All Episodes

Louann DeCoursey worked at iconic Fort Collins restaurant Panhandler's Pizza in Fort Collins as a youth, later spent time as a manger and then GM, and was a major Pans Fan throughout the intervening years of raising a family and building a career in non-profit. In the summer of 2017, the opportunity to purchase the business came to her radar, and her offer beat out 13 others! In the time since, Louann has navigated many twists and turns, from finding a new location to activating pizza pop ups i...

Jason Rogers is the founder of a Direct Primary Care practice called Starlight Health, based in Fort Collins, Colorado. DPC represents a change in the business model of medicine, with a membership model providing access to a physician who can take the time to learn about patients and better care for their health. Jason's journey into medicine began in college, as a negative and challenging turn in his own health eventually created a desire to help others find positive health outcomes. His engin...

Jerri Schmitz is a hero of mine, and an amazing example of putting faith in action to create lasting community change. Jerri founded The Matthews House in 2005, a non-profit organization that now ranks (per CSU research) as among the most impactful in the state and region. The Matthews House mission is to Empower youth and families by building trusting relationships and providing resources to disrupt the cycles of poverty and abuse - and they do it well. They have grown into a leading human serv...

Kris Boesch is the CEO and Founder of Choose People and author of Culture Works: How to Create Happiness in the Workplace. Emotional health and intimacy directly correlate to the context and the culture within which your company’s team works. With over 1000 hours of research conducted with the Industrial Organizational Psychology Department at Colorado State University, she created Choose People 360° Culture Audit which literally measures if your employees feel good about coming to work and eval...

Marchel Morningstar is the Owner/Operator of Consolidated Resource in Greeley, Colorado, and L & L Fabrication in Douglas, Wyoming, and he's traveled some wild and crazy roads along the path to building his successful enterprises. He's been a key employee in a fast-growing supply business, a partner in a pipeline construction venture, and is now the owner of both a comprehensive facility construction and service business, and a fabrication shop that supports the needs of Consolidated Resource an...

Dr. Jane Brewer is now in her 6th year of owning Precision Chiropractic who focuses on NeuroStructural Correction. Jane believes that this area of the neck is one of the most important things to take care of as it supports your head and the spine that holds everything together. She is a big advocate for taking care of yourself, “depositing health into your bank” as she puts it. Jane prides herself as being a life-long learner, giving credit to one of her professors that said, “Once you are ripe...

Sosamma Samuel-Burnett is the Founder and President of G.L.O.B.A.L. Justice - an NGO based in Loveland, Colorado but impacting organizations and individuals around the world. G.L.O.B.A.L.'s mission is profound: To extend Geopolitical Learning Opportunities for Biblical Advocacy & Leadership (G.L.O.B.A.L.) for local, national, and international communities to pursue justice ethically, creatively and collaboratively. Simply put, they aspire to inspire leaders from every tribe and nation to do just...

AJ is a CSU engineering grad who went from working in bars and custom car restoration to a draft engineer to starting a solar company. Understanding that what we were doing yesterday is not going to work tomorrow, AJ takes us through the struggles of starting a business. Make optimal decisions versus quick ones. Planning, streamlining operations, and learning not to hire too soon, along with engaging employees with the company's plans for growth are all part of their success. Creating a strong c...

Blake Craig is the Co-Founder and Chief Labor Officer at Laborjack, LLC. Probably best understood as the Uber of Labor, Laborjack matches a flexible and ambitious labor force - mostly comprised of college students - with those needing stuff done. Initially conceived to become “The world’s largest moving company! - that doesn’t own any trucks”, Laborjack clients have now found hundreds of ways to engage a flexible workforce! Laborjack offers everything from event set-up and tear-down to garage cl...

In this episode Curt sits down with Cheryl Benedict - owner of MORF Consulting and the author of The Wisdom of Transition, released in January 2020 just as the nation was (unknowingly) preparing for the abrupt transition of Covid lockdowns. For this work, Cheryl received the Sound Advice Book Award as the Best New Author of 2020. Throughout her career, Cheryl has helped hundreds and now thousands of people navigate transition. We talk about the process that she followed to write her book, highl...

Craig and Molly Secher founded Realities for Children in 1995, which serves the otherwise unmet needs of thousands of abused, neglected, or at-risk youth in Larimer and Weld County, Colorado every year through direct services and emergency grants to over 30 nonprofit partners. This innovative organization boasts over 250 give-back minded business members (of which LoCo Think Tank is one!) who receive marketing and networking opportunities through their membership, but also underwrite the admini...

Jim Rohrer began his career as a young man in the Sears organization, and quickly rose through the ranks as an innovative thinker, new programs leader, and turnaround specialist for underperforming divisions. Among his accomplishments were helping to turn around the auto services business for the company, and both building out and disposing of 10 regional call centers that supported the catalog. In the time since he ended his career at Sears, Jim has worked primarily in small companies, again o...

In this episode of the LoCo Experience podcast, Curt sits down with Jeff Beyle, CEO and Co-Founder of Sticker Control. Sticker Control makes Industry 4.0 tools accessible to small and medium size companies using RFID-powered analytics and optimization algorithms to drive efficiencies and system integration tools to break down data silos, all backed by AI-powered data preparation tools so our customers do not need a team of data scientists to adopt and use our systems. I don't really know what ...

What I’m thinking after interviewing Ali Davachi, is that this man needs to be a LoCo Facilitator for a future Longmont / Boulder County chapter of LoCo Think Tank. Stat. It’s the coveted win-win-win-win - 1) Ali would win because he’s working to down-size his role in his company RealWare, is a recent Colorado transplant from “back East” and would love more community connection, and has already come to be an advocate for LoCo Think Tank 2) The Longmont business community wins because they’d gain...

In today's episode, I'm joined by Pastors Aaron Santini and Daniel Smith of The Crossing Church in Fort Collins. The Crossing was planted as a life group of Crossway Chapel in Greeley in the fall of 2009, and officially launched in March of 2010. This episode details the very entrepreneurial journey of church planting, and shares the life stories of a couple of regular guys who've responded to God's distinct call on their lives. Aaron was a multi-sport athlete throughout his high school years, ...

Jeff and Noah are "business neighbors" to LoCo Think Tank, and operate the Time Emporium Escape Rooms in Fort Collins and Loveland. Jeff acquired Loveland Laser Tag in 2011 after a pair of false starts to his entrepreneurial journey, departing a stable career with Hewlett Packard which had moved him to Northern Colorado from his native Texas. His experience with software and systems soon led to a role with their laser equipment supplier, Laserforce International, based out of Australia. Jeff no...

In this episode, Curt enjoys time with Peter Melby, CEO of Greystone Technology, only one week removed from their 20th birthday! Peter shares important lessons from Greystone's founding and first years in business, and reflects on a business journey that has seen them achieve quarterly revenue growth for 50 straight quarters! Greystone is unusual for an IT company, first for its' size (~100 total employees in 4 locations at time of press!), but also for its' commitment to team principals and ph...

Jacob Leis and his partner Brian Oaks are "a couple of farm kids from Eastern Colorado" who've been involved in political marketing almost since college. They founded Wintermind Group in January of 2019, after their employer "went a different direction" on an internal project that they'd been working on together. The partners' theory behind the project became the foundation for their new venture, and they grew Wintermind Group to a staff of 8 persons and revenues of over $6 Million in their 2nd ...

Do you know how to grow your business past yourself? Eric Coet, Owner of 44 N and Strategic Practice Leader at Peak Solutions, shares his business strategy knowledge in this LoCo Shorts episode. Sometimes YOU are the greatest block to your success, that’s why identifying ways to grow beyond yourself is critical, even if you are a solopreneur (psst–Eric is!). Eric details his professional journey and lessons learned from working at Hensel Phelps, to working in a distillery, to starting his own c...

Brandon Avery is a VP Risk Advisor for IMA Financial Group, heading the Commercial Insurance Division. Sounds pretty boring, and Brandon would tell you that insurance isn't very exciting overall. BUT - Brandon's business journey is very exciting! Brandon formed a partnership in 2013 with Josh Fyhrie and together they built Colorado Insurance Advisors into a regional brand and 10X'd their revenues in just 7 short years. We explore his life and business journey, much of which was spent as a membe...

Gavin Kaszynski (ka-shin-ski) and Todd Welter joined me on the LoCo Experience podcast to share their respective business journeys, and especially to discuss the challenges and their suggested fixes for the health insurance industry in America. Gavin has newly transitioned to the role of CFO for the Orthopaedic & Spine Center of the Rockies - at the time of recording he was CFO at Associates in Family Medicine which you'll hear referenced in the show. Todd is the Founder and CEO of RT Welter & ...

In this LoCo Shorts episode Ben West, Owner & Operator at Radial Development Group, shares his journey to creating a company he always wanted to work for. One with flexible work schedules, ample training, and great culture. Ben shares his motivation to create Radial from his own experience with burnout (and how to prevent it). He also highlights ways to create a great culture that can support the company when you’re not there. Listen to this episode with Ben to get good tips to consider, like: ...

Zach Mercurio is the author of The Invisible Leader, Founder of ZM Consulting, and Affiliate Professor for Colorado State University at the Center for Meaning and Purpose. Zach is an expert on purpose, on purpose. He's studied it, trained it, studied it more and shared what he's learned abundantly. He's a Ph.D., further informed by a lot of elbow grease, research, and intentional thought. This episode is different than most of the podcasts that feature Zach, on purpose. :) He shares his tradec...

Do you remember the moment when you made your passion your business? Ann Baron, Founder of Northern Colorado Community shares her business journey of creating a space for local business owners to convene. Ann’s passion for people, sharing of resources, professional (& personal!) support, and connectivity paved the way for this continually growing multi-city business group. She shares stories of diversity, empathy, and opportunities of coming together to build something greater for business owne...