about whitney
Hi! I’m Whitney - co-founder of Vienna Waits, a business I’m building with my amazing husband, Greg. Our mission is to help people make intentional, meaningful choices in their lives—just as we strive to do every day in ours.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve lived with deep shame. It’s a feeling that started early in my life, shaped by experiences that were often out of my control. I was born in Calgary, Alberta, and when I was five, my brother (then seven) and I were caught in the middle of our parents’ brutal separation. It involved private investigators, police, and court battles, that eventually resulted in an arrangement that my brother and I spend the school year in Ontario with our mom, then summers in Alberta with our dad.
Back then, both sets of my parents were heavy drinkers and smoked in our houses and vehicles. My clothes always smelled of cigarette smoke and I remember feeling embarrassed by that. Between the two provinces, I can recall living in 17 different places (although my brother remembers more), constantly moving from rental house to rental house with no real stability.
At the ripe age of 14, I started falling into my own bad habits—drinking, smoking, and partying my way through adolescence. Still, something in me knew I wanted more: to make good money, own a home, and avoid the pay-check to pay-check struggle.
At 16, I started working part-time in sales for a local internet company and stayed there for eight years, working full-time while taking evening classes and putting myself through university.
At 25, I married my first husband and a year later gave birth to our son, but something deep within me didn’t feel ready or worthy to settle into that life. We separated when our son was only 18 months and divorced shortly after. In spite of what was a difficult break, we shared custody, always prioritized what was best for our son, and I can proudly say that today my ex and his new wife are not only family but among my closest friends. Together we’ve mastered co-parenting with mutual love and respect.
For almost a decade after the divorce, I was a single mom who put my son first, steadily built my career and dated good, kind men but all wrong men for me—including a married man in a painful “relationship” that nearly broke me.
At work, I kept myself small—avoiding leadership roles, staying quiet in meetings, and dreading any spotlight. Shame would always creep in, and I couldn’t shake the feeling of being an imposter, convinced people would reject me if they truly knew who I was. Despite that inner struggle, I found success, working with and selling to some of the largest companies in the world. Even with that success, a persistent desire nagged at me to do something far more meaningful with my time.
Greg and I started our relationship at an impossible time—his wife and the mother of their children passed away from a heartbreaking, short battle with glioblastoma. He was establishing a new life with his 3 young children, COVID was well underway and nothing in the world was normal. Against all odds, and with plenty of skepticism, we leaned into one another, and managed to build a beautiful, modern, blended family. Given everything we have had to navigate since establishing our relationship, we feel absolutely unstoppable. We got married in 2023 and I couldn’t be more grateful for this beautiful life that I now know I am worthy of.
I recently turned 40, and with that milestone came a fierce shift into my give-less-fucks-and-live-shame-free era. I’m imperfect and I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But I’m REAL and I’ve learned A LOT these past 40 years. Through my experiences, our stories, and the programs we’ve created at Vienna Waits, I want to inspire others to stop living on autopilot and start living with intention.
If you’ve ever felt stuck, let me assure you: there’s more to life, and you’re worthy of it. Stop settling. Stop waiting. Start making intentional choices, because you only get one life—and your Vienna is waiting.
