My name is Kristopher Quaale (kwah-lee), and I take care of sales and design here at Integrated Lifestyles. I have such a great time working here, and I cannot imagine a better group of individuals with whom I would want to surround myself. I am the newest member of the IL team, and from Day 1, I knew that not only was I going to be incredibly successful here, I was going to have a lot of fun!
I am relatively new to working in A/V, as I was a musician in my previous life. I earned a Bachelor of Music Education Degree from TCU and a Masters Degree in Conducting at UNT, which provided me a ton of wonderful opportunities and experiences. I taught middle school and high school bands in Texas for 9 years, educating hundreds of students about the importance of music as well as how to be a successful contributing member of society. I always firmly believed that if I could help a couple of students a year realize their potential (even if it wasn’t in music), then I would have helped make the next generation a little bit more confident and capable of making their way through life.
I left the teaching profession just over a year ago for several reasons, but one of the biggest reasons was that I have always enjoyed being around electronics. I consider myself a life-long learner and someone that always looks for a challenge, so I thought this Audio/Video industry was a perfect fit for me. Fortunately, the team here at Integrated Lifestyles agreed and had confidence in what I could bring to the table. Now working here for just under a year, I am so grateful for this opportunity and I love coming to work!
While I had a decent level of prior knowledge about A/V, I knew I was going to face some difficulty in understanding how the Custom Integrator world exactly worked. I can remember my first several months being incredibly overwhelmed by the amount of technology that I did not know existed nor how it all worked. Being surrounded by my co-workers here, however, has brought me such a sense of relief and calm when I have questions about why certain equipment works the way it does. While they may not love answering the same question for the 100th time, they provide me with the confidence to be able to explain how all the A/V magic happens, so I can help our clients feel great about their purchases. I think that this relatability is one of the reasons we have such success with our clients.
As a company, we have a wonderful combination of understanding our clients and their needs while knowing exactly what to provide for them to give them the A/V setup of their dreams. A lot of companies claim to be team-oriented, but that is exactly what we have here! We are all very good at different aspects of working in this industry, and all those strengths mean that you are getting the very best experience possible. I think that is what makes us the best A/V company in DFW!
There are a lot of differences between the teaching world and the A/V world, but at the heart of both industries is being able to help people which is one of our biggest goals at Integrated Lifestyles. We are here to make your interaction with all of this sophisticated technology simple, enjoyable, and lots of fun! I can’t wait to work with you on your next A/V project!