How We Impact the World really means, how do people from Lake County, MN make a difference in the world. I want to share stories about world-renown surgeons, entrepreneurs that are solving water issues in Africa, and travel with former residents that have gone back to their ancestral countries of Sweden, Norway, and beyond. All these people and many more grew up in Lake County and then went off to impact the world. I want to bring them back one week at a time. My name is Eric Fransen, and I want to tell their story.
How We Impact the World really means, how do people from Lake County, MN make a difference in the world. I want to share stories about world-renown surgeons, entrepreneurs that are solving water issues in Africa, and travel with former residents that have gone back to their ancestral countries of Sweden, Norway, and beyond. All these people and many more grew up in Lake County and then went off to impact the world. I want to bring them back one week at a time. I want to tell their story.
Over the last month I've uncovered the story of Xavier Helgesen, who has distributed millions of books info Africa. I traveled to Miami to hear the story of Tanna Island and how Mark Johnson traveled with the King and Prince to this remote island in the South Pacific. I want you to learn more about 6X Emmy Award-winning writer and producer Stephanie Himango, who has covered nine Olympic Games as a producer. Why did Jim Udenberg, a successful makeup artist and supervisor for Universal Studios leave the United States to reside within 50 miles of his ancestor's home in Norway? These are just a few of the 100's of stories that are out there - and I'm excited to bring them to you.
We don't need to look across the country to see success stories. They are all around us. Our neighbor, our coffee buddy and maybe the person you call Boss. We are also going to look at the organizations and people that stayed, or moved into Lake County, but are impacting the world from the North Shore.
Betty's Pies, founded by Betty Lessard in 1957 and now owned by Carl Ehlenz ships thousands of pies around the country each month. Have you heard of X.CELERATED (the racing company)? This could be the most famous Lake County business that nobody in Lake County knows about. I'm going to introduce you to their CEO Barry Braun and let him take tell you what the racing industry already knows – This Silver Bay business is a pretty big deal.
It's difficult to tell somebody's story in a weekly column. I want to go deeper. I want our guests to share the good and the bad times. The struggles and the successes. To fully tell the story I'll be bringing these stories to you with a podcast by the same name - How We Impact the World.
I'm Eric Fransen and today I'm impacting my world from Charlotte, Nc. If you have comments, feedback, or column ideas you can email eric@ericfransen.com.