Dan The Road Trip Guy

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now A lot of leadership advice is loud. Bill Crouch’s is quiet, personal, and surprisingly practical: help people feel like they matter, then build everything else from there. On this drive, I sit down with Bill, former president of Georgetown College and now CEO of Bright Dot Fundraising Advisors, to talk about the moments that shaped his mission to impact the liv...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now Steven, a longtime musician, producer and studio professional turned college professor, talks about what actually helps creatives build a lasting career when the tools keep changing. Along the way, Steven shares the unglamorous truth of early touring life, including hauling gear behind a weak little Ford Ranger and the night his van and trailer nearly slid into...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now First class. Movies queued up. A perfect end to a European trip. Then the captain announces a detour to Newfoundland, and nothing about travel feels normal again. I sit down with Charla Thomas at her home and trace the road that led her here, starting with growing up in 1950s Bowling Green, Kentucky, where bikes, drive-ins, and neighborly kindness shaped how sh...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now Forty-four years of marriage doesn’t come from one grand gesture. It comes from a thousand small choices that keep two people close, curious, and willing to say yes to the next adventure. I’m Dan, and I’m sharing a personal anniversary story about Linda, the woman I didn’t just fall in love with, but learned to travel through life with, from college days to rig...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now A lot of people talk about “living boldly” without ever defining what that actually looks like on a random Tuesday. Hannah Edwards does define it, not with hype, but with stories and habits that prove she’s doing the work. We start with the basics that somehow say a lot: her first car was a red Mustang, and she drove it home barely able to see because she didn’...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now The most dangerous kind of burnout is the one that hides behind “success.” George Rivera built businesses for 30+ years, scaled e-commerce companies, and did what so many founders aim for on paper, until he realized he was becoming the person his family only got after the business took everything else. His work now centers on the Buy Back Time Formula, a practi...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now Memorial Day weekend can feel like two worlds at once: the quiet pull of remembrance and the loud thrill of summer starting. I’m Dan, and on this solo ride I tell the story of growing up in a small Kentucky town where Memorial Day meant driving out to family cemeteries, cleaning up grave sites, placing flowers, and hugging relatives who came back home to pay th...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now Memorial Day weekend always brings a familiar question to our group texts: who actually has the car to win the Indianapolis 500, and who are we cheering for? Jeff and I connect for our annual Indy 500 preview, and we keep it real, no researchers, just decades of watching the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing” and a lot of love for the traditions that make Indianapo...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now One Lap of America is one of those events people think they understand until you explain it: thousands of miles on public roads, racetracks every day, timed competition, and a caravan of exhausted, happy car people chasing the next checkpoint. I’m back with a solo recap after returning from the 2026 One Lap of America event, sharing what it actually looks like...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now A lot of people daydream about quitting the sensible job for the thing that actually lights them up. Mark Winters did it and he did it with the same curiosity that made him an aerospace engineer. We talk about how a mind built for math, science, applied physics, and computational fluid dynamics can also be a mind built for poetry, songwriting, and the kind of l...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now A stranger who asks “What time is it?” every ten minutes. A vintage Honda Goldwing pickup that ends with a spear on the wall and a text to family “just in case.” Then a simple confidence exercise that changes everything: introducing yourself as who you are becoming. Our conversation with filmmaker, actor, author, podcaster, and magician Tony Suriano goes from f...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now A torn bench seat in a ’92 GMC Sierra. A sleepy, ill-advised midnight sprint to Gulf Shores. A kid who couldn’t hit a tee-ball grows into the voice that keeps a ballpark buzzing—and then into the leader preserving one of Cincinnati's legacies. Tyler Bradshaw joins us to trace the road from humble first drives to the leadership at the Joe Nuxhall Foundation...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now This episode originally aired on August 20, 2022. It was one of my earliest recordings and let's just say, my editing skills were not great. This episode has been edited, and it turned out great.  What makes someone trade a stable trade for a life measured in miles, containers, and pit stops? We bring back a remastered conversation with Chris Smith (aka as...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now What does it take to lose almost everything as a kid, find your footing in the Marines, and then build not one but two major radio companies? Terry Jacobs joins me with his wife Susan at his side to trace a remarkable path from small-town Georgia to the highest levels of insurance and broadcasting, and back to the values that has kept their family steady. We st...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now I invited Kansas City entrepreneur and author Justin Ricklefs to trace his road trip from his years behind the scenes with college football and The Kansas City Chiefs to building Guild Collective, a human-first branding agency that helps companies lead with Human Storytelling. We talk about the moments that shape a leader: the family-of-seven road trip to Flori...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now Ever wonder how a brand story becomes a life story? I sat with Dr. Roseann Hassey—P&G alum, Reebok leader in women’s fitness, and University of Cincinnati professor—to trace the thread that ties marketing, travel, and purpose together: people first, always. We begin with origins that aren’t tidy: a first car she never got to drive, a tight early job market,...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now Some stories are built on long highways and short, unforgettable moments. Today we meet Nashville songwriter and performer Christen Ball, whose creative life was shaped by a light blue Buick Park Avenue, a single mom who let her be the DJ, and a grandfather who handed down two extraordinary guitars. From open mics and awkward first gigs to arena dates on the Lu...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now If the holidays feel loud and your attention feels thin, this one’s for you. Dan takes a quiet solo drive through a timeless theme—be present—reviving a note he wrote in 2012 and testing it against today’s hyperconnected world. From crowded malls to glowing screens at dinner, we look at how small habits and constant notifications dilute the simple joys we actua...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now A grocery headline about AI pilots and fulfillment shifts sparked a very different memory: a gravel parking lot in Pine Knot, Kentucky, and a family store that delivered more than food. We trace a line from free deliveries and house accounts to algorithmic substitutions and online baskets, and we ask a simple question with a complicated answer: what happens to...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now What if the moment you feared most became the doorway to a life you actually want? John Stewart Hill takes us from a performance-driven faith and a string of personal losses to a 2 a.m. heart attack that forced a choice: go or stay. He chose to stay—and built a movement that protects homeowners and elevates honest tradespeople through The Good Contractors List,...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now What if a car isn’t just a car, but a turning point? I sat down with Changing Gears founders and leaders Joel Bokelman and Amanda Sinclair to unpack how a “Habitat for Cars” model turns reliable transportation into access to jobs, better pay, safer schedules, and the freedom to plan a future. It’s a practical, human approach to poverty that blends restored dona...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now The plan was simple: Tampa to Cincinnati with a quick hop through Charlotte. Then came the cascade—late pushback, mysterious reroutes, a gate occupied, and a connection that closed two minutes early. What followed wasn’t just a scramble for rebooking; it was a reminder that travel is made of people as much as planes. I walk you through the airport chain reactio...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now The conversation starts with trucks and detours into a story about a lost lottery ticket, but the road quickly opens into something bigger: how a musician-turned-writer used story, humor, and a cross-country drive to make sense of loss and build a life that fits. Sean Dietrich—author, columnist, storyteller, and host of Sean of the South—joins us to talk about...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now Have you ever had a childhood dream dramatically change when confronted with reality? That moment when what seemed glamorous from afar revealed its true complexity up close? Today, I'm sharing a deeply personal story about my lifelong fascination with truck driving. Growing up as the son of a long-haul trucker, I idolized my father's profession. The m...

Get in Touch with Dan by Texting Now What happens when your job becomes your identity? JT Harp's story of transformation from corporate executive to entrepreneurial business broker reveals powerful insights about purpose, meaning, and reinvention. After 30 years climbing the corporate ladder at Kroger, JT reached a turning point when he realized his title had become his identity. "I was...