About Us
For years, Holly Fraser worked as a producer on outdoor asset captures. And for years, she struggled to find the right talent and support crew; people who were comfortable being outside, who had the necessary skills, and who understood the unique challenges inherent to outdoor projects.
Our Story
From these struggles, and from hours of conversation with Danielle Kristmanson and MJ Legault, founders of the outdoor creative agency Origin, an idea formed: What if there were an online outdoor talent marketplace to connect brands with talent who know and love the outdoors, and have been fully vetted by experienced outdoor content producers? And what if this platform could help make the outdoors a more welcoming place to those who do not see themselves represented in the current outdoor media landscape?
And here we are. From the seedling of this idea grew the Outsiders Network, North America’s online marketplace of talent for outdoor media. A first-of-its-kind network, focused on making it easy for brands and talent to connect, and on helping make the outdoors feel more welcoming to all by cultivating a more diverse pool of talent and support. But what do three white women have in common with marginalized and underrepresented talent in media? While we've all experienced gender inequities in our careers, we’ve also benefited from our privilege, and we feel that the Outsiders Network is an opportunity to instigate change by leveraging our privilege, skills and experience. Our first step was to partner with diversity, equity, and inclusion professionals to help create a safe and inclusive space that is representative of everyone who loves the outdoors. These professionals have become our board of advisors who are guiding us on this journey that is fraught with difficulties and sensitivities, but also ripe with opportunities. We pledge to our community the same promise we made to our advisors: we will move forward in this initiative to make the marketing of the outdoors more accessible and representative of the people we hope to see outside, and we’ll do it with transparency, honesty, open hearts, minds, and ears. We will make mistakes, and when we do, we’ll own them and do what’s needed to make things right. It’s a big task, and there is much work to be done. It begins now.
Our Advisors
Amil Reddy
Amil is a non-binary trans Asian Pacific Islander who currently has the privilege of exploring nature and life on the lands of the Tla'amin Nation with their kiddos, pup, and partner. Their central belief is that we all have the capacity to make the world a more welcoming and inclusive place for everyone. Since 2008, Amil has been working alongside communities and companies across Turtle Island to do better by being better. They offer Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and organizational culture guidance through a range of transformational services.
Keith Oberlin
Derives pleasure in helping others - whether bending technology to improve how we work and live, working with philanthropies to build a better tomorrow, or helping change the landscape of the outdoors for LGBTQ adventurists. Founder & Adventure Director at Get Out And Trek (aka GOAT) - an outdoor community dedicated to getting LGBTQ adventurists outside and building better, more authentic representation of LGBTQ people in the outdoor industry.
Carolyn Finney
Carolyn Finney, PhD is a storyteller, author and a cultural geographer who works at the intersection of art, education and lived experience. The aim of her work is to develop greater cultural competency within environmental organizations and institutions, challenge media outlets on their representation of difference, and increase awareness of how privilege shapes who gets to speak to environmental issues and determine policy and action. She is the author of Black Faces, White Spaces and is an artist-in-residence at Middlebury College.
Sabre Pictou Lee
Sabre Pictou Lee is Mi’kmaq from Eel River Bar First Nation in northern New Brunswick. Sabre is an experienced Indigenous liaison and researcher. With her facilitation and mediation expertise Sabre works to build bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous organizations. M.A. Indigenous and Canadian Studies (Carleton University); B.F.A. Art History and Indigenous Studies (Concordia University); current Juris Doctor of Law student (Dalhousie University). CEO at Archipel Research and Consulting.