We are a collective of creative branding, communication & tech professionals looking to help responsible practitioners tell their stories & grow their businesses.
Meet Kelly Foss, who had the idea to bridge psychedelics and branding
Strategy Director + Somatics Practitioner
(she/her/hers)
Kelly has always been fascinated by psychology and happened to grow up with influences that did not encourage or understand the value of self-examination and inner work. She loves writing, creativity and complex problem solving. Her career in the healing arts was sparked by a near death experience 12 years ago, when she survived a traumatic brain injury in the form of a skull fracture and stroke as the victim of a violent crime. She explored several healing modalities in the hopes of resolving chronic pain patterns, processing a whole lot of challenging emotions and confronting and releasing limiting beliefs. This unexpected happening served as an impossible to ignore gateway to processing many other traumas that were all too easy to keep in the rearview mirror before this point in her life. It ultimately inspired a many year journey to expand her self concept and align her energy to her values.
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Somatics Practitioner at Universe Within
While Kelly’s initiation to this work was a rough one, she can see the beauty it made possible. Once she discovered both CranioSacral Therapy and Somatic Experiencing, and the unique ways they each allow for transformative healing, she came to realize her true passion is holding safe space to help others heal from trauma. Each of these modalities uses active imagination, intuitive listening, creating a space of presence for the client to be with and process challenging emotions, and inviting the possibility of an old pattern to be deconstructed and a new experience to emerge. She loves psychedelics for these same reasons, and after many years of only recreational use, broadened her horizons to include psychedelics in her personal healing journey.
She practices CranioSacral Therapy and Somatic Experiencing as forms of trauma healing and integration, as a licensed bodyworker in both California and Hawai’i. She completed the Vital Psychedelic Training program in March 2024, having earned a Certificate in Psychedelic Therapies and Integration. She believes in the power of non-ordinary states of consciousness and can also be found leading inner work focused retreats and experiences across Southern California and Colorado.
Lean more about her healing work and training here.
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Strategy Director at Wild Potential
Kelly’s love of writing, creativity and complex problem solving, as well as her original conditioning toward a conventional life path, led to her earning a B.S. in Marketing with a minor in Psychology from Virginia Tech and later a M.S. in Mass Communications with a specialization in Strategy from VCU Brandcenter.
She's worked in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Hawai'i over the past 16 years across a mix of advertising agencies, tech companies and nonprofits before calling Joshua Tree, California and later Crested Butte, Colorado home. Some brands she's worked on include PAX, California Department of Public Health, LEGO, Google, Smartwool, Kona Brewing and Kalani Retreat Center. She has been self-employed for 9 of those years which has given her freedom to align her values to the projects she takes on, which this past year has spanned regenerative medicine, mental health, compassion research, new technology and craft whiskey.
16 years in branding & advertising, focused in creative strategy; 8 years in trauma healing
Why she’s invested:
healing is more than a side-project, it’s the best way to co-create a new reality
♓ Pisces ☀
♒︎ Aquarius ☽
♍ Virgo ↑
Enneagram Type 4
INFJ
Favorite song to ego-die to:
“Wishlist” by Pearl Jam
Extended Team
Meet the dreamers and doers who bring big ideas to life
Tessa Paneri
Creative Director + Designer
(she/her/hers)
Designing + creative directing since 2012
Tessa got her start in the golden era of social media as a content creator + strategist for brands like Naked Juice, Mattel + Honda before b-lining it to the world of creative advertising. As a creative + design director, her specialty lies in building brand narratives from scratch—she especially loves start-ups + challenger brands for this reason. Tessa has led brand launches, brand identity, creative concepting, art direction, campaign development, and creative production for brands like Method Home, Conrad Hotels + Resorts (a Hilton brand), Good Culture, Dropbox, GameStop, Weber Grills, and Frida Mom. Her latest venture has been opening her own creative agency called Foul Mouth Creative that is 100% women owned and operated. With a strategically driven creative brain, Tessa is nimble with big and small budgets, turning beautiful, wild (and smart) concepts into brand realities.
Why she’s all-in:
She’s excited to bring awareness and destigmatize all the incredible offerings of nature.
♌ Leo ☀
♊ Gemini ☽
♎︎ Libra ↑
Enneagram Type 2
INFP
Favorite song to sing to:
“Falling Water” by Maggie Rogers
Eric Swanson
AI-Powered Full Stack Developer
(he/him/his)
Building generative AI–powered web & mobile magic since 2018 ✨
Eric rewired The National Institute of Health’s Heart, Lung & Blood Institute website before piloting a yoga-streaming SaaS that boosted revenue by 90%. Now he architects multi-tenant Next.js + Supabase engines on AWS Amplify, sprinkles LangChain-driven prompts into production apps, and even taught an app to group your social circles by brain science. From automating AI workflows at Nularian’s Electrify to orchestrating real-time bike deliveries, he thrives at the crossroads of code, cloud, and a touch of sorcery.
Why he’s stoked on this:
Eric already lives in the future, where consciousness evolution is even bigger than we ever imagined.
♒︎ Aquarius ☀
♐︎ Sagittarius ☽
♎︎ Libra ↑
Enneagram Type 5
INTP
Favorite jam to code to:
“Mellow System” by Advanced Suite
How we met
🌿
Summer 2019
Kelly + Tessa unite at a San Francisco ad agency to create the launch campaign for PAX Era Pro, the most innovative cannabis vape on the market at the time.
🌪️
Spring 2020
Kelly + Jourdan meet and begin their long-distance collab from Seattle + Oakland, respectively. Their early work spanned ad projects for Weber + Amazon.
🤬 ➡ 🌸
Spring 2023
With a desire to leave the industry better than they found it, Tessa and collaborators Jourdan + Rachel reunite to (finally) form their own agency, Foul Mouth Creative. Their brand was inspired by the need to show up in life + work authentically and unapologetically uncensored – plus an appreciation for color + pigeons.
🏝️ ➡ 🏜️
2021 - 2023
Somewhere in the jungle on the Big Island of Hawai’i while work-trading at a retreat center, Kelly was doing her best to manage an existential crisis gracefully while planning her next series of moves in life + work. After nearly a decade of freelancing, Kelly launched her own strategy consultancy, Wild Potential. She came back to the mainland to replant her healing arts business, Universe Within, in Joshua Tree.
🥃
Winter 2023
At long last, Kelly, Tessa, Jourdan + Rachel find themselves together again thanks to a brand strategy opportunity with Old Elk Distillery out of Fort Collins, CO. Mutual respect and admiration are reconfirmed.
🦜
Winter 2024
Kelly goes to Costa Rica for the Vital breathwork retreat. Her 2nd journey revealed all the ways to use her energy in 2024 to expand her impact on the psychedelic healing revolution + thus the idea for *this collaboration* was born. It was there that she first learns about Safe Space Colorado from founder Ben, and vows to check out the first-ever Existence Party.
🌈
The Present
We are brave entrepreneurs who come to business decisions with honesty, integrity + kindness. We pride ourselves in being refreshingly down to earth. We believe that you responsible psychedelic practitioners out there possess these qualities too + we can’t wait to collaborate with like minded individuals to make a huge impact on humanity. ♡
🏔️
Spring 2024
Kelly travels to Crested Butte, Colorado for the first Existence Party at Safe Space Colorado. She and Eric meet, both intent on inner work and creating platforms for storytelling. Over the months that follow, they become more closely involved in creating retreats and experiences as collaborations between Safe Space Colorado and Universe Within, creating a safe container for folks to explore inner and outer realms.
🏜️ ➡ 🏔️
Winter 2025
Kelly moves to Crested Butte, Colorado and she and Eric collaborate toward bringing start-to-finish startup ideas to life for clients, from initial brand work to creative strategy and custom dev solutions. They resolve to combine forces to help make the big dreams of psychedelic practitioners become real with technology and creative storytelling.
🏂🏻
2021 - 2023
Eric, unaware of any of these people, and living his best life as a snowboarder and yogi in Crested Butte, Colorado, is fully invested in the power of psychedelics for healing. He’s built custom tech solutions as a Full Stack Developer for big organizations like the National Institute of Health and startups, as well as local businesses in the healing and wellness space.