Kris Reyes

What started as just a cost-effective shared ride from San Francisco to San Mateo with Kris Reyes, turned into a friendship that I am so grateful for. In fact, we just had another beautiful, engaging, rich, and deep conversation (the kind that I relish) this past Saturday. With Tenzin too, it was magical.

Kris has met up with me at least 5 times, just talk through my story and figure out how to pull a cohesive narrative from all the pieces. Kris helps me distill down what is key and compelling. She also gives me honest feedback about how to clean up my social media. She reinforces how I need to turn my social media channels into a clear and reliable source for the same 2-3 topics that I’m focused on. (As such, this whole blog series is probably in direct conflict with that advice, but I had to do something special to honour this milestone birthday in a pandemic).

Kris, you are a brilliant communicator. You can distill the difference between Canadians and Americans into less than 20 words. But, we already knew this. You don’t need me to extoll the abilities that you’ve built an entire career on; in 2 different countries no less!

Thank you Kris for paying it forward with your generosity to me. Thank you for your endless patience. Thank you for sharing about career, life, and living between 2 countries. As much as I appreciate the tangible storytelling help, I am also exceedingly grateful for the personal elements of our relationship too. Thank you so much!

Reva Seth

Another amazing communicator who sat with me at her kitchen table for twice as long as we’d agreed upon, asking questions about my story to help me create a logical narrative flow. The best part of it all? We concluded that I actually just need to focus on writing pieces for our potential customers instead. Given I prefer videos, the first 2 themes we talked about that I published were a smashing success!

Thank you Reva for sharing your knowledge, wisdom, and expertise. Thank you for your endless kindness to me and real talk. I look forward to going for walks in the beautiful neighbourhood parks when we can. Thank you for being a mentor and a friend. I really look up to you.

Jen Couldrey

I only won the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada this year because Jen Couldrey told me to apply. While chatting with her at Collision and oozing congratulations over her win, she immediately started to pass on her success insisting I apply right away! That’s just the kind of person Jen is. Always lifting other people up.

Jen is one of my favourite hype people. She is genuine and cares so much about companies’ success. I still remember our first meeting in the bright MaRS lobby back in fall 2017. I had barely been fundraising and still had a full time day job. Despite being overly eager (I’m sensing a trend here), Jen took me seriously. She could see the vision and potential impact that has always been so clear to me with skritswap.

Given we’re both enthusiastic about doing well and doing good it was a natural fit. I always knew I would sign with the Upside Foundation before I even had anyone other major shareholders. I wanted to make sure we hold our value of impact authentically throughout the entire company.

Jen – thank you for being a shining light and a kind soul. I LOVE when we get to sit together at dinners and hang out. Looking forward to doing that again when this is all over. You are an inspiration. You lift people up like no one I’ve ever seen before. Thank you so much for everything.