Hello, fellow extraordinary Americans.
Some stories don’t begin with a business plan. They begin with a song.
In this episode of Extraordinary America, host Cosmos Dar sits down with Peter Murphy Lewis—founder and CEO of Strategic Pete, a marketing consulting and revenue growth firm—and explores the unlikely chain of events that shaped Peter’s entrepreneurial life: a small-town upbringing in Kansas, an early love of Spanish sparked by Shakira, a life-changing trip to Chile, and the eventual building (and recent sale) of a travel company that became a leader in South American tourism.
Peter’s journey is part cultural immersion, part startup grit, and part mindset playbook. Along the way, he shares what helped him succeed as an outsider in a foreign country, how he built a business on trust, why customer experience was his competitive weapon, and how he thinks about the next wave of technology—AI—as an amplifier, not a threat.
Meet Peter Murphy Lewis
Peter is a multi-hyphenate in the truest sense: marketer, entrepreneur, storyteller, and builder.
- Founder/CEO of Strategic Pete, helping leaders turn overwhelming marketing data into clear growth strategy
- Former CNN foreign affairs correspondent, known for making complex topics understandable
- Long-time entrepreneur in South America, where he built a travel company grounded in cultural storytelling and service
- A creative force behind television and documentary projects, including his work producing People Worth Caring About
But the most compelling part of Peter’s story isn’t the résumé. It’s the through-line:
Curiosity → Courage → Connection → Compounding outcomes.
From a Small Town to a Bigger World
Peter grew up in Osawatomie, Kansas, a town of roughly 2,000 people—the kind of place where community, family, and