🎙️ I Love Kelowna

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 works with businesses in the home improvement industry. She can help you get the right message to the right people through the right digital marketing methods effectively, efficiently, and profitably. Marketing is an avenue to being able to serve more people, make use of our talents and have an impact on the world. 

When Sarah isn’t working she is a brand ambassador for a women’s app called Locelle - connecting women within the community of Kelowna. 

Sarah is unstoppable. When she sees the destination, she does whatever it takes to get there. 

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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 with renting out an art studio at the former heArt school space on Bernard where, while working on slightly crazy looking paintings, she started meeting wonderful artists, musicians, poets...

The last few years for Olga  have been all about coming “out of the shell” and getting back to singing, which she had abandoned many years ago.

Thanks to the support and encouragement from beautiful people involved with Kelowna Art’s Council, and their great creative initiatives like Songwriters “Stewdio”, or Our CoffeeHouse which connects artists with engaged, listening audience, she finally began to thrive and fully embrace her own artistic path.
 
Now she sings at “Beardy and the Beast”; jams, chants, loops, writes songs, creates electronic music, dances and keeps exploring her voice, experimenting with intuitive approach to singing, improvisation and her professional work. She perceives singing voice as a tool for grounding in the present moment, stress relief, meditation, and wishes to encourage people to try it out and see all of its benefits for themselves. She’s also enjoying intuitive dance which inspires her to dive deeper into the subject of mind-body connection. Being a part of this wonderful dance tribe has been an amazing gift... and makes her feel right at home.

She also keeps herself busy as a freelance graphic designer and occasionally videographer.

You can follow her work @ mindcrafted on Facebook.

See Olga's online portfolio here.

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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 (Okanagan Society of Independent Filmmaking) and he's looking to bring an economic boom to the film industry here in Kelowna, working closely with the city and other government establishments to bring grants and workshops to the area. Brett's focus for his films tend to be for people who are either eco-conscious (Green Vanity, Mismack Cosmetics, Farm Bound & Farm Bound Zero Waste) or socially conscious (Child Advocacy Centre, their short film on mental health).

Check out the Okanagan Society of Independent Filmmaking to see what's new in this exciting new industry for our great city! 

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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 the University of Victoria. 

As a student at UVic Jenny had a job downtown Victoria at Swan's Hotel and Brewpub in the Wine Shoppe. She went to all the educational tastings she possibly could and became passionate about BC wine; a burgeoning category at that time. 

She pursued a job as a wine, spirits and beer sales representative and began selling to retailers, restaurants and the BCLDB. Jenny's husband Rainer was a competing sales representative and they enjoyed working up and down Vancouver Island together.

They stayed in Victoria for a few years before deciding it would be fun to move to Vancouver and work in that larger market. They loved living there but an opportunity to move to the Okanagan, the heart of wine country, came to Jenny and Rainer. They were offered the BC Interior territory for Gray Monk wines. They had both worked for Gray Monk at different times and this offer was allowing them to work together. 

Jenny and Rainer moved to Kelowna in January of 2004 and worked for the Heiss family at Gray Monk until they sold to Andrew Peller Limited in 2017. They stayed on for a transitional year and left Gray Monk in 2018. 

Jenny considers herself so lucky to be able to find exciting new companies to work with since. She is so thrilled to represent Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery and Okanagan Crush Pad wines; both at the forefront of their respective categories for innovation and quality. 

You can connect with Jenny and Rainer at Buy The Bottle

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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 order to raise awareness of Alzheimers for the benefit of family members and primary caregivers, Pat wrote the book Ice Cream in the Cupboard, which later became a film. It's an excellent film well worth watching and can be seen on Amazon Prime. 

In a wide ranging conversation, Pat and I discuss: 

• Alzheimers caregiving

• Independent Film Production

• Caring for the Caregiver

• Early-Onset Alzheimers

• Writing Ice Cream In the Cupboard - Book and Movie

Pat is going to be speaking at the World Creativity and Innovation Week event. He will be speaking with the conference director at 4PM EST on Friday, April 16, 2021. Here is a link to the event.

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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 a boudoir photography business and worked part-time in a flower shop. She knew that eventually she would want to pursue a business with flowers but at the time she was loving my boudoir photography business. When she turned 27 she was ready to take on the flower industry, but she knew a flower truck would not work in Saskatoon, so she decided on Kelowna. 

Kelowna grew to be home quite quickly and Diane found the entrepreneurial community here quite welcoming. She has made many friendships through Sweet Dee's Flowers.

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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 makes time to answer questions. In his spare time he has currently decided to go back to school and is currently enrolled at Dalhousie University completing his post professional Masters in OT. He has been happily married to his best friend Jordin for 18 years and has a busy, active household with two teenage daughters keeping everyone moving!

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#worksafeBC, #mentalhealth, #chronicpain, #occupationaltherapy, #workplace, #injury, #recovery, #NewTownBigDreams, #podcast, #Kelowna, #Okanagan, #realestate, #agent, #kelownarealtor, #exploreKelowna, #KelownaNow, #YLW, #YVRtoYLW, #YEGtoYLW, #ExploreYLW, #YYCtoYLW, #Relocation, #KelownaViews, #handpickedkelowna, #kelownalife, #kelownaliving, #exploreBC

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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 Estate Winery in Vancouver.

In 2018, Efi opened my his winery with a partner, called Tender Hope Winery, in West Kelowna. Tender Hope is located at 350-1405 Stevens Road, West Kelowna, BC

I got to sit inside the winery in 2018 before it was open to the public, to do this interview and sample some amazing wine. Efi had a fascinating story to tell about his time in vineyards in Bikat Arad, Israel, and in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, growing Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir grapes.

Efi also worked as sales manager of various companies in Asia for eleven years.

To learn more go to the website of Tender Hope Winery

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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 stores with his products in Calgary including health stores, organic stores and European stores. In 2016 he decided move to Slovakia with his family and sold his business and house. 

But his friend in Calgary told him that before he moves to Slovakia, he had to visit the warmest place in Canada. He told Jan to go to Osoyoos, British Columbia. Jan was planing to get there with his family but on the way there they encountered a big storm, so they had to stop in Penticton. Jan was on his motorcycle and his wife and kids were in the truck. So they stayed in Penticton for four days instead of going to Osoyoos. 

They loved Penticton`s weather and all of the lakes. They moved to Slovakia, but it didn’t work out how they thought it would. After just one year they moved back to Canada and settled in Penticton. In November 2018, Jan opened his bakery in downtown Penticton.

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Deanna Burger is Co-Founder of commUNITY, offering Canadian-made, high quality, 100% cotton, reusable masks, holders, and organizers. With over 20 years of experience in corporate marketing, sales enablement, and sponsorship strategy, Deanna has a history of successfully leading teams at Fortune 100 companies. Her main focus has always been developing and executing marketing and sponsorship campaigns with the goal of elevating the customer experience to achieve business results.

An advocate for the safety of women and children in Canada, Deanna has also held a number of board and advisory positions with various organizations working towards making homes a safer place.

Proving that she can face any challenge head on, Deanna managed her team remotely and completed a good portion of her EMBA from Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto) while hospitalized and on bed rest in her third trimester before her son was born in 2018. Now, she has worked with her co-Founders to take commUNITY from Zero to a $1M business in under a year while enriching the community through socially conscious initiatives.

Learn more about proper mask hygiene and pick up high quality non-medical masks to keep you, your family, and the community safe at commUNITY Masks.

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