Meet Joti Sanghera

Joti certainly doesn’t lack for talents around the home— whether it’s DIY projects, gardening, cooking, or even a bit of knitting, she considers all of them passions and hobbies. “When it comes to fixing or sprucing things up around the house, the pandemic really helped me get out of my comfort zone and just give things a try,” she explains. “The extra time spent at home gave me the space to try things I otherwise may not have, and that really helped me experiment with new tools, recipes, and get creative in different ways.”

Over the past year and a half, Joti and her family also used some of that creativity in the kitchen. From homemade butter chicken from scratch to BBQ pulled pork and Mediterranean meals, they tried to expand their palette as much as possible.

Of course, there’s nothing better than going from garden to plate all under one roof. Inside, Joti grows dill and basil under an indoor light. Outside, it’s onions, lettuce, hot peppers, and other veggies. “We try to grow everything,” she says.

Painting, pages, and paddling

For fun, Joti took up painting about ten years ago. “I went to a paint night event through work and found that it was a lot easier than I had imagined. So, I wound up getting the whole kit, including an easel.” She prefers an abstract style of painting, with lots of colours. “Sometimes I just like to see where it goes.”

Joti is also a big reader, enjoying fiction and nonfiction. “I’ve recently joined the B. Riley Farber Book Club and can’t wait to get through the first book” she declares. On the TV front, it’s a tough call between classics like Friends and Seinfeld but she tips towards the Friends camp. “You have the ‘Puffy Shirt’ episode on Seinfeld, but then there all those Thanksgiving episodes on Friends,” she recalls. As for movies, Crazy, Stupid Love takes the cake.

In the great outdoors, Joti is a fan of kayaking and canoeing. “We’re able to do it near home, since we live by a small lake where we can rent kayaks.” Joti also got a taste of sea kayaking in Deep Cove, off West Vancouver. “It was exhausting, but worth it,” she says.

And just for a laugh

As far as entertainment goes, nothing beats good old stand-up comedy. Joti got into comedy by going to Yuks Yuks over the years, but she really prefers the smaller quaint venues. And when she goes to New York, she likes to visit the Comedy Cellar. “One of my favourite comedians is probably John Mulaney,” she notes, “but I also enjoyed Norm Macdonald and the way he would talk to people.”

For comedy viewing on screen, Saturday Night Live stands out for Joti, especially the older episodes. “I like the earlier casts and the style of comedy where they didn’t hold back. Obviously, social norms have changed, and comedy has changed with it.”

The B. Riley Farber Peloton

Joti has found the B. Riley Farber environment to be very supportive and recalls people welcoming her to the company before she even started. “It’s a close-knit family, which shows up in the culture,” she explains. “Everyone in the firm talks about the peloton as a metaphor, and that’s definitely how our group works. There are times where we group together when things get really busy, but then we trust each other to go solo at other times, so it’s a true peloton.”

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