August 3rd, 2005 - filed in About the Game
Who We Are
Nicole Casanova, MA
CEO, Founder and Passionate Lifetime Shift Player
After putting her Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications to use selling Internet Advertising for Homestore, Lycos and Mypoints in San Francisco for 6 years, Nicole took time off from the 80 hour start-up weeks to create a career with more purpose. 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. She is thankful everyday to be able to live her dream beside the stunning mountains of Boulder, CO with three dogs that total less than 25 pounds and her fiancé, whose name, ironically, means change in Korean.
Reach her at nicole@shiftthegame.com
Charlotta Janssen
Artist and Entrepreneur Extraordinaire
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.” Check out her other ventures
At www.charlottajanssen.com and www.chezoskar.com.
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.
Reach her at 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. 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 through experiential trainings the life skills they would need to be successful and happy in their relationships, academics and careers. She is our glue. She keeps us together.
Reach her at joyce@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. Jeff’s odd humor was exactly the translation we needed. Only Jeff could suggest, "To save money on cable, Don watches HBO through his neighbor’s window" to describe someone who’s relationship with money is based in fear.
Dorothy Divack, Spiritual Guru and Mentor
Dorothy’s foundation, The Center of Excellence, in San Francisco gives people tools to assist them in unraveling their personal mythology and recognizing their truth. Her history includes Art Curator in both New York and Rio. However, she has been involved with The Course in Miracles since its inception and worked for the Foundation for Inner Peace before they received funding to print the first Course in Miracles books in 1976. She has lead a weekly Course in Miracles discussion group for the last 9 years and teaches seminars such as, “The Excel Training” a four month intensive, and “Dare to be a Man/Dare to be a Woman” that explores male and female principles. Dorothy lives the course and has served as an amazing model for the potential and power of thought.
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 currently works at ClickData and was the Director of Digital Marketing for Message Media and was the Creative Director for Walnut Software. Derek is the reason why our site is so slick.