🎙️ I Love Kelowna

Kevin Kishor has been in Leadership positions for most of his life. Growing organizations and helping people realize their purpose through Coaching has also played a major role in everything he does. Kevin is University Graduate Level Educated yet has a diverse background in both Work and Volunteer Experience. From voluntarily sitting as VP on the Board of an almost 10 million-dollar Housing Proje...

Brenda Dureault can be found outside most days working on a farm she has built from the ground up called Curly Frog Farm .  With a passion for growing trees, she has been transforming a low lying, flood prone piece of land into an innovative, thriving eco-wonderland. Curly Frog Farm is an agricultural initiative that supports both farmland and wetland in the beautiful Okanagan Valley flatlands sin...

We had an exciting and lively conversation with Candace Chisolm, CEO and co-Founder of HeChangedIt , a platform for men's mental health. Fitness redefined for the mental, emotional, physical, social and soulful wellbeing of every man. Candace says, "As a huge proponent of change, bringing HEchangedit to the world is exhilarating and rewarding. Having worked for many years as a CCO in dev...

Ginny Becker is all about Relationships . In a single word this is her true professional passion. Her career to date has been a unique and exciting combination of: professional sales, corporate event management, marketing, leadership and project management.  The common denominator in all of these opportunities has been Ginny's dedication to building strong professional relationships founded o...

This was a difficult but I think extremely important conversation on a very uncomfortable topic, that I had with Michelle Bulriss , an advocate and kids' book author from Tempe, AZ. Michelle and I discussed a book called The Slave Across the Street by Teresa Flores, and Michelle's own experience with and recovery from childhood abuse. Michelle Bulriss is extremely passionate about learni...

Alex VandeLaar, Owner/Director at Alex VandeLaar Consulting, is a serial entrepreneur and strategy consultant who is obsessed with marketing. Alex loves to think outside of the box and find unique ways to drive sales. Originally hailing from Ontario, Alex moved to Kelowna 4 years ago and never looked back. He has run his own consulting company for the past 8 years and recently started “The Marketi...

Kelowna born and raised artist, musician, social entrepreneur, business consultant and writer, Lynda Norman, has always known that creativity is a natural part of being. Her vision is to create opportunities for each and every person to experience the benefits of creativity in ways that are meaningful, fulfilling, healing, positive and essential to a thriving community. As owner and publisher of a...

Nathan Peacock is a film maker in the Okanagan (British Columbia, Canada) under the brand Solid Rock Video and also on the side as a wedding videographer alias Half 9 Media .  Among other outdoor things, hiking and snowboarding have become favorite activities since moving to the Okanagan 9 years ago from the Middle East where Nathan grew up. Meaningful connections are always the goal as Nathan&apo...

Nathan Hutton is Youth Speaker and Teen/Young Adult Life Coach located in the Central Okanagan region. He has over 16 years of professional experience working with children, teens, and young adults. He has worked with clients living with addiction, mental health, criminal histories, housing and educational barriers.  He uses his own personal story to present a message of perseverance and resilienc...

Romina Muhametaj is the founder of Six 7 Radius and the host of Coffee with Romina . She also holds the President Chair for FSCJ-SHRM Student Chapter and recently Romina launched NE FL Negotiation Club. Romina moved to America at just 17 years old by herself intending to pursue her American Dream and her accomplishments talk about her stubbornness on her goals continuously. Often, she talks about...

Kris Rostecki is the owner and primary stylist of Inspirado Designs. She was born a small town BC girl, but raised in Ontario until 18. She then moved and spent 11 years in northern Alberta before coming back and spending the last 8 years, in BC.   Kris started her business a little later in life, after experiencing a few other careers that, though educational and growth inducing, didn’t bring her...

Daniil Khodosko believes there is a new frontier in medicine for psychedelic substances and am eager to spread the new research. The resurgence of psychedelics is fueled by modern studies which show how these substances can help treat anxiety, PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), depression, and addiction. Daniil was born in Kiev, Ukraine and immigrated to Calgary, Canada when he was 2 years old...

Jaide Hatfield and Joel Murga are the co-owners and lead bakers of a local vegan and gluten free bakery, Jaide & Joel’s Baking Co . (Also check out their Facebook Page ).  Jaide and Joel first met when they were fifteen years old and have been together ever since. Jaide was raised a Vegetarian, and later decided to make the full switch to Vegan. She’s a huge supporter of animals, and baking is...

Rob Westbury grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, with nary a grapevine in sight. After a stint as the drummer in a punk band and a few years at graduate school in the States (where he met his wife), he headed into a busy career in HR. Throughout all of this, he maintained a keen interest in food & wine, and harboured a lifelong desire to work with his hands. A long-term work placement in San Francis...

From hitting the rock bottom of drugs, divorce, bankruptcy and even the death of an 18 month old daughter. To running the planning & marketing of some of corporate America’s finest companies. To running his own marketing company, helping small business owners be SEEN and now his podcast focused on Driven Dark Horse Entrepreneurs . Tracy Brinkmann, is also a business & success coach that re...

Sarah De La Coeur has been on the entrepreneurial journey since 2012 when she launched a Shopping Tour company with her mother, Annie Pool. In 2015, Sarah won a business award for Best In Fashion. Sarah sold her Shopping Tour company in 2016, and started two businesses in the construction/kitchen cabinet/importing industry and then sold these companies in 2018.  Sarah is a now digital marketer who...

Olga Poreda is originally from Poland, where she completed her Masters Degree in art and graphic design. Work and destiny brought her to Kelowna in 2013 which was a very interesting transition and an opening of a new creative chapter in her life. The extraordinary beauty of the Okanagan inspired her to follow her calling as a artist. Here, she found many likeminded people. The big adventure began...

I sat down with Brett Alton from Tops Agency and Noah Dorsey of Ark Films who Brett works with exclusively. We talked a lot about commercial and independent film. These guys have since morphed into other things, as this interview was two years ago. But we talked about content production for commercial establishments using Noah as a local filmmaker and producer. Brett is sitting member of OSIF (Oka...

Jenny Newell grew up moving around a lot! Born in Edmonton, moved to Germany, then back to Alberta, followed by Ontario before settling for awhile in BC. For high school she lived in Abbotsford,  then Vancouver, then France, then Victoria, then Pender Island.  As a British citizen,  the EU opened doors for Jenny and she went back to France for University, before coming back to Canada and going to...

Pat Moffett has a heartwarming and fascinating story to tell about early-onset Alzheimers disease and how in some cases, it can result in a shocking level of violence. Pat's wife was struck by this ailment and the formerly peaceful, gentle lady became sporadically but persistently violent and aggressive, to the shock and dismay of Pat, their children and all of their friends and family. In or...

Steven Kupidy grew up in Edmonton Alberta where he attended the University of Alberta and obtained his BScOT in 1999. Steve has been working with CBI since 2013 and relocated to Kelowna in May of  2014 to open up the 1st CBI Health clinic in the Okanagan and is currently the clinic manager. Steven has always had a passion for helping people navigate through the complexities of recovery and always...

Two years ago we interviewed a fascinating young florist and photographer named Diane Herron aka Sweet Dee. She moved to Kelowna in September 2017 to start a mobile flower truck business. She bought a mini Japanese truck and with a little love it became a pink flower truck. Diane pops up at markets and businesses where she sells fresh flowers from the truck. Diane came from Saskatoon where she ran...

Efi Perel was born in Israel to a Canadian father (from Ottawa) in 1970. He lived for 14 years in Taiwan from 2001 to 2014 and since 2015 he has lived here in Kelowna. He is married with two kids. Efi worked in the cellars of Summerhill and Nagging Doubt wineries in Kelowna, British Columbia, where he spent his time making sparkling and table wines. He also served as the wine maker of First R.O.W...

Jan Petrasek is originally from Slovakia and moved to Calgary, Canada  in 2003 with his wife Silvia. They have three daughters age 15, 14 and 10. Jan's first job in Calgary was at Boston Pizza. In August 2007 he opened his own bakery in northwest Calgary. 7 years later he opened his second store in Cochrane, Alberta and moved all of his  production there. Eventually, Jan was supplying 20 stor...

Shaun Sanders of Renegade Kitchen knew he wanted to be a chef since the tender age of 4. Through his high school years in punk rock bands he’s always been a bit rebellious (just ask his parents). Growing up on a farm he was always drawn to cooking and the gritty rock and roll lifestyles of famous chefs only made it seem cooler and more appealing to him as a teenager. Shaun attended the Culinary In...