Gretchen Snyder: More than Skin Deep You might catch a glimpse of Gretchen Snyder on the cover of a magazine, or an insert of an ad. You might see her on T.V., in a commercial or on the runway. But if you’re lucky you’ll catch her in her element, high in the Rocky Mountains where both her love life and her career have taken flight. Gretchen followed her heart to Vail, Colorado after meeting the man of her dreams, David Plenshaw. However, long before she called Vail her home, Gretchen had a deep connection to the mountains of Colorado. Drawn to Boulder for college at CU from Dayton, Ohio, Gretchen studied to become a teacher during the week, and soaked in as much time in the mountains as possible on the weekends. The mountains of Colorado blessed Gretchen by strengthening her body and enhancing her already natural beauty with sun-kissed hair and cheeks. Upon meeting David and falling in love, she packed her bags and moved to Vail, unsure of what profession she would pursue. As soon as she arrived, modeling work has flooded in, with agents and companies approaching her for photo shoots, magazine covers, ads and interviews right off the streets of Vail, sending her all over the country. On any given week she might be in L.A. for the Teen Choice Awards or in New York for a runway event or photo shoot or in Chicago for an appearance on Oprah. Her career has so completely taken off that Gretchen is in shock. Modeling had been a dream for many years, but knowing how hard it was to really make it in the industry, she had, in a sense, given up on her dream. It wasn’t until Gretchen took a leap of faith, followed her heart to Vail that Fate has come to fulfill her destiny. One look at her work plainly shows, modeling, acting and role modeling is Gretchen’s Destiny. Although Gretchen has sometimes been unsure, it has been as clear as day since the summer before first grade when a representative from a local department store approached Gretchen and her cousin to walk the runway in a small-scale modeling event. Gretchen, at the ripe age of 6 years old jumped at the opportunity, despite her mother’s reserve, strutting the catwalk, modeling among other things an unforgettable leather backpack. While Gretchen’s parents could see her raw talent and the deep love she had for the fashion and modeling world, they encouraged her to pursue other things in order to preserve her childhood and to ensure she would grow to be a well-rounded woman. They maintained the promise that should modeling truly be her calling, it would be there when she was ready. They were right. Today, as the work pours in and Gretchen cultivates the career she has worked so hard to develop, her huge, signature smile speaks volumes about the down-to-earth woman Gretchen truly is. No matter what set she is on, no matter how long the hours, how hard the work, Gretchen is truly grateful for every opportunity, and enthusiastic to share her talent. Gretchen Snyder is the epitome of beauty. It pours forth in her long locks of hair, bright blue eyes and arching eyebrows, but more importantly it emits from her bright and happy heart, proving once and for all beauty is more than skin deep.
Watch Gretchen’s Story here Qittle.com/Gretchen-Snyder
John Gates: Born to Serve There is no such thing as an average day for John Gates, Directory of School Safety & Security for the Greeley School District by day and City Councilman by night. In fact, when asked how he spends most days, John is at a loss because the list of things he does, places he goes and people he impacts is so long, he doesn’t quite know where to start. Of course John takes pride in his active role within the community, declaring he is eager to go to work every day, and has been since he joined the Greeley Police Force at the age of 21. This passion for serving his community was the initial catalyst drawing John to law enforcement as a teenager and carrying him through his 25 years on the Greeley Police Force, where John regularly encountered the worst of people. Despite this, his hard work and dedication with the Police Force won him recognition from the Greeley Board of Realtors, which awarded John in 2003 with his first Citizen of the Year Award. In the same year John retired from the Force and took the job with the Greeley-Evans School District aspiring to reverse the role he had previously played in interacting with troubled individuals, particularly children. As a police officer John found himself in the position of reacting to a crime, incident or accident. As an officer, his options were limited within the realm of the law. Today, in his role as Director of School Safety and Security, John is able to proactively work with youth and families to resolve actual and potential issues in the most constructive way possible. He has so tangibly affected the 20,000 children in the Greeley-Evans School District in 30 separate school locations through reducing crime, empowering troubled youth and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of all students, faculty and staff that John attracted the attention of the Greeley City Council. In 2009 he was encouraged to run for a seat on the Council. Although reluctant at first, John realized working with the City Council would further the positive impact he could make on his community at large. Four years later, the winner once again of the 2012 Citizen of the Year Award, John is running unopposed in the upcoming election. Expanding his involvement in the community has done more than garner John awards and recognition. He remains largely unaffected by the attention. Instead he turns the conversation to the challenges and achievements he sees the students in Greeley facing every day. As the 12th largest school district in Colorado with a 54% minority population, including migrant workers, illegal immigrants and a large refugee population, the students attending school in Greeley often face adversity and poverty unparalleled in most school districts in the country. While John openly confronts these challenges, he is eager to celebrate the successes of his students. As a case in point, he points to the twin sisters recently featured in The Greeley Tribune, Natali and Yanet Gutierrez, who came to Greeley without speaking any English, but who worked outside of school to support their family back in Mexico, while attending school and earning honors. The schools, he insists, predict the future of the community and country as a whole. From where John sits, surrounded by people like the Gutierrez sisters, the future looks bright. The Greeley community concurs relishing remarkable citizens and community leaders like John Gates, a man who was born to serve.
Watch John’s Story here Qittle.com/John-Gates
Wendy Klein ~ Living in the Moment On stage, before the curtain went up not that many years ago, Wendy Klein, a student apprentice with the Hartford Ballet School stood in one of the original costumes from George Balanchine debut performance from his famous “Serenade,” ready for the performance of a lifetime. Set to the music of Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings in C,” “Serenade” has become more than a ballet, but rather the paragon of American classical ballet. Tucked into the furthest corner, all the way in the back of the stage, Wendy warned her mother to purchase tickets as far to the side as possible in order to see her. While Wendy was under no delusions that she was the star of the show, she was thrilled to be part of the show. “Serenade” has been described in some dance circles as the liberation of the female dancer from the constraints of Old World Ballet as seen in “Swan Lake, “ or “Sleeping Beauty.” For many modern female ballerinas, “Serenade” is the culmination of dance and the pinnacle of a career. As the seventeen ballerinas prepared for the curtain to rise, Wendy could be forgiven if she was more excited than any other dancer on stage. She had fought hard, worked tirelessly and overcome many barriers for her place on the stage that night. Wendy was born with a physical defect in her feet, causing her to always walk on tiptoe. Unable to stand flat on her feet due to shortened heel cords, Wendy had spent much of her childhood going from doctor to doctor in search of relief from her condition. Finally a doctor suggested dance, the only other alternative before surgery, and Wendy’s mother signed her up for a class in the local ballet school. At just two years old, Wendy found relief, she was able to stretch her feet and ankles. From that time forward, dance was Wendy’s escape. It was where she felt most accepted, most beautiful, healthiest and strongest. Today, when Wendy looks back on her long career dancing and teaching dance, her performance in “Serenade” was more than just a major dance accomplishment – it was a life lesson on the importance of living in the moment, and being fully present in each experience. After her semi-professional dance career and her extensive training in performance teaching through Hartford Ballet, Wendy found herself in Greeley, Colorado, a student at University of Northern Colorado completing her degree in Dance. Upon graduation in 1999, Wendy began to share her dance knowledge at the Dance Factory, a dance studio in Greeley, Colorado. Here, most nights a week Wendy can be found dancing and teaching classical ballet to dancers from Level one through Company. In these classes Wendy tries to impart all the beauty and strength she discovered in dance to her students, but most of all she hopes to share with them the ability to live and to dance in the moment. While her own pointe shoes no longer take center stage, Wendy is truly a wonderful example of what it really means to be a dancer, role model and a true star.
Watch Wendy’s Story here Qittle.com/Wendy-Klein
Emily Crisman, - Doing It! “Just Do It.” ~ Nike Emily Crisman brings the Nike attitude into the Phoenix Training Studios, where she works as a head trainer and where she trains herself each and every day. The dedication that inherently comes along with this attitude is one of the key characteristics defining Emily, and can be seen in virtually everything Emily does. For as long as Emily can remember she has played some sport or another, by the age of thirteen she was hooked on volleyball. Throughout middle school and high school, Emily poured herself into developing her volleyball skills, particularly speed and agility. She and her teammates were so tightly knit they even selected a college together, to ensure their team would carry on beyond high school. At University of Northern Colorado, Emily found that due to injuries sustained in her high school volleyball career she could not pursue her dream to be on the UNC volleyball team. Rather than give up on her body, she incorporated the experience and knowledge she had gathered on the court and brought it into the classroom, where she majored in Exercise Science and has gone on to seek a Master’s degree in Biomechanics. While she has certainly intellectualized her passion for sports through her education, she has not left the world of fitness practice behind. Instead she works with clients on a daily basis instilling within them the passion for fitness along with an understanding of the balance between personal life, professional commitment and physical wellness inside the Phoenix Training Studios. Her work in the field of biomechanics enables her to assist all of her clients with their personal fitness goals. Biomechanics is an evolving field within the fitness industry in which a complete understand of the way the body works cumulatively, from gait to the way in which weight is borne by the individual. With a complete understanding of the mechanics behind the body, it is easier to identify challenges within a fitness regime as well as the personal obstacles each client may face. Biomechanics is also being used with veterans and civilians with disabilities, injuries and irregularities in the formation of the body, sometimes previously unidentified or not completely understood. The field of biomechanics has opened up the possibility of fitness to people of all body types and challenges. A deeper understanding of the inner workings of the body is evolving fitness from being the elusive forbidden fruit, to a way of life available for all. Emily is just the sort of person who perfectly reaches every person who walks into the Phoenix Trading Studios, regardless of their fitness level. Her own personal challenges, her dedication to health and the example she sets in her own life of balancing work, study, wellness and exercise, not to mention a little fun, sets a high bar for excellence and dedication. Emily personifies hard work, expressing to her clients and everyone who encounters her that fitness and wellness is a choice. One that is made every day, in every choice by, ‘just doing it.’
Watch Emily’s Story here Qittle.com/Emily-Crisman
Greeley Hat Works: The Story of a Boy and His Hats This is a story of boy meets hat. Boy loves hat. Boy spends the rest of his life surrounded by…hats! But not exactly because our story begins not with the hat-loving-boy in Southern Colorado, but rather even longer ago with a hat store named The Shining Parlor in Northern Colorado owned by two Greek brothers in 1909, who sold it to a man named Brown, who sold it to four brothers named Martinez, who changed their name to Martin, who gave it to their sons, who sold it to a man named Peterson, who sold it to a man named Walsh, who sold it to a woman named Susie Orr, who sold it a man, who used to be a boy, who loved hats, named Trent Johnson, who works there, and loves hats there and lives his legacy there even today. Because Trent is no ordinary man, and was no ordinary boy. While other boys collected cars, or kites, baseball cards or action figures, Trent collected hats. He may be the first and only boy in history who went to Disney World for the first time as a child and did not buy a Mickey Mouse toy; instead he spent all of his spending money buying hats from each country inside the Epcot Center. It was clear quite early on that Trent was determined to find his own path, to blaze his own trail. Rather than fight him on it, Trent’s parents sat back watching their son, waiting for him to find his path, all the while quietly preparing a way to help their son be the remarkable individual he so clearly was. Trent explains his parents as “The coolest jerks ever!” because from his earliest memories they had pushed him to be independent, to work hard and to pay his own way. When he mowed lawns in the summer, his parents charged him rent for the mower. When he stayed in their home during college, they charged him rent on the room. Unbeknownst to Trent, while he bemoaned his parents, they were quietly tucking that money away into an account for ‘someday.’ Trent moved to Greeley for school, hoping to major in Business, but ultimately, and much to his dismay, he ended up in education - just like his father. He found a part-time job at a ranch, where he finally found his ‘someday.’ Not at the ranch, but at the hat store owned by the ranch family. Ms. Susie Orr owner of the ranch and Greeley Hat Company took Trent on as her apprentice. Trent happily worked four years as her apprentice through college. Sometime during his second senior year in college he knew he had met his match, not just his in his future wife Melissa, but in Greeley Hat Works. He drew up a business plan to buy the company and to make it his own. Hoping for a loan, Trent went to the bank with his business plan in hand. He turned to his uncle, he looked to the current owner and at long last, he turned to his family. His parents flatly refused to lend him a penny. Instead, they revealed he did not need to borrow money in order to fulfill his dreams. They had planned for that day. The years of renting from his parents came back to him clearly, their lameness and their annoying habits, allowed him (at last) the opportunity to be in Trent’s words ‘overnight success in just 19 years.” Success in these past 19 years looks like the growth seen from 60 hats in the last year of his apprenticeship to 120 hats in his first year of business to 3,500 hats last year. These hats adorn the head of everyman as well as the head of George W. Bush, president of the United States, Governors and other government officials. Regardless of whom the hat may adorn, Trent and his company put the same effort, respect and consideration into each and every hat. While Trent has a lot to be proud of and ever so much to brag about, he is the kind of man anyone would like to meet on the side of the road, or over a cup of coffee. He will make you laugh, he will tell you a story and most of all; he will make you feel special. And then, he will sell you a hat, because everyone looks better from beneath the brim of one of Trent Johnson’s world-renowned hats.
Watch Trent’s Story here Qittle.com/Trent-Johnson
Naranjo Civil Builds Bridges Over Colorado’s Most Troubled Waters In mid-September, as torrential rains poured down onto Colorado’s Front Range, streets were flooded and washed away completely. Bridges were closed and in some cases failed entirely. In the weeks since, the significance of strong and safe bridges and roads has come to hold an entirely different meaning in the mind of all Coloradans. Those of us who stood by as our homes, and those of our neighbors and friends were washed away looked at the roads that remained with new respect. If we knew the men who stood behind these bridges and roads, we would learn more respect, and find that we owe a debt of gratitude and awe to these men. For while a few roads and bridges failed, most did not. In these subsequent days the men who years ago, or just months ago, designed, constructed and engineered the roads that have carried us to safety, or brought help our way, are the unsung heroes within the 2013 Colorado Floods. As we look to recover, we look back to these heroes for a way forward to safe and secure bridges, concrete construction and sound engineering. Herman Naranjo and his sons are just three of these heroes. Naranjo Civil has been building bridges in Greeley, Denver and throughout the Front Range since 1982. In the past thirty years the reputation Naranjo Civil has earned comes from Herman’s personal experiences and his steadfast dedication to his family, his company and the safety of his community. Herman, who at the age of 14, with nothing more than a 6th grade education, left his childhood home in Pierce, Colorado, and went out on his own to make a future for himself. As one of thirteen children, from immigrant parents who found their way from New Mexico to Wyoming and finally to Colorado following the ranch lifestyle, Herman grew up working. He and his siblings lived in a dug out home and worked on the ranch and in stockyards from their earliest memories. While not an easy life, Herman learned the true value of hard work. Lessons he not only brought along to his construction business, but carefully taught his three children as well. Herman built Naranjo Civil from the bottom up, learning the trade, mastering it and specializing in it. Through his hard work Herman created a better life for his two sons and his daughter. His wife, the woman he has loved since he met her at the age of fifteen, and his wife since he was 18, has been the queen of his realm. Together they have imparted the importance not only of hard work, but the value of education. Jerry, Herman’s oldest son was told from his earliest memory that college was his path to success. In 1993 Herman’s dream of seeing his son head off to college was realized when Jerry entered the School of Mines and graduated to work in international construction, travelling the world, engineering and creating safe roads and bridges throughout the world. Meanwhile Herman taught his youngest son everything he knew about construction and bridge design, specializing their work to the point that the Naranjo name was the best in the business. In 1999, Jerry felt the call to return home, where his own family could grow up with family just minutes away and back to the family business. Finally, in his old age, alongside both his sons, Herman has seen his company grow exponentially, from 10 employees to 50. In 2002 Jerry joined his father in ownership of the company, in 2004 they were recognized as one of the Mercury 100 Fastest Growing Companies. Since their partnership Naranjo Civil has been renewed with new ideas and energy, while sustained by a tradition of excellence. We here at Qittle, in the heart of the floods, thank the men and women of Naranjo Civil and the Naranjo family for the tireless and thankless work they do everyday and have done for years. Thank you for keeping us safe, and thank you for your work in rebuilding Colorful Colorado!
Watch Herman’s Story here Qittle.com/Herman-Naranjo
The True Power of Small Miracles “Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” ~ C.S. Lewis Before baby Nasyah was born, her mother Vanessa Schwartz knew in her heart she was a miracle. Her motherly intuition had told her from the first moments of her pregnancy that something was wrong and through the long months Vanessa worried for her baby, not sure why she felt so afraid. With each passing day Vanessa became more and more certain that Nasyah was her own small miracle. It was only fitting then, upon her rushed and premature birth two months early, weighing only 3lbs 14oz and fighting for her life, that Vanessa and her husband Austin named her Nasyah, meaning miracle in Hebrew. Almost immediately Nasyah was taken to the Denver Children’s Hospital where she began her long medical journey, through 6 separate surgeries to her diagnosis of partial Trisomy 9. This chromosomal disorder, according to the medical dictionary is, “caused by having three copies (trisomy) of chromosomes number 9.” Due to the rarity of this chromosomal occurrence, Nasyah is one of only 200 people in the country living with this diagnosis. Overnight Vanessa, Austin and their oldest daughter Aiyanna felt their lives change, their priorities shift and their perspective alter. Suddenly the things that had once seemed so important were not. They were no longer concerned with plans or for things in the future. They had no time for minor inconveniences or small frustrations. Their lives were in the moment and they each set about making each moment count. Fused together into an unbreakable bond, the Schwartz family committed to taking things one day at a time, to focus on the smallest miracles. Today Nasyah is a typical five-year old, wanting to play, testing her boundaries and enjoying life. Vanessa and Austin have been able to make this life possible for Nasyah through tremendous personal sacrifice, determination and their unsinkable wills. Vanessa fought the tangled health care system and insurance maze to get her CNA certification, enabling her to be Nasyah’s nurse. In-home nursing has also allowed Nasyah to live at home with her family, comfortably with 24-hour nursing care. While seemingly small things in and of themselves, five years ago these miracles would have seemed insurmountable and a level of normalcy they would never know. In her commitment to Nasyah and their family as a whole, Vanessa has led her family in celebrating these miracles. This change in perspective has changed the way Vanessa sees everything. As the mother of a special needs child, she feels as though for the first time she really sees the world clearly. In a society that values the beautiful, the perfect, the outward appearance, Vanessa sees an entire population of people set aside, unseen and overlooked – a group of angels, whose spirit is pure, fresh and beautiful waiting to be seen, whose beauty is truly insurmountable. Vanessa and a close friend, Richelle whose daughter also has special needs, have through their mutual experiences not only become fast friends and each other’s support system, but also each other’s inspiration and motivation. After travelling to see a pageant in Arkansas for children with special needs, Richelle came home with the idea of beginning a pageant in Colorado to benefit special needs children throughout the state. While Vanessa could hardly believe she agreed, she did. Less than one year later, in the late summer of 2013, the Colorado Angels Pageant was held in Greeley, Colorado for 67 boys, girls, women and men for the first time. Together these two women, in conjunction with the Angels Pageant System, put together an unforgettable event for those with special needs, while simultaneously balancing their family obligations, the health of their daughters and their work. These two women and their two miracle daughters have done more than highlight wonder of those individuals within society with special needs for one day, rather they have begun the life long work of calling attention to the greater miracle these girls represent ~ The miracle of life, the strength of love and the depth of true inner beauty.
Watch Vanessa’s Story here Qittle.com/Vanessa-Schwartz
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Armando Silva ~ In Full Color “Artist” There is a special breed of people who notice green in a red rose, or capture the touches of blue along the rind of a ripe orange that most of us never see. To encounter one of these people is a rare and remarkable treat for most of the population. But for the people of Greeley, Colorado it is an everyday occurrence. Not only does Armando Silva live and work in this Northern Colorado town, he dances, advocates, works, dreams and paints like mad all over town. His murals adorn the University of Northern Colorado walls, his dance routines can be learned at the local dance school, The Dance Factory or the Colorado Dance Collective, which he helped to establish, and his collective artistic vision is shared through the citywide ‘Greeley Unexpected Campaign.’ To find out what drives a man like Armando, it is essential to go back to Sombrerete, Zacatecas, Mexico in the late 1980’s when Armando was just a small child, where Armando’s parents made the difficult decision to leave their successful businesses, their home, their language and everything they knew to come to the United States for the benefit their children. Together they worked tirelessly to create the best life possible for their children. Their long hours of work led to stretches of time in which Armando and his sisters had to entertain themselves after school. Armando would spend this time watching Michael Jackson videos and drawing. He perfected the dance moves he saw on the television and rehearsed them over and over again anywhere and everywhere he could. As he grew older, he continued to turn to dance when life dealt its hard blows, like his parent’s divorce, his mother’s return to Mexico and the everyday trials every child faces. Dance became Armando’s safe place, his release and his passion. Dance also led Armando to his pursuit of art, although perhaps in an unconventional way. After high school Armando applied to, and was accepted to the University of Northern Colorado where he studied Business. However, his heart was never truly in it. During class he would mentally go through the latest dance routine he was learning. He would move his feet along the floor of the classroom practicing his routines while his business professors taught. For anyone who has ever seen Armando dance, it comes as no surprise that he quickly drew attention to himself. His professor kicked him out of class for being a disruption. Pursuing art had been on his mind for some time this incident finally gave him impetus to pursue it with all of his energy. He switched majors that day and graduated with his BA in Fine Arts in 2010. These days it’s hard to separate the dancer from the painter, because they seem to go hand-in-hand. He paints while he dances and he dances while he paints, his subjects seem to dance within the frames of their portraits, bursting forth with energy and life, telling their stories. As Armando seeks to capture the world around him on many canvases, his Art, his dance and his vivacious self are splashed upon the canvas of the world as a rare and true example life lived in full color.
Deanna Martinez ~ All In “Writer”
On my thirtieth birthday I stood backstage at Blue Man Group Las Vegas, watching my co-workers with envy. Because while I loved my job, and felt exceedingly fortunate to work with such incredibly talented people, I could see they were pursuing their dreams. They were, in the Las Vegas sense of the words, “all in.” The truth of the matter was, that while I had an interesting job, was a mother to three awesome children and a happy wife; I was not ‘all in.’ Because only in the shadows of the night could I admit that someday I wanted to be a writer. I pretended that I had no idea what I felt called to be. I hid behind labels and small jobs. I felt oddly confronted by the people brave enough to truly pursue their dreams in whatever capacity that was. At the age of thirty I was no closer to being a writer than I was at the age of eight, when I wrote my first book on pink construction paper with hearts on the cover for illustration. In fact, I had not really written since I had graduated from college and my children were born. As the drums beat in the background and blue men danced, I came face to face with my own personal failure. I went home that night, picked up toys scattered across my living room, sat down at the dark counter and told my husband for the very first time my dreams. Oddly enough, after eight years of marriage, he had already guessed this secret ambition and was ready and waiting with a suggestion to get me started – blog writing. A techie himself he introduced to me the world of blogs, helped me build my first one and then watched as I descended down the rabbit hole. I wrote a personal blog for three years as I homeschooled my children, writing primarily for myself and to practice. Encouraged by the following I acquired, I hatched a plan to work from home, while continuing to homeschool for a few years, gradually transitioning the children to school while building a resume. I began to sift through Craig’s List ads. Almost the first ad I responded to a company called Qittle. While I had never written professionally or for a marketing company, Casey McConnell, owner and CEO of Qittle took me under his wing, coached me gently and encouraged my writing to bloom. For almost three years I have worked with Qittle, while continuing to write the occasional feature piece for websites and blogs across the country on a variety of subjects. I found in Casey and in Qittle the first person who ever believed in me as more than just a mom, or a wild woman with a dream. I found someone who saw me the way I wanted to see myself, as a writer. Because of Qittle, it with great pride that I can now say out loud that I am a writer, and more importantly ~ I’m all in.
Casey McConnell “Interviewer” When Casey McConnell was a senior in high school he fell in love – the kind of love that lasts a lifetime. It began over a keyboard, while designing a local eye doctor’s website when something inside Casey clicked; he had for the very first time helped a company find its voice and tell its story. In hindsight Casey looks back on this moment almost like a first love – a road not taken. But in reality the love he uncovered in that moment followed him and crept up on him no matter where he was or what he did. It burst out of him while he studied engineering. It poured out as he worked at a fitness club and a bed and breakfast. Everywhere Casey has gone in the years since that moment he has sought out businessmen and women and listened to their stories. He has, in a variety of capacities, but primarily through marketing, tried to help companies communicate those stories to their customers in the most effective manner possible. At the end of the day Casey is in love with business. Your business, his business, and the restaurant that just served him a drink – he is hardwired to think business, to sell business and to grow business. However, unlike so many businessmen and women, Casey doesn’t love business for business’ sake. He loves business because business in and of itself is about relationships and people. In 2008 Casey finally achieved his ultimate goal of creating his own business, Qittle, with the specific goal of providing companies with the tools they need to reach their customers with their stories. Mobile marketing had just taken off, and Casey saw an opportunity to move the business conversation to the platform customers were embracing by the thousands – mobile phones. Of course like any good love story, just as he embraced his life calling and true love, the economy dropped out from underneath him. Undaunted, Casey and the Qittle Team pushed on, evolving, adapting, always with the end goal of building relationships, providing value and telling meaningful stories. In 2013, with mobile marketing rapidly evolving and the economy moving toward recovery, Casey has expanded Qittle’s storytelling capabilities and established a relationship with Constant Contact, a small business marketing company. This relationship has enabled Casey and Qittle to reach more businesses, to hear more stories and to help companies realize their story is at the heart of what they do, it is what compels them and ultimately everyone (especially customers) loves a good story. Today, when I sit across the table with Casey at a coffee place, watch him in a workshop or chat with him over the phone about Qittle and Qittle clients, he literally vibrates with passion. His face lights up. His eyes sparkle. His enthusiasm is contagious. He is, literally, a star-struck lover – in love with your company, your story and all the possibilities Qittle has to offer you. Every company, every person and every dream has a story; Casey and the Qittle Team want to know –
What’s yours?
Join us for an Open House at the Studio View, Read and Watch the Stories at Qittle while enjoying desserts & drinks with incredible people. Visit
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Share your Story “Hi Casey, I received so much love and encouragement from your crew, my family, and friends since our interview. Thank you so much for sharing my story in a very unique and inspiring way. You are a wonderful man! I appreciate your love, vision, and passion for the community. You are doing BIG things. I believe in you…… THANK YOU!!” Amy Ortiz
“I had a really great time sharing my story with the Qittle team. Everyone was professional and did an outstanding job, whether it was Armando with his artwork, the film crew, or Casey guiding our conversation. I shared the video with my colleagues, family, and friends, and it has been a conversation starter with everyone who saw it. I shared the link to the video on my website so viewers can learn more about the “why” of my company and my mission, and I have received a lot of positive feedback from people saying they enjoyed watching the video and it gave them a clearer picture of what Fundamental Finance Academy provides. It was a great experience overall and I would recommend it. 5 stars!” Holly Novak
“Casey and the entire team at Qittle did a spectacular job of making me feel comfortable. They gave me an opportunity, not only to tell others about my business passion and what I want to accomplish for others, but they also helped me see myself in a whole new light. I recommend this experience to anyone who wants the opportunity to tell their story and make a difference in this world of ours. You and your business are in stellar hands with this group of dynamic people.” Carrie Coyne – All Things Volunteers, LLC
“One of the most fun and amazing (and out of the box “let’s get uncomfortable because we already know how to do status quo”) things I’ve done lately! Thanks to Casey McConnell of Qittle for inviting me to share my store and Armando Silva for painting my portrait! This is going in the 365 days of goodness jar for sure! I think the painting is juicy.” Chalice Springfield, CEO of Sears Real Estate
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