Curious Builder Podcast: Smile Tour 2026 Preview
If you’ve been listening to the Curious Builder Podcast for any length of time, you know I’m always thinking about two things:
How do we get better at what we do?
How do we do it together?
That’s exactly where the Smile Tour 2026 came from. It’s a year-long experiment in community and intentional growth, both personally and professionally.
Let me walk you through what it is, why we’re doing it, and why I think it’s going to be the most meaningful year of The Curious Builder yet.
Where the Smile Tour Idea Came From
The original spark came from a conversation with Tyler Grace from the Modern Craftsman Podcast where we talked about doing a tour. I didn’t want to bounce randomly from one state to another like I did in years two and three. It worked… but something was missing.
What made Minnesota special in the early years was community. Builders knew each other. There was shared context. That connection made the conversations better and the impact stronger.
That’s how the Smile Tour was born.
What Is the Smile Tour?
In 2026, I’ll be traveling the U.S. in a literal smile-shaped pattern:
Q1 – West Coast
Washington, Oregon, CaliforniaQ2 – South
Arizona, Texas, FloridaQ3 – East Coast
Georgia, South Carolina, moving northQ4 – Northeast
Pennsylvania, New York, New England
Each state gets an entire month of focus.
That means deeper conversations, more familiar names, and real momentum inside each market. When you hear someone you know (or someone your peers know) on the Curious Builder Podcast, it creates buy-in. It creates buzz. It creates connection.
That’s the whole point.
The Collective Layer: Building Micro-Communities
The Smile Tour also ties directly into our Curious Builder Collectives.
We already have groups forming in Seattle, Los Angeles, Arizona, Austin, Atlanta, and Charleston. Each quarter, I’ll be interviewing builders from those regions while actively promoting local Collective meetups. The podcast feeds the community, and the community feeds the podcast.
That’s how this grows the right way.
The Book Club Layer
This is new and I think it will be a game changer!
Each quarter of the Smile Tour has a book theme tied to personal or professional growth. Every episode still includes an origin story, but the second half of the conversation is shaped by the book.
We’ll talk about how these ideas actually show up in real businesses, real families, and real job sites.
The 2026 Book Lineup
Q1: Buy Back Your Time — Dan Martell
Q2: The Psychology of Money — Morgan Housel
Q3: Relentless — Tim Grover
Q4: Unreasonable Hospitality — Will Guidara
These are books that challenge how we think about time, money, discipline, and how we serve our clients.
The links above are affiliate links, which means if you choose to purchase through them, it helps support the podcast at no extra cost to you.
Who You’ll Hear on the Podcast
We’re starting with people I already trust in each market: builders like Stacey Eckman, Brad Leavitt, and others who are already leading locally.
From there, those leaders introduce me to 2–3 more builders they respect. We’ll also bring back a few repeat guests!
The Smile Tour gives us a way to organize guest requests and tell better stories at the right time.
This podcast has been a game changer for me! learn more here!
Can You Recommend a Guest or a Book?
Absolutely.
The 2026 book list is set, but our Thursday Q&A episodes are wide open.
If there’s a book that’s impacted you, here’s what to do:
Record a quick 60-second selfie video
Tag us
Tell us:
What the book is
What you learned
Why you recommend it
How you applied it
We’ll share those stories and you might even end up on the podcast.
Why This Matters
The Smile Tour is all about slowing down, focusing locally, learning together, and building real relationships, not just content.
If you’re a curious builder, this year is for you.
And I can’t wait to hit the road.
