Founder Story
Meet Trish Faber
Writer. Educator. Builder. Jane of all trades.
I'm a writer, creator, storyteller, educator, and builder of learning spaces — which is a tidy way of saying I usually have several ideas, three projects, a website problem, and possibly garden dirt somewhere on my shoes.
Cardinal Learn grew out of that same mix: creativity, education, practical problem-solving, and the belief that people should have a steady place to build work that matters.
Trish Faber
Writer, educator, creator, and founder of Cardinal Learn
The many pieces that became Cardinal Learn
Cardinal Learn was not built from a single idea. It came from years of seeing how learning, creativity, support, technology, and community all connect — usually while I was in the middle of all of them at once.
I write fiction and nonfiction. I design. I build websites. I garden. I follow ideas wherever they lead, which is not always efficient, but it is never boring.
I am also a Rehab Therapist specializing in education and life skills, working with children and young adults who have acquired brain injuries, behavioural challenges, and physical impairments — mentoring clients and caregivers through the day-to-day realities of recovery and reinvention.
I founded Authority Ed and created The Learning Library series — textbooks and workbooks built for lifelong learning. I am building the Creative Learning Community and a whole constellation of creative and educational projects besides.
Somewhere in all of that — the writing, the teaching, the therapy, the course building, the websites, the communities — I kept thinking: there has to be a better way to hold this together.
I've always been a maker
I started writing at five with my first epic novel, The Rabbit Family — handwritten, self-illustrated, and starring my actual family as rabbits. (It made sense at the time.)
It was never formally published, but the single copy made appearances at the local school, grocery store, bowling alley, and bridge club meetings, courtesy of an enthusiastic mother and her large purse.
I am still grateful my family let me develop my imagination without too much side-eye. I realize, looking back, that must have taken effort.
That early mix — storytelling, humour, family, and permission to be a little odd — still shows up in everything I build.
Why I understand creator overwhelm
I did not build Cardinal Learn because I wanted more software. I built it because I was tired of watching good work get buried under scattered tools and tech overwhelm — including my own.
If you are a multifaceted creator, you probably know the feeling:
- Books and long-form writing
- Courses and learning resources
- Websites and design
- Email and audience connection
- Stores and digital products
- Community spaces
- Content systems and organisation
- Tech decisions I did not sign up to love
- Support for the people I serve
I loved the work. I was exhausted by the stitching. Cardinal Learn is what I wished existed when I was trying to teach, write, support, sell, connect, and keep my sanity in the same week.
Built from resilience, not perfection
I have lived through grief, caregiving, reinvention, and seasons that did not come with a tidy plan. I was caregiver to my mother through cancer. I took on our family restaurant at twenty-four after she died. I have worked with people navigating loss, injury, and the long road back to themselves.
Those experiences taught me that support should be steady, human, and real — not performative, not rushed, and never shaming.
Life has bumps. Bruises. Falls. You get back up because if you do not, you never know what may have been. I do not believe in perfection. I believe in showing up, telling the truth, and helping people take the next step — even a small one.
Always here. Never leaves.
That is not marketing language to me. It is the kind of presence I wanted Cardinal Learn to offer creators: a platform that stays with you while you build something meaningful.
Why the cardinal matters
Bruce and Joyce are named after my late parents. They were steady, loving, and always there — the kind of supporters who believed in me long before any of this was a platform, a product, or a business plan.
Their names are not branding decoration. They are part of the promise behind Cardinal Learn: support that shows up, stays close, and helps you keep building.
They'll always be with me — and now, they're here with you.
A little bit of personality
A few things worth knowing
- I like to make people laugh.
- I wear my heart on my sleeve.
- I believe flaws are more interesting than perfection.
- I love building things — including actual walls I previously demolished.
- I have enough interests to keep me busy for several decades.
- I believe nobody is better at being you than you.
- There is almost certainly a dance party happening somewhere in the vicinity.
I am sentimental. I am also practical. Both are true.
What this means for Cardinal Learn
Cardinal Learn is built for creators who are multifaceted too — people who teach, write, guide, make, support, sell, connect, and dream in more than one direction.
It exists so you can build something meaningful without losing yourself in the machinery. Your website, courses, store, community, email, and support — connected under your brand, with room for your real voice.
Millie, our built-in guide, is named after my grandmother — another steady presence in my life. She is there when you need help finding the next step. Bruce and Joyce remind us that you do not have to build alone.
This platform is the solution I wish I had years ago: simple, beautiful, human, and built with creators who are a little bit like me in mind — curious, stubborn, funny, and doing more than one kind of good work at once.
Trish
Build with heart. Grow with support.
Cardinal Learn is here to help you create, connect, and grow — with your work, your people, and your real self at the centre.
Always here. Never leaves.