When Taylor Calmus looks around his Fort Collins studio, he doesn’t just see a growing business. He sees those sitting next to him who helped him along the way. Friends became coworkers, coworkers became family, and for Taylor, that’s the part of the Dude Dad story he’s most thankful for.
The Dude Dad business has over 12 million followers across all social media platforms
with over 8 billion views. What makes it work is the group behind it. Each person brings their own strengths and a unique story of how they ended up in this strange “job.”
Together, they keep the brand alive and millions of people laughing.
From One to Many
Taylor Calmus started Dude Dad in 2015 alone while pursuing acting in Los Angeles. At the time, his wife, Heidi, was pregnant with their first baby. With limited finances, their future felt uncertain, and he wanted a creative outlet that could travel with him if they needed to move back home to the Midwest.
At the start, Taylor wrote, filmed, and edited everything himself, calling on his Rolodex of friends when he needed someone behind the camera. One of those friends: Matthew “Berk” Berkenpas. Taylor and Berk met in early 2008 at the Los Angeles Film Studies Center. While they were peers at first, they quickly became good friends, eventually roommates, and Berk ended up in Taylor and Heidi’s wedding. They carried out all kinds of shenanigans in LA before Berk and his wife moved to Colorado.
Another friend from the Rolodex: DJ Cosgrove. Taylor and DJ met at some random bike jumps in Los Angeles in 2009. They first bonded over BMX and dirt jumps but then introduced their wives to each other, and the rest is history. They both experienced miscarriages at the same time and became dads within months of each other. DJ’s wife, Amber, was Heidi’s support at the birth of their first son, and their first two kids are also best friends.
About four years into making Dude Dad content, the channel started making money
through monetization and brand collaborations. Having two kids at this point, Taylor and Heidi decided it was time to leave Los Angeles. Much of their life was spent commuting, and they wanted to find a place to put down roots. After months of processing options, Colorado was at the top of the list as they started searching for a place to land. Berk and his wife were already living in Fort Collins, and it seemed like an obvious decision to go where they already had community.
In May 2020, Taylor and Heidi bought their house sight unseen while COVID was in full
lockdown. They planned to renovate parts of the house. With Taylor’s partial background in construction, he planned to do most of the work himself and film the process. Some of the demolition was required before Taylor and Heidi could arrive, so he asked Berk and one of his colleagues, Ben Schumate, to set up cameras inside the house to record the process.
Meanwhile, DJ was working as a professional editor on Disney’s new Chip ‘n Dale
Rescue Rangers (2022) movie and had been furloughed because of COVID. Taylor
asked him to edit his content for the channel while they moved and renovated. One
month later, Taylor showed DJ how this could be financially reasonable for them both
and invited him to partner. Within an hour, DJ called back. “We’re moving to Fort
Collins!”
Six months later, the channel had more than doubled with followers, views, and a line of merch (which is printed in Fort Collins). With space to grow the team, Berk left his job and came onto the Dude Dad team full-time. He manages the brand collaborations
along with some writing, filming, and editing. He is also the patient one behind the
camera when everyday moments between Taylor and Heidi inspire their “Spouse
Fights” series. “Berk has seen us at both our best AND our worst,” Heidi jokes.
By mid 2022, the channel growth continued to bring on more opportunities than they
could manage, so Ben (who helped with the demolition shoot) came on board full-time
as well. Ben is part creative, part operations, ns and part problem solver. Along with some shooting, editing and writing, he does graphics and manages the schedule of content across platforms. Taylor jokes, “We don’t use AI; we use A-Ben.”
As time went on, there was more to do, and thus more to organize. They decided it was time to hire an executive assistant. Enter Rachel Whitlock. Before coming onto the
team, Taylor and Heidi knew her as Mrs. Whitlock, their kids’ first-grade teacher!
Rachel’s drive, personality, and knack for organization made her a perfect candidate as the office “Swiss Army Knife.” The type A person who handles the administrative duties and helps keep the creative chaos in order.
More Than Coworkers
“People genuinely have each other’s backs,” Berk says. “We’re just doing what we love with people that we love.”
They know one another’s families, frustrations and bad days. What began as a creative company has become something closer to family. They have celebrated milestones together as well as loss and are part of one another’s lives beyond the office. Their kids are all friends that feel more like cousins doing their childhoods together. They watched Ben start dating his now-wife, and then DJ and Taylor DJ’d and emceed their wedding reception. Heidi says there is comfort in knowing that even on an off day, the relationship itself is never in question.
When Taylor needed help coaching his son’s Little League team, Ben stepped in. Ben
doesn’t have kids yet (his wife is currently expecting!), so he had no other reason to
volunteer his time than that he wanted to. He became the head coach with Taylor as his assistant, a small example of how naturally their friendship has become woven into
family life.
Connected to Community
While Dude Dad may have a massive online community, they seem to be more grateful for the real-life community they have here in Fort Collins. They appreciate the family-oriented lifestyle, community traditions and, most of all, the way people show up to everything. One recent example was the Dude Dad Mini Golf Classic this past September, which brought approximately 1,500 people together and raised about $22,000 for Respite Care.
“We want to add to the community,” Taylor says. “We don’t want to take away from it.
We don’t want to change it. We want to add to it.”
When asked how he hopes people in Fort Collins see Dude Dad, Taylor’s answer is
simple. “As neighbors.”
In a season centered on gratitude, that is the heart of Dude Dad. Not simply what they
have built, but who they chose to build it with, with a community embracing them along
the way.
“The best part of building Dude Dad is having people beside you who make the work stronger and the journey more meaningful together.”
—Taylor Calmus