In this closing solo episode of Season 4 of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny Chen reflects on belonging, what it means, where we find it, and how we learn to create it for ourselves and others.

She shares more of her own story, including the experiences that shaped her understanding of identity, visibility, and finding her place in spaces that were not always designed with her in mind.

From there, Jenny looks back on her year of yes, a year of choosing possibility, taking risks, and saying yes to opportunities she never could have planned for.

And then came the summer of yes.

A summer spent with people who made her feel like she belonged. A summer filled with unexpected invitations, new friendships, community, laughter, uncomfortable firsts, and some pretty incredible opportunities that she never went looking for.

What she realized is that almost none of those opportunities came from chasing them. They came through relationships. Through people she had met in this chapter who were doing incredible things themselves and who invited her into their worlds.

Because maybe that is what belonging actually looks like.

Not one giant moment when somebody finally tells you that you have made it, but hundreds of smaller ones. Being invited. Being remembered. Being trusted. Making room for somebody else. And leaving people feeling a little more seen than they did before they met you.

Jenny also reflects on what four seasons of Tune Up Your Warrior have taught her, and expresses her gratitude to every guest who trusted her with their story, everyone behind the scenes who helped make these conversations possible, and every listener who pressed play, shared an episode, or reached out to say that something they heard stayed with them.

Season 4 may be ending, but the year of yes isn't over yet.

Tune Up Your Warrior is taking a short summer break before returning for Season 5 on September 9, with a very special guest joining Jenny behind the microphone: her husband, Dan.

Until then, thank you for listening, for sharing these stories, and for being part of this little podcast that somehow became something much bigger than Jenny ever imagined. 🎙️❤️

What if supplier diversity is not a side initiative, but one of the clearest indicators of whether an organization actually understands growth, innovation and economic resilience?

In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny sits down with Cassandra Dorrington, President and CEO of the Canadian Aboriginal and Minority Supplier Council, for a conversation about supplier diversity as a real business and economic strategy.

For more than fifteen years, Cassandra has championed the growth of Indigenous and racialized suppliers in Canada and internationally. She has helped corporations build more inclusive procurement practices, connected suppliers with potential buyers and created stronger access to opportunity.

Cassandra has also been recognized as one of Atlantic Business Magazine’s 25 Most Powerful Women and one of DiversityCan Magazine’s Top 10 Leaders in People Strategy and Workplace Culture for 2025.

In this episode, they explore:

🌱 Why supplier diversity is not charity or optics, but strategy

💼 What organizations are still getting wrong about access and opportunity⚖️ The difference between performative commitment and real accountability

🚪 The systemic barriers diverse suppliers continue to face

📈 What companies leave on the table when they ignore diverse suppliers

✨ What meaningful leadership looks like when inclusion is built into how business is actually done

This conversation is an important reminder that organizations cannot expect greater innovation, stronger ecosystems and more resilient growth while continuing to build through the same narrow channels.

Learn more from CAMSC

CAMSC has several upcoming opportunities for businesses and suppliers looking to grow, build relationships and better understand the certification process.

Its upcoming Trade Missions are designed to help diverse suppliers connect with new markets and corporate opportunities, while the Supplier Certification session offers a closer look at how certification works and the value it can create.

Trade Missions: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5RVQ8B7

Supplier Certification session: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/bMhRYcJyQlukNVqtrwbwUg#/registration

Find out more about CAMSC here: https://camsc.ca/

What does it actually take to remove barriers for young people?

In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny sits down with Adrienne Vienneau, CEO of Christie Lake Kids, an organization that has been supporting children and youth from low-income communities in Ottawa for over 100 years.

Through free programming, deep community engagement, and a commitment to meeting families where they are, Christie Lake Kids is redefining what access and belonging look like in practice.

In this conversation, they explore:

• The real barriers families face beyond cost — including transportation, safety, and inclusion
• Why going into communities matters more than expecting people to come to you
• How programs are co-created based on lived experience and feedback
• The importance of social-emotional development and safe spaces for youth
• What gives Adrienne hope about the next generation

This episode is a powerful reminder that creating opportunity isn’t just about access — it’s about belonging.

To learn more about Christie Lake Kids, visit https://christielakekids.com/https://christielakekids.com/

In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, I sit down with Brandon, an Ottawa guy who grew up in the suburbs, played sports, went to Carleton, built a career in consulting, and was living a normal life until everything changed in June 2020. While walking into a barbershop in Bayshore, he was caught in a drive-by shooting and hit three times, including a life-threatening injury that severed his femoral artery. What followed was an eight-hour femoral bypass surgery, a brutal recovery, panic attacks, exposure therapy, and the long road back to both physical and emotional independence.

What makes Brandon’s story so powerful is not just what happened to him. It is what he chose to do next.

In this conversation, Brandon shares how his father’s values shaped his mindset in the hospital, why he refused to live as a victim, and how he pushed himself from trauma recovery to running marathons, triathlons, and now preparing to compete in this year’s Ironman in August. He also opens up about the moments that broke him, the people who helped him heal, and the quiet determination that transformed pain into purpose.

That purpose became Hit the Ground Running, a charity Brandon created after realizing how many trauma survivors do not have access to the quality physiotherapy, recovery support, and practical resources they need to rebuild their lives. Inspired by the care he received from his friend Frank, a physiotherapist who helped him regain function and confidence, Hit the Ground Running now supports survivors who are motivated to recover but lack the financial means or systems around them to do it alone.

This episode is about survival, mindset, masculinity, fear, resilience, second chances, and what it really means to keep going when life gives you every reason not to.

We are also launching this conversation just ahead of Brandon’s Ironman this August, and all of us are rooting hard for him.

To learn more about Hit the Ground Running, support the charity, or get in touch, visit htgrcharity.com or reach out through the contact information Brandon shares in this episode.

What does it actually take to build women’s professional soccer in Canada from the ground up?

In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny sits down with Tom Gilbert, CEO of Ottawa Rapid FC and one of the co-founders behind the Northern Super League, for a conversation about vision, belief, business, and what it takes to build something before the rest of the market fully catches up.

Tom shares how he met Diana Matheson during their Executive MBA, how the two joined forces to help bring women’s professional soccer to Canada, and why Ottawa became such an important part of that story. He also reflects on what it meant to build Rapid FC quickly, attract 7,000 fans to the home opener, and create a club identity rooted in culture, community, and a fan-first mindset.

Together, Jenny and Tom explore:

• what it takes to build a women’s sports franchise from scratch

• why women’s sports can no longer be viewed as charity or social impact alone

• how business momentum is changing the future of women’s soccer

• what it means to build belief before the results fully speak for themselves

• how culture, team values, and community rituals help shape a club’s identity

• and why this moment matters not just for Ottawa, but for the future of women’s professional sports in Canada

  
  

This is not just a sports story. It is a leadership story. A startup story. A city-building story. And a reminder that some of the most meaningful things we build start with people willing to believe early.

And if you’re in Ottawa, come out on Thursday, July 16 to catch some of the best soccer you’ll see anywhere. Jenny will be shooting the T-shirt cannon at halftime, and it’s going to be such a fun one.

Find out more about Rapid FC here: https://www.rapidfc.ca/

What does it mean to succeed at someone else’s success, not at their expense?

In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny sits down with Mike Lipkin: motivator, coach, consultant, entrepreneur, author, and creator of the Potentiator framework, a leadership philosophy built around helping other people perform at their best.

Mike has spent decades helping leaders, teams, and organizations think bigger, communicate better, and create the conditions for people to thrive. In this conversation, he shares the idea at the heart of his work: that the strongest leaders are not diminishers, they are potentiators. They know how to draw out courage, confidence, creativity, and excellence in others.

Together, Jenny and Mike explore his five practices of potentiators, the importance of robust resilience, courageous creativity, and champion-level communication, and why the best leaders and salespeople operate from an abundance mindset, not scarcity.

They also talk about:

• why reciprocity is the real currency of success
• how real salespeople open relationships instead of just closing deals
• what it means to practice “altruism at a profit”
• the kinds of leaders who bring out the best in others, including their mutual friend Silvio Stroescu
• and Mike’s beautifully bold vision of manifesting a brainstorming trip to Borneo one year from now

This episode is energetic, expansive, and full of possibility. It is a conversation about leadership, generosity, ambition, connection, and what happens when you decide to build a life rooted not just in personal success, but in helping others rise too.

To lern more about Mike here: https://www.mikelipkin.com/

This July 1 episode of Tune Up Your Warrior is not a surface-level Canada Day conversation.

It is a deeper reflection on humanity, dignity, compassion, and what it means to build systems that do not just function, but actually see people.

Jenny sits down with Nadia Ferrara, whom she first met while speaking on a panel together for International Women’s Day on Parliament Hill. What began as an instant personal connection grew into a meaningful friendship grounded in shared values around leadership, humanity, and the kind of world they both want to help build.

Nadia brings an extraordinary breadth of experience to this conversation. Her path spans art therapy, work with Indigenous communities, more than two decades in the federal public service, ombudsperson roles, and large-scale leadership in cultural humility, trauma-informed practice, compassion, and people-first systems. In the episode, she shares how an Indigenous elder encouraged her to step into government as what she calls a “compassionate bureaucrat,” and how that has shaped her mission to humanize bureaucracy from the inside out. These same themes are central to both your recap and the original episode outline.

Together, Jenny and Nadia explore trauma-informed leadership, cultural humility, belonging, authentic leadership, consequential accountability, and the importance of creating safe spaces where people feel seen, heard, and valued. They also talk about the need to separate basic human dignity from political ideology, and why systems only change when the people inside them are willing to lead with empathy, integrity, and hope.

This is a conversation about humanity as infrastructure, hope as practice, and the kind of leadership that leaves people feeling more human, not less.

What does it actually take to change systems, not just conversations?

In this episode of Tune Up Your Warrior, Jenny sits down with Barbara Cartwright, CEO of Humane Canada, to explore the intersection of policy, advocacy, and leadership — and why compassion is far more strategic than we give it credit for.

Barbara has played a key role in shaping some of Canada’s most significant animal protection reforms, including:

• The ban on whale and dolphin captivity
• Strengthening penalties for animal cruelty
• Advancing legal protections for service animals
• Supporting the National Centre for the Prosecution of Animal Cruelty

But this conversation goes beyond legislation.

Together, they unpack:

• The link between violence against animals and violence against people
• Why policy change requires patience, relationships, and persistence
• The challenge of advocating in systems that often dismiss compassion as “emotional”
• How deeply rooted societal issues — including bias, discrimination, and power — show up in how we treat animals

Barbara also shares insights from her work with the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada and the lasting influence of Dr. Jane Goodall’s philosophy — particularly the idea that hope is not passive, but something we actively build together.

This episode reframes advocacy as disciplined, strategic, and deeply human work.

If you’ve ever wondered how real change happens — or felt overwhelmed by the complexity of it — this conversation will ground you in both truth and possibility.