Hi, I'm Dave and welcome to my site.

 I've been an educator since the late 90's in Calgary, Canada, mostly teaching business at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.  I've always taught using the competency based education (CBE) approach, but I prefer to call it "competency based learning"...or better yet, "competency based living" - because this is a way of thinking that applies everywhere. 

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The teaching/learning method goes beyond books, beyond  theory and engages students through activities and application.  Through doing rather than memorizing, and importantly, learning to learn always.

The Daily Undoing was my first podcast, beginning in 2018 as an experiment in using smart speaker tech as a means of communication.  600 episodes later I decided to put together a book, lifting excerpts and messages specifically from the 2020 season.  That's pretty much the reason for this website.

 

In addition to teaching, I also write textbooks, including Canada's current number one selling marketing textbook "MKTG: Principles of Marketing", published by Cengage Canada.

Prior to all of this I was a broadcaster, graduating from the school in which I currently teach, and launching into a 12 year media career, with roles ranging from all-night DJ, to Programming Manager.  A cherished part of my life, and still the source of my most interesting fun-facts, as it was in these roles that I got to hang with rock Gods, and get paid to listen to music!

 

I was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug first as a six-year-old, where I began selling dinosaur sketches in my Grade 1 class.  That commercial instinct went dormant for a few decades, awakening again at the tail end of my radio career, when I discovered that stations I was working for were paying a ton of money to acquire intel on their audience's habits.  I started a marketing research company based upon the rather hubristic notion that I could do that better and cheaper.

There's no such thing as a straight line in the entrepreneur's journey.  From my first start-up to present day, I've launched several ideas - some on a total lark, and others, like my ongoing marketing firm, Triceratops Brand Logic, more enduring and stable.

 

When I'm not engaged in "livelihood work", I'm a gratefully committed husband and father, doing the most important "life work", trying my best to co-pilot the lives of two amazing children.  It is in this role, more than any, that I am forever reminded of my personal mission, and subtitle of my book:  Being Better at Being Human.