01The National Day guy
National Day Calendar started in 2013 as a hobby blog, after I went looking for the history of National Popcorn Day and came up empty. It has since become one of the most celebrated movements around: National Days trend online hundreds of times a year, with giants like National Siblings Day, National Margarita Day and National Puppy Day.
That little blog grew into the platform behind the biggest trending topic of all time. Today more than 20,000 media outlets and personalities follow the calendar and use it to prep their daily shows.
Every day you can hear me on the National Day Spotlight, the 90-second radio celebration I co-host with Alice Anderson, on 100 stations across the country. On TV, the National Day Minute airs on Gray and Nexstar stations in local markets, and it’s become a daily fixture in classrooms across the country. I also host Destination Celebration, a 30-minute TV series, with co-host Latoya Johnson.
02Always building
I’ve founded and co-founded a long list of businesses, including Awesome 2 Productions, Zoovio, Carbon Convert and the media company Q1 Network.
These days you’ll also find me reinventing mini golf with Ace Putt, and asking life’s important questions (“wait, why do we do that?”) every week with co-host Brandi on The Absurdists.
03The Guru of Geek
I started the radio talk show The Tech Ranch, which also covers events like CES. As the “Guru of Geek,” I’m a frequent contributor to regional and national news stories about technology, and my holiday top tech gifts list is an annual favorite.
I’m a longtime advocate for autonomous vehicles, most notably the Autonomous Friendly Corridor, an idea born from the lack of north–south routes for moving goods through the middle of the country. As a past director of the Central North American Trade Corridor Association, I’ve been consulted on autonomous vehicles by companies like Microsoft, Delphi, Peterbilt, Volvo and EHang.
My 2017 TEDx UMary talk, “Our Bright Future,” looked at how our early-1900s ancestors spent enormous resources on the horse manure problem, right before the horseless carriage solved it. I’ve also spoken at TEDx Fargo about the motto I’m best known for: “Celebrate Every Day.”
04Proudly from Mandan
- Longtime chair of the Mandan Independence Day Parade, home of the World’s Longest Chicken Dance, “Twist” and Y.M.C.A. lines, and a finalist for Rand McNally’s Most Patriotic City.
- President of the North Dakota Music Hall of Fame, where I oversaw “North Dakota Music Lane” in downtown Mandan, honoring Lawrence Welk, Bobby Vee, Peggy Lee and Lynn Anderson.
- Helped launch the Talking Trail, a self-guided tour that tells the full story behind the signs.
- One of the founders of 1 Million Cups North Dakota, and a founding committee member and past moderator of the DisruptWell Summit in Bismarck.
- Helping oversee fire relief operations through ND Lions Emergency Relief, and serving on boards locally and nationally.
When I’m not in the studio or creating new National Days, you’ll find me in a coffee shop somewhere visiting with people, at a National Day event, or on a stage talking about celebrating every day.
