.
School in a Backpack LLC
Experiential learning + character education
Joahna is the Founder and Chief Consultant. Its work centers on experiential learning, which means learning through experience, exploration, participation, curiosity, projects, travel, and the world beyond traditional classroom walls, and character education, which develops voice, choice, courage, responsibility, resilience, empathy, integrity, and leadership. For parent, learner, educator, homeschool, worldschool, and education services.
Visit School in a BackpackKline Educational Services
SPED consultancy for schools
Joahna serves as a consultant with Kline Educational Services, a Special Education consultancy. Schools and educational organizations seeking support around SPED, inclusion, learner needs, educator support, and individualized approaches are directed to KES.
Visit Kline Educational ServicesMustardSeeds Solutions
Operational support for international clients
Joahna is Co-Founder of MustardSeeds Solutions, a Philippine-rooted business supporting international founders, executives, organizations, and growing brands. Its work includes executive and operational support, systems and workflows, specialized talent, staffing support, and business capacity-building.
Visit MustardSeeds SolutionsBohoChic: travel as therapy
What do you want this journey to make room for?
BohoChic is Joahna’s travel and lifestyle brand, centered on intentional journeys for women. Joahna is an InteleTravel agent, and BohoChic operates through InteleTravel. It asks a different question than “Where do you want to go?” It asks what you want the journey to make room for: rest, perspective, connection, discovery, celebration, a new beginning.
For BohoChic, Travel as Therapy means intentional travel for reflection, renewal, connection, and meaningful living. It is a lifestyle philosophy, not psychotherapy or clinical treatment.
Travel as Therapy. Freedom with Intention. You Are Not Alone.
BohoChic also offers a pathway for women interested in becoming independent travel advisors and building their own travel-agent brand, combining travel, entrepreneurship, service, flexible work, personal branding, and leadership.
Coaching, not therapy
Joahna’s services focus on coaching, education, reflection, social-emotional competence, leadership, and personal development. Coaching can support clarity, awareness, communication, goals, decision-making, resilience, self-leadership, and intentional action.
It is not psychotherapy, psychological diagnosis, psychiatric treatment, medical care, crisis services, or clinical trauma treatment.
Need mental health support right now? See crisis and support lines.
What is your next step?
Maybe you are standing at a crossroads, beginning again, building something new, leading through change, or realizing that what worked before no longer fits who you are becoming. You do not have to solve everything at once.
Start with what matters now.
Get clear. Get up. Move. Courage first. Legacy forward.
Book a discovery conversation