From small-town roots in Minnesota to high-tech entrepreneurship in Sioux Falls, Noah Vandal shares how his hands-on curiosity and engineering background led him into the world of AI and healthcare. Joined by Dr. Joseph Yoon — a physician and health informatics expert — the two reveal how faith, shared vision, and innovation led to the creation of Speech Sage, a company using AI-powered conversational tools to improve patient communication and clinic efficiency.

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In this episode, Levi Te Slaa sits down with Jacob Limmer, founder of Cottonwood Coffee in Brookings, South Dakota, and consultant with The Prosper Group. Jacob shares how a passion for sustainability led to farming, which eventually brewed into a successful coffee business. He opens up about the early struggles with funding, lessons learned from expanding too quickly, and how he evolved from barista to business strategist.

Jacob also shares his philosophy on consulting and how 20 years of entrepreneurial ups and downs have positioned him to help other business owners grow smarter, not harder. They discuss universal business truths, the power of patience, and why the "boring" fundamentals might just be your business’s biggest opportunity.

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In this powerful episode, Levi sits down with Nick Yost, the founder and medical director of BodyOpt, to explore her extraordinary path from a small-town South Dakota farm to launching one of the region’s fastest-growing wellness and aesthetics clinics. Nick shares how her early days living on yachts, flipping homes, and running a craft beer bar evolved into a full-blown commitment to functional medicine and regenerative health.

You’ll hear the personal story that pushed her into nursing, her frontline work in Brooklyn during COVID, and how she built her clinic from a single rented room into a booming, multi-location practice. From hormone therapy to stem cells and peptides, Nick explains how she's redefining healthcare with a model rooted in patient empowerment and deep listening.

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Kelly Ewart grew up in Texas, served as an Army nurse, and later put down roots in western South Dakota. In 2019 she took a leap from ER shifts to business ownership, investing her savings into a Tropical Smoothie Cafe in Spearfish so she could build something alongside her kids. She walks us through validating a rural market, leveraging a veteran franchise discount, battling through an SBA loan (and a major injury), insisting on a drive-thru, and opening… four months before COVID hit.

Kelly talks candidly about staffing during a labor crunch, why she hires and mentors teens and adults with special needs, and the community partners and resources that kept her going. Her advice is simple and powerful: ask questions, use your network, and always be honest, work hard, and be kind.

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In this uplifting conversation, Tia walks us through her unconventional career path—from selling jeans on commission to landing an entry-level dental assistant role with zero experience, then earning credentials at night and stepping into leadership. She explains how Neighborhood Dental Care scaled to 11 locations while keeping patient-first care and quality at the center. Tia also opens up about sending her oldest to college, why “one day at a time” is her life mantra, and how positivity is a daily choice, not an act of denial.

• How Tia navigated young motherhood, school, and work—one day at a time

• The decision that traded short-term pay for long-term purpose (and how it paid off)

• Building systems, standards, and a culture that truly puts patients first

• Scaling with technology: same-day crowns and other investments that respect patients’ time

• Leadership in real life: turning the light on for others and building bigger staircases

• Practical ways to reduce dental anxiety (hello, comfort menu!)

• Why positivity isn’t ignoring reality—it’s choosing what you focus on

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Host Levi Te Slaa sits down with Barry Sackett, managing partner and long-time advisor to business owners across the Midwest. Barry traces his path from a family of lawyers to roles as in-house counsel, controller, CFO, and now managing partner. He explains why his work is really about building trust in every transaction—often before legal issues turn into lawsuits.

Barry digs into the realities entrepreneurs face: scaling themselves as the business grows, avoiding “inventor’s disease,” and not snapping back to old roles when growth gets hard (the “rubber band effect”). He also unpacks the shift toward fractional general counsel services, what AI can and can’t do for legal work, and why the Midwest’s lawyer shortage is both a challenge and an opportunity for innovative firms.

You’ll hear a favorite client story that went from humble beginnings to a $60M private equity valuation—and then into meaningful community philanthropy. Throughout, Barry returns to one theme: grit as the through-line of every successful founder.

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Joel breaks down how Five Star Call Centers supports companies as a true BPO partner—sometimes supplying full-stack customer experience (recruiting, training, tech, QA), other times filling specific gaps like staffing or process design. He explains the five traits they look for in great partners, why seasonality matters, and how their 99% work-from-home team across small-town America delivers world-class care. We dig into practical AI: avatar-based interviews, adaptive training, real-time speech analytics, “Agent Assist,” and when to deploy modern digital agents (not the old, frustrating chatbots). Joel also shares their growth story—from a single site to a remote-first U.S. team with expansion to Guatemala and the Philippines—and what it takes to get data, teams, and systems truly AI-ready.

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What happens when a fifth-generation South Dakota farmer and a former Air Force operations leader come together to tackle one of agriculture’s most misunderstood crops? In this episode of The Grit to Growth Podcast, Levi Te Slaa sits down with Johnathan Peterson (CEO) and Karll Lecher (COO) of Dakota Hemp to unpack the true potential of industrial hemp in South Dakota and beyond.

John shares how Dakota Hemp got its start in 2021, the early lessons they learned growing and harvesting hemp, and how the company is about to open a major fiber processing plant. Karll brings insight into how operations and efficiency are driving the business forward — and how military discipline plays a role in their approach.

They also break down the misconceptions around hemp, the plant’s impressive versatility (from clothing to animal bedding), and how small towns across South Dakota can benefit from hemp-based manufacturing.

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