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OUR STORY:
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We're the first to admit, agencies tend to suck.
All that corporate jargon and bazillion dollar strategy that proves they don't know the difference between ripping skins and showing skin... and then you're supposed to trust them with your brand? Gross. That's why we're the anti-agency. Wheelie is a story of something from nothing. There are no investors, no power-suited people behind the curtain of this business, and certainly no committee of retired NFL players who make decisions for us and our clients. It all started with snowboarding. Wheelie was born in 2009 in the small, mountain town of Crested Butte, CO as a means to support our founder's snowboarding habit. Lisa shredded all day and designed all night by the light of a laptop. She handed out business cards on chairlifts and turned down parties. She hustled. She moved to Utah and spent exactly one year as a photo editor there while keeping Wheelie going at night. Scooping up friends at Snowbird, she hustled harder and learned as much as she could about the nuances and intricacies of the outdoor industry before packing up her Subaru and heading north toward pillow lines only dreams are made of. Great work breeds more great work. In 2012, on a solo trip to Canada, Lisa’s car died outside of Whitefish, MT, so she and her dog, Scout, threw down some roots, got an office, and started hiring Montana’s best to join the hustle. Then shit got real. Wheelie exploded into an oblivion of creativity, joy, and results. Now we are built of a solid in-house team working nationwide, all over the country. We travel a ton, so our leadership team can come to your HQ. We also have a brick-and-mortar office in downtown Whitefish if you want to come here and go mountain biking or snowboarding before sitting down at our super dope conference table. Either way, we're excited to make it happen. Welcome to the ride. |
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The Crew:
Our Leadership
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Lisa Slagle, Founder + PRINCIPAL
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Lisa grew up in Fort Collins, working in bike shops, instructing snowboarding, and building drop-in ramps off of rooftops into rail parks that she welded herself. In order to support her snowboarding habit, Lisa started Wheelie in 2009 from the chairlifts of Crested Butte, CO. After almost every business in town had a new brand identity, she moved to Whitefish to throw down some roots and grow the business into an oblivion of awesome. Armed with degrees in Graphic Design & Writing from Colorado State University, Lisa thrives on creating in all capacities from corporate strategy to well-chosen words to making career paths at Wheelie that are inclusive, expansive, and a little wild. She believes in encouraging people to bring their truest selves to work, the unlimited power of play, and the joy of ridiculous business portraits. Her approach to creativity generates projects that are globally-minded while maintaining the relatable rawness of humanity that is accessible inside all of us. Her favorite aspect of entrepreneurship is creating awesome jobs for people in order to create dream projects for clients.
Lisa is also an adjunct instructor of design at FVCC, a freelance writer, and often speaks at industry events. (Check out her Creative Mornings speech HERE.) Lisa enjoys putting core shots in her snowboard, crashing her mountain bike, and digging her snowmobile out of deep powder in the backcountry. |
Jessica Parker, OPERATIONS DIRECTOR
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Jessica found her way to Montana after running all the rivers east of the Mississippi that she could find. She hauled her two adorable boys west on a family trip, and knew right away that the Northern Rocky Mountains were going to be home.
This Jersey-native is fun, creative, and passionate about everything she does. Jessica is skilled in business communications and graphic design which means she can relate your amazing business ideas with design concepts. She keeps the gears greased at Wheelie which means your project runs smoothly. When she’s not working, you might find Jessica around town coaching or playing soccer, looking for new lines to ski, or relaxing with her kids at the lake. |
IRIS MATULEVICH, Creative Team
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No one can say her last name, but we're keeping Iris forever. Iris started at Wheelie as a marketing intern during her pursuit of a Business Admin degree at Gonzaga University with a concentration in Marketing and double minors in English and Entrepreneurial Leadership. That's right, Iris is an over-achiever. But she's our over-achiever, and we wouldn't have it any other way. She kills it for us on the social media front.
Iris is a local from the Flathead Valley. On the weekends, she is always bagging peaks, mountain biking, or taking ridiculously pretty summit sunset photos like a badass, but here at Wheelie, she geeks out on analytics, strategy, and trending hashtags. She's organized, hilarious, and one hell of a researcher, too. (And she didn't get scared away when we tasked her with organizing and planning Montana's first Camber Outdoors event on her very first day of work.). What a champ. Iris has an incredibly dry sense of humor, and it flourishes both at Wheelie and at her irreverent hand embroidery and cross-stitching business, IrisRaeStitches. Iris is amazing. We're a lucky agency. |
Michael Crenshaw, Accounts Team
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Michael arrived in Whitefish and got thrown into an office full of women. Unarmed with puppies or chocolate, Michael bravely stepped into the trenches of our headquarters and seems to be not only surviving, but thriving.
Michael's the man! Armed with a BS in Industrial Design from Virginia Tech, Michael is our go-to for all our 3-D projects from building backdrops and bars for photoshoots to designing and creating client trade show booths for Outdoor Retailer to designing work stations for interns. Michael brings with him tons of agency experience, but he says Wheelie is extra fun "because no two days are the same." Michael constantly surprises us with his diverse skillset and experience. His ultimate super power is snowboarding. He can also kayak world class scary shit. And like for real, he can build anything. He manages projects and helps the creative team hit deadlines with grace, humility, and an amazing sense of humor. He's seriously amazing. Fun Fact: We've never seen Michael without a hat. |
HILARY BYRNE, Creative Team
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Hilary Byrne is a badass. Based out of Bozeman, she joined our crew as our official Storyteller-- helping craft and edit video that honors and elevates the story behind the products for our clients.
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Collin Hamman, Creative Team
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Two L's, two M's, one big powerhouse of creativity. We are stoked to have Collin on our crew pushing pixels and pencils for our clients. Collin's illustrative aesthetic and passion for the outdoor industry make him a perfect addition to the crew for tapping legendary amounts of creativity into every click of the mouse. Collin has tons of industry experience from freelancing to designing for Alta and Salomon to teaching InDesign at our local community college. He's a true artist with the ability to pour into the details of his work. And that work becomes your work, so you just hit the design jackpot.
Collin brings good humor, a three-legged Golden Retriever named Mega, and a deep voice to the office every day. He is taller than most of us, so he has to bend his knees to look in the mirrors, but it's just good training for skiing moguls, right? |
Andrew Chad, Creative Team
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Andrew Chad, or @a.chad on Instagram, is our go-to freelance photographer. He's fun, dependable, and can carry a whole lot of gear to the top of anything.
Our favorite things about A Chad are that he can hide in the bottom of a tree well and get The Shot without anyone even knowing where he is, he let us borrow his One Wheel for a month last summer, and his dog travels to most shoots with us. (Her name is Georgia, but everyone calls her George.) Also, he can bike, ski, and hike up anything with all his heavy camera gear and then often surprises everyone with a 6 pack at the top. He's a good dude to have around on shoots. But mostly, our favorite thing about Andrew is that he's f-ing awesome. |
TOMMY PENICK, CREATIVE TEAM
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This is Tommy. He is kind of like a Golden Retriever trapped in a human's body. He's friendly, dependable, and hard charging, and he is our go-to when we need RED footage filmed by the industry's top shelf videographer.
We are trying to get Tommy to move to Whitefish full-time, but for now, he still resides in North Carolina. Don't let this fool you-- he can ski backwards with insane amounts of heavy video gear and flawless shooting skills. He's usually even too badass to wear gloves. It's very confusing. Impressive, but confusing. We've also made him film underwater commercials in freezing water with a questionably thin wetsuit, drag 80lbs of cable cams up mountain bike trails, and lay in a puddle and let a dirt biker splash road gunk all over his face. Thanks, Tommy. You're the best. Check it: http://www.tommypenickphoto.com |