Exploring Life & Business with Casey Calvo of Casa Calvo Marketing

Today we’d like to introduce you to Casey Calvo. 

Casey, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’ve always been creative – painting, dancing, writing, I love it. As I started moving through my career I was naturally drawn to marketing and public relations. 

My degree is just a plain ole’ business administration degree from Davenport University, which took me about 10 years to complete. I actually received my degree in the mail about two months after having my first baby, Josephine Ruth, right as the Covid-19 Pandemic was slowing down. My first year as a working mom was challenging, just as everyone says. Mom guilt, work-guilt, I mentally ostracized myself from my team and simultaneously loathed and relished in the required travel from home. You don’t want to know how many conference calls I took while I pumped in the car. If you know, you know. 

Shortly after Josie turned one, Dan Lydy, my cousin, started Lydy Electrical Services, in Barry County. He asked me if I could create a logo and website to get his business off the ground and I said sure, why not? Well, evidently, he liked it enough to share my name with his friend, Nick Tape, who was co-founding TNT Disposal, a dumpster rental company in Middleville, Michigan. Then Tape referred me to two other friends and the next thing I knew I had a steady stream of logo and web design, with a smattering of social media strategy. 

This all occurred after hours, working my full-time job in the day, coming home to spend a couple hours with my daughter, then as my husband put her to bed I hopped on the computer and got to work. In June 2022 we decided to make it official, and Casa Calvo Marketing became an LLC and a plan to transition from full-time work to full-time working from home had begun. 

I like to say that your service to others is your rent here on Earth, I think it’s actually a quote from Muhammad Ali. There is nothing I want more than to surround myself with like-minded folks and help them become successful. Whether they’re a small business, nonprofit, or just need a hand, we are here to help. I say Casa Calvo Marketing is holistic because that’s how marketing should be. Every single department, facet, person, in your company impacts how the market views you. Holistic marketing starts with your brand, your core values, the reason you are doing what you’re doing. It’s efficient, it’s effective, and it ensures you attract the people you want to work with, your people. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not many struggles in relation to Casa Calvo, yet, but the roads I’ve taken definitely had some potholes. Like I said, it took me about 10 years to get my bachelor’s degree. I worked the entire time throughout, from being a dance teacher, a door-to-door sales rep, an office administrator, to where I am today. In that time, I moved back and forth from Wayland to Grand Rapids, to Kalamazoo. I bought a house in Wyoming, adopted a dog, and got married. Shortly after, I lost my mom to cirrhosis of the liver, a long traumatic experience requiring multiple hospital stays. Adopted another dog. Became a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) with my husband, took our first case. While still going to school and working full-time. Became pregnant about a year into our case, had Josephine around the same time we closed the case. Skipped my graduation walk at Davenport because, well, I’m old, and broke my tailbone during childbirth and didn’t really feel like sitting for a long-extended period of time just to walk up some stairs and grab a fake piece of paper.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Casa Calvo Marketing?
We specialize in helping small businesses and non-profits with marketing, sales, advertising, and copywriting and empowering clients to tell their stories and promote positive change in the community through effective branding and marketing strategies. We emphasize the importance of developing a strong brand and marketing strategy before launching business development in order to build a solid foundation. We are passionate about making your business work for you and provide digital marketing services and helps clients to track analytics and measure ROI. Many marketing agencies create fancy, niche-built websites, we offer web development services, which can be easily managed by the client after launch, although we are always available for ongoing management if needed! 

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
The pandemic was wild! I distinctly remember sitting at lunch with our CASA kids. One of them said “some lady in China ate a bat and now everyone is sick”, they saw it on TikTok. I remember just laughing, like, “ok – just another weird TikTok trend.” The next thing you knew the pandemic swept the globe! Everything changed. Luckily, my skills can be done remotely; however, at the time I was actively advocating for our manufacturing employees, who don’t have the opportunity. All this while managing a CASA case and being pregnant. When I said wild, I meant wild. I’m not sure Casa Calvo Marketing would have started if it weren’t for the pandemic, at least not so soon. Supporting my cousin going off to start his own company really got the ball rolling – and watching how the covid crisis affected the economy and traditional jobs, I knew I had to make a change to ensure I could be there for my family.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.casacalvo.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hellocasacalvo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HelloCasaCalvo
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseycalvo/