Who We Are
Nicole Casanova, MA
CEO, Founder and Passionate Lifetime Shift Player
Nicole Casanova is the CEO, visionary-extraordinaire, and the heart behind Shift. She started her days in a Jewish/Italian family in sunny Miami, Florida . After a stint as honor student, president of this and that, and Miami Beach party girl, Nicole went off to study Communications at Florida State University. From there the eternally driven Ms. Casanova trekked out to Boulder, Colorado to get her Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications by 22. Because her Master’s thesis (this was 1995 when her professors wondered if she’d go door to door signing people up for the World Wide Web) was on Targeted Marketing on the Web, Nicole’s natural next step was to seek fortune and challenge in San Francisco’s world of Internet business. She spent the next six years doing Business Development and selling Internet Advertising for Homestore, Lycos and Mypoints.
Fortune smiled upon her and all three companies went public, the stocks climbed and the Venture Capitalists increased their ad budgets. In one year Nicole exceeded her quota by $6.5 million dollars while her bonus was 20%. She had so much business that she didn’t have time to put in her $10k plus expense reports or make sure her commissions where correct. She secretly hired an assistant to help her work more than 80 hours a week so she could gather more of the contracts and dollars that seemed to be falling from the sky. At 25 her portfolio proudly stated, baby you’re a millionaire. Life was good. Many would agree, Nicole Casanova was the picture of success.
Nicole Casanova was also really good at feeling not good enough. Do you see the correlation between star student and sales person? She sought all she could outside herself to feel good enough. At the same point, Nicole was introduced to A Course in Miracles and began studying the concepts of self-awareness. She became more and more aware that she couldn’t blame her destructive ways on her belief that she was a “victim of the world.” Once she finally got that she was responsible and that her motto, “Everything in excess” was less than healthy, Nicole recognized that she had another calling, to convey these same lessons to as many people as possible. The voice grew louder and louder until she left the Internet and her hectic life in San Francisco to answer that call.
Three plus years later it showed up as a company called Exponential Growth. The core product, Shift, is a board game that helps people become more aware of why they behave the way they do. The game teaches people that their perceptions are their reality and that only they have the power to shift their thoughts from Fear to Love. Shift’s message translates equally well to friends, families, partners and even support groups, corporations and organizations. Shift’s mission is to reach as many people as possible and remind them that they are loved.
Nicole currently lives among the stunning mountains of Boulder, CO and is continually thankful for the journey that has brought her here and the excitement of the path ahead. She lives and loves her three dogs that total less than 25 pounds and her husband, whose name, ironically, means change in Korean. Reach her at nicole@shiftthegame.com
Charlotta Janssen
Artist and Entrepreneur Extraordinaire,
www.charlottajanssen.com and www.chezoskar.com
Don’t be fooled that she’s a successful international model. Charlotta’s pretty face is just a cover. As the owner of the Brooklyn favorite, Chez Oskar and soon to be opened sister restaurant, Chez Lola, Charlotta has delivered a dining experience that captivates both the taste buds and the eyes. Anything and everything is her medium. In fact she is also both an exhibiting painter whose projects span the globe from New York to Beijing and a published author of the children’s book, “The Secret of Three Butterpillers.”
Reach her at charlotta@shiftthegame.com
Kristen Werning
Creative Director and Ultimate Sparkplug
As a recent graduate from the University of Colorado’s Advertising Program, Kristen took her own Leap of Faith and chose to commit herself to Shift full time while her fellow students sought work at established companies. Kristen’s design and marketing influence touch almost every component of Shift. However, it’s her unwavering belief and incredible dedication to seeing Shift create a positive impact in the world that has us bowing to our younger sister in reverence. After working at BrandIron on numerous accounts, Kristen now works the Duracell account for The Integer Group, Denver’s largest ad agency.
Reach herat kristen@shiftthegame.com
Joyce Kinde, Director of Operations and our G.G.D. (Gal that Gets it Done)
Joyce Kinde rounds out our generational landscape. As a mother of four children in college, Joyce is the model of what a successful marriage and family looks like. Joyce’s passion for helping others achieve their goals has been honed over years of professional and volunteer work in the public schools, the Boy Scouts, the YMCA and the local community. She has worked as Project Manager for a California homebuilder and sat on the Architectural Review Committee for the City of Pleasant Hill, California. She served as a Career Advisor at a large Boise, Idaho high school, and her most recent position as College Outreach Coordinator for Learning for Living, a Boulder non-profit, had her working with college students to discover and implement the life skills they would need to be successful and happy in their relationships, academics and careers. She is our glue.
Reach her t joyce@shiftthegame.com
Teri Lewis, Director of Business Development
As a successful entrepreneur, personal motivator, and visionary, Teri has been connecting and inspiring people to live on purpose, with passion and in meaning. She has spent the last twenty five years guiding and mentoring corporate executives, entrepreneurs, small businesses, educators, trainers and coaches on how to connect with and maximize professional relationships and profits, boost productivity, strategize, negotiate win-win contracts, and build their dream teams.
Teri has studied with Master Teachers in ACIM (A Course in Miracles) for over eighteen years, is a certified trainer, public speaker and success coach. She has made it her life mission to embrace and move into the future with grace, mindfulness and ease.
Her vision is to educate ourselves and our children for sacred stewardship. Teri believes we must seek and find the physical, mental and spiritual resources that enable us to partner and co-create on this planet.
As a devoted wife of twenty one years, dedicated mother of two and community volunteer extordinaire, Teri dances the daily process with positive thought, passionate feeling and purposeful action!
Reach her at teri@shiftthegame.com
Jeff Wozer , Comic Writer, www.jeffwozer.com
Jeff Wozer works as a nationally touring stand-up comedian based out of the Comedy Works in Denver, Colorado. When not on stage he plies as a freelance humor writer. He has been published in 14 magazines and has written humorous copy for businesses around the globe.
Derek Scruggs Web Developer, www.escalan.com
Derek is the founder and CEO of Escalan (an agency that helps overworked entrepreneurs get things done online, covering everything from high-level strategy to nitty gritty code. Derek is also the co-founder of Click Thru Stats (http://www.clickthrustats.com), a “brain-dead simple” click-tracking service useful in everything from email marketing to searching engine advertising to web site traffic analysis.
Prior to all this stuff, Derek was the Permission Advocate for MessageMedia, a leading provider of email marketing technologies and services. In that role he served as an evangelist for the email marketing industry and as a consultant for clients such as Cisco Systems, Dell Computer, E-Trade and Bluelight.com. He is a well-known industry expert on the topic of permission email marketing.
Before joining MessageMedia, Derek was founder and CEO of Distributed Bits, a developer of software that brought call center functionality to email. Distributed Bits was acquired by MessageMedia in 1998. Derek is so witty, charming and just plain good-looking that he’s allowed to write his own bio.
Scott McDaniel , Web Designer, www.scottmcdaniel.com
Scott owns Decisive Communications and is our information architect, front-end developer, and programmer who also provides online marketing strategy. He recently moved from ClickData to Marketing Sherpa and was the Director of Digital Marketing for Message Media and was the Creative Director for Walnut Software. Scott is the reason why our site looks so good.
Keith A. Shandalow, Attorney-at-Law
Keith, formerly with the Boulder law firm of Caplan and Earnest LLC as Special Counsel, now operates his own firm and serves as our outside general counsel. A 1986 honors graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, Keith has served as Corporate Counsel with Agilent Technologies, Inc., in Palo Alto, California, and Loveland, Colorado; prior to that he was a member of Hewlett-Packard’s Legal Department in Palo Alto after practicing as a litigator for 12 years in San Francisco.
Keith has a unique expertise in the full range of transactional and commercial issues of start-up, high tech, and more conventional companies. His experience includes negotiating a wide variety of transactions on behalf of HP and Agilent with companies in the Fortune 500, as well as small business startups. Keith has also represented the interests of a major league baseball club, a well-known west coast brewery, a premier state university system, a national tire manufacturer and several large utility companies. He is noted for his practical approach to resolving business law issues.
Keith has also been an educator, having taught Writing, Literature and American Studies at the university level, as well as Legal Writing and Research, and Advocacy, at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.
Keith lives in Boulder with his wife, his two children and his two dogs.
Pantea Garroussi, Partner, Davis Graham and Stubbs
Brad J. Hattenbach, Attorney-at-law, Hensley Kim & Edgington
Advisors:
Valerie Buckingham, Principle, Nokia Innovent
Ms. Buckingham is a Bay Area Principal for Nokia Innovent, an entrepreneurial innovation unit of the Nokia Ventures Organization. Previous to Innovent, she was CEO and Founder of web privacy firm MEconomy. She was an early employee at Personify, a Bay Area web profiling and behavioral analysis start-up, where as an Analyst she consulted with marketers to apply data-derived insight to marketing strategy, and to implement and integrate the overall solution.
Previous to Personify, Valerie worked in Chicago as a Business Development Manager in the Multi Media Division of Motorola as well as in the Internet Products and Services Group to develop value-added Internet applications and service concepts for Motorola networks. She opened the Silicon Valley office for Motorola’s Broadband Wireless Systems group in Palo Alto, where she worked with a team developing next generation broadband content product plans. Valerie started in Paramount Television’s Interactive division, where she worked as a Creative Director for the Gateway group in Boulder developing a local online content business aimed at leveraging Paramount and Viacom’s entertainment assets.
Ms. Buckingham holds a Masters degree in Business Administration with a focus on Technology & Entrepreneurship from the University of Victoria and UBC, as well as a Masters Degree in Fine Arts specializing in Intermedia from the University of British Columbia. She is an advisory board member of the Women’s Technology Center, and an active member of the Silicon Valley Forum for Women Entrepreneurs.
Dorothy Divack,The Center of Excellence
As a highly respected International Master Coach, Mentor and Visionary, Ms. Divack’s distinctive laser-like training and coaching systems inspire men and women to experience high levels of Self-Awareness, Personal Power, Vision and Leadership.
She possesses remarkable abilities to serve a diverse client base who are committed to Excellence in their personal lives and in the workplace. Her experience spans more than two decades of delivering seminars, study groups, trainings and coaching to individuals, entrepreneurs, corporations and educators.
Ms. Divack was involved with A Course in Miracles and the Foundation for Inner Peace at it’s early stages and then worked with Marianne Williamson. She embodies the Course and is the model for how to apply it’s gifts consistently and live a life of joy, grace and abundance.
Ms Divack’s areas of expertise—
* Coaching for Win-Win Relationships
* In-depth Training Program for “Conscious Partnering”
* Self-Empowerment Training
* A “Collage of Meditations”
* 1-2 Year Intern Program for Coaches & Consultants
* Effective Communication Skills
* A Course in Miracles Study Group Facilitation
Larry Wilson, The Wilson Collaborative- Larry Wilson was the founder of Wilson Learning Corporation, whose programs helped Fortune 500 companies thrive in an uncertain world. Today, Larry consults with senior leadership teams from companies such as Simmons, American Express, General Motors, Dupont, Citibank, Kraft, Ernst & Young, and British Airways. Larry has authored more than five books including The One Minute Sales Person.
Robert Kendrick, Cascade Development Partners- Cascade Development Partners, Major developer. Took Acclaim and Etrade Public. Former Investment Banker and VC.
Jerry Newman,Senior Managing Director, Investment Banking/Head of Venture Capital Coverage Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc.
Jerry Newman is a Senior Managing Director and Head of Bear Stearns Venture Capital Coverage within the Technology Investment Banking Division. Prior to Bear Stearns, Mr. Newman was Head of Venture Capital Coverage for J.P. Morgan, and previously was a Managing Director at SG Cowen Securities, working in that firm’s Institutional Sales and Trading Department and then as Head of the Corporate and Venture Services Group. From 1984 to 1989, he was a Managing Director at Hambrecht & Quist where he was head of Nasdaq Trading, a member of the Executive Committee, and on the NASDAQ Trading Committee to the NASD. Mr. Newman holds a B.A. in Public Administration from San Francisco State University, and an M.P.A. in Public Administration from Golden Gate University. Jerry sits on the Board of Podshow, Inc., is on the Board of Trustees of Peninsula Temple Sholom, on the Board of Governors of Shaare Zedak Hospital in Jerusalem, Golden Gate University Business School Board of Advisors, and the Technology Council of San Francisco State University.