Manic Energy Podcast

I came into this one carrying some of that old “headhunter” baggage. Michael Wing spent the whole conversation showing me that great recruiting still comes down to trust and a real conversation. We’ve spent the last few episodes talking with recruiters who hire from inside one organization. This time I wanted the other side of the table. Michael Wing is Managing Director of Industrial Technology a...

What does it take to build a company where people really win? Shane Stolp has spent more than a decade figuring that out from the field, the office, and a lot of long drives to North Dakota. If you know me, you know I'm all about businesses that bring people together, lift communities, and drive responsible growth. So I was really excited for Katie Brooks and me to welcome Shane Stolp into the...

There is a piece of equipment buried under nearly every city in America that keeps your water running, and most of us have never thought about it once. Today we're pulling back the curtain on it. I've talked about critical infrastructure a lot on this show. We've covered a lot of industries. But today is one of those invisible ones, something we all rely on constantly and almost nobody...

Ever applied for a job. Ever hired for one. Either way you have felt what it is like to be on one side of that table wondering what the other side is really thinking. This episode pulls back the curtain on it. Today I am joined by two people who live in that world every single day, our full time recruiters here at Lake Superior Consulting, Jamie Wiggins and Anne Lang. Katie Brooks and I sat down w...

I've never made it a secret that I think responsible local development should be a priority, so today I brought in somebody who's spent his whole career fighting for exactly that. Ryan Sistad is the Executive Director of Better in Our Backyard, an advocacy group that started as a scrappy Minnesota operation and has grown into a national force representing nearly 40 mining and energy projec...

Austin walked into Lake Superior Consulting as a CAD intern almost 13 years ago with zero clue about oil and gas. Fast forward through pipeline design, a stint in IT, a relocation to Pittsburgh, project management, and a deep dive into 3D scanning technology, and Austin is now running Swiftrok, a business we spun up out of what used to be a side hobby. Swiftrok inspects underground storage tanks u...

Natural gas powers 60% of American homes and makes up over a third of U.S. energy consumption, so I wanted to bring on someone who lives and breathes the workforce side of this industry. Tyler Tunic is Vice President of Industry Engagement and Workforce Advancement with SGA Natural Gas Association, and after 20 years at Lake Superior Consulting, I've watched Tyler go from operator to associati...

Ever reconnect with someone years later and realize your paths were more aligned than you ever knew back then? That's exactly what happened when I ran into Missie Hills again, and this conversation ended up going a lot deeper than I expected. Missie and I go way back, though not in the way you'd think. We reconnected through the unlikeliest source, and it turns out she'd actually inter...

We've been doing strategic planning for a couple of decades now. And I'll be honest, for most of that time, I didn't even know that's what we were calling it. It was happy hours and bar napkins and whiteboards and somebody saying "can you email that photo out?" And somehow that turned into running a company. This episode is part two of my conversation with Dave Hokanson and Katie Brooks about how...

Twenty years of working alongside someone teaches you things you never expected to learn. This episode is one I've been wanting to do for a while. Dave Hokanson is my business partner, and we've been working together for almost two decades, but somehow there were still pieces of his story I'd never heard. So Katie Brooks and I sat down with him to dig into how he got here, from a kid f...

What happens when the person who knows your hunting stories, your late-night bourbon debates, and your family inside and out also happens to be one of the sharpest business minds you know? You stop taking it for granted and start recording. This week, Katie and I sat down with Dr. Cyrus Press, my brother-in-law and one of the people I've learned the most from over the years. Cyrus is a practic...

What if the secret ingredient to growing an entire regional economy wasn't a policy or a tax incentive — but a person? A curious, quietly relentless human who just keeps showing up, connecting dots, and refusing to let northeast Minnesota be a flyover? That's the energy Rachel Johnson brings to her role as President and CEO of APEX — and this conversation left me genuinely fired up about w...

What makes a company truly healthy, the balance sheet, the products, or the people inside it? I've been asking myself that question a lot lately, and this conversation cracked something open for me. I'll be honest, Derek and I barely knew each other before this. We'd bumped into each other a few times at holiday parties through my partner Anne Lang at Lake Superior Consulting. But one...

What if the real measure of success isn't revenue, contracts, or headcount but whether the people on your team get to come home as themselves? That's the question at the heart of this conversation. And honestly, it's one that hit me harder than I expected. I'm sitting down with Josh Krick, Program Manager for Lake Superior Consulting's utility locating department and we're...

What happens when you spend 28 years in one place… and then finally decide you’re not done living? Today’s episode is about getting unstuck—by choosing discomfort on purpose. I’m joined by Rob Jonasen, a cathodic protection technician at Lake Superior Consulting—and honestly, this conversation hit close to home because Rob’s role is one of the first roles I ever started in. Rob’s a Duluth–Superior...

What happens when two identical twins grow up to become powerhouse women in engineering, leadership, and motherhood… and still need regular “twin time” to keep the world spinning right? This episode is fun on the surface, but underneath the laughs, it’s really about identity, ambition, family, and what it means to grow alongside someone who has known you literally your entire life. In this episode...

AI is here, it’s not slowing down, and whether you’re excited or a little uneasy… you’re not alone. The real question isn’t “Is it good or bad?” — it’s “How do we use it to our advantage?” On this episode of Manic Energy , Katie Brooks and I sit down with Kaycee Wheeler to talk about artificial intelligence in a way that actually feels usable — not hype-y, not doom-y… just real. And before we even...

There was a time as a kid when a power outage felt like an adventure—candles, blankets, stovetop heat, and the weird magic of waking up to everything “back to normal.” As an adult, it hits different… because now I’m not just thinking about light—I’m thinking about heat, water, pipes, food spoilage, and how much of life rides on a grid we usually never notice. Today on Manic Energy , we’re digging...

What if the biggest “building” shaping your life right now isn’t a hospital, a bank, or a factory… but a concrete box full of servers, power, and cooling that you’ll probably never see? This episode is my attempt to make data centers feel real—not mystical, not political, just understandable. Today I sat down with Lucas Mistelske—and we immediately got rolling. We barely knew each other going in,...

What does it actually take to move energy safely across hundreds of miles—without the people who depend on it ever noticing it’s there? This conversation is a reminder that the “invisible” infrastructure around us is built on a whole lot of hard-earned experience, problem-solving, and accountability. Today, Katie and I sat down with Aaron Perrault , one of Lake Superior Consulting’s Engineering Di...

What does it look like when the voice of reason finally steps into the spotlight? And what happens when the person who’s been quietly shaping the story decides it’s time to tell their own? On Manic Energy , I’m usually the one in the driver’s seat—asking the questions, pulling the thread, chasing the “why” behind the work. But in this episode, we flipped it. Because at some point it hit me: we’ve...

What if the “real work” of a project isn’t the schedule… but the way you help people do their best work together? On this episode of Manic Energy , Katie Brooks and I sat down with Caitlin Sloan , Project Management Director at Lake Superior Consulting —and someone I’ve known for a long time. I am genuinely excited to introduce her to you because Caitlin’s path to project management is not the typ...

What if the “shale revolution” wasn’t just a headline, but a handful of people making terrifying, high-conviction bets in real time—with no guarantee it would work? That’s the story I got to dig into with geologist and executive Dick Stoneburner, and honestly, it left me thinking about risk, scale, and what it really means to help build an energy system the world now takes for granted. Dick grew u...

It’s a strange feeling—listening to yourself talk and realizing you’re building something bigger than you thought. But there’s a moment early in every journey where you look around and think: Okay… we’re really doing this. A few days after launching the first episodes of Manic Energy, I sat down in the studio with two people who have been in the trenches with me since day one: Katie Brooks , our f...

People love to glamorize business development. They picture golf outings, steak dinners, and endless wine. But the truth? It’s a grind of long flights, failed meetings, and conversations that may never go anywhere—until one does. In this episode, I sit down with Luke Wilkens , Business Development Manager for the Engineering Group at Lake Superior Consulting. Luke’s been in the energy industry sin...