Teatime: Meet Kris Vann

This week’s Kindred TeaTime interview is with Kris Vann, the amazing woman behind corporate marketing at Side – the tech company that powers Kindred SF Homes. To learn more about Side, click here. To learn more about Kris, read on. But here’s a little secret very few people know about her: She once appeared on an ABC reality show called How to Get the Guy, set in San Francisco and produced by the makers of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

Name a book you loved as a kid. Is there a line or character you remember?

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein comes to mind immediately. The illustrations are just so vivid and the colors simple and clear. It showed the phases of this boy’s life and how the giving tree just loved him so much, loved him unconditionally. The tree loved him so much that, eventually,  the tree was just cut back to bare nothing. When I read it as a child, I think, it was the first time I had that perspective on the arc of life.  And now I have children of my own and we’re all going through these stages of life. 

What did you last read? Thumbs up or down?

There are two books that come to mind. For my book club, I just finished Tina Fey’s Bossypants. There’s a lot about gender in the workplace and what it means to be a businesswoman – it celebrates women – but it’s presented in a really fun way. I’m currently reading a Ken Follett novel. I’m a solid Ken Follett junkie and I love historical fiction. This book kind of covers after the fall of the Roman Empire and we’re up in Britain and with the Vikings in France.

In your next life you can be a lion, a tiger or a bear. Which do you choose and why?

Can I choose some other animal? Because I really want to be a dolphin. I love Dolphins because they are very social animals and collaborators. They work in groups and communicate and help each other. They have high EQs, plus I’m attracted to the freedom of just swimming throughout ocean. It must be kind of like flying!

What is something you learned from a parent that turned out to be wise?

I don’t think I can pick just one thing today. Let’s see, my father taught me defensive driving. But I want to shout out to my mom. We immigrated from Indonesia and my parents really started from scratch. They were doctors and my mom – despite all the obstacles – built a medical practice through perseverance and dedication. She worked at the hospital at nights and raised a family. She was fearless and she was my role model.

There’s a new interior paint color based on you and your life. What’s its name and why?

It has to be cerulean something.  The blues, the green. It could almost be a neutral, but it’s a little sassy, too. I’m going to call it Sassy Cerulean. 

What in the world gives you hope?

People helping each other. Just day to day. It’s been such a tough time (during covid) but just look at the speed with which vaccinations were developed. What human ingenuity! Humans tend to be good and every day we’re seeing people make a difference. They don’t have to, but they do.

It’s teatime. What’s your order?

I want to have a plane that just goes from place to place. So I can visit all the places I want to see but haven’t been able to since the kids came along. Cape Town. Patagonia. The Falkland Islands. Antarctica. There are so many places! So, on the jet would be a craft bar and I could bring friends along. We’d create original craft cocktails for every specific destination.