All Episodes

I met Matt Heath at our LoCo Social at Cheba Hut in April, where he had just finished up meeting with Marc Torres, Cheba’s CEO and my guest on Experience #139. We had an awesome and interesting conversation, which led to a zoom and then booking this podcast, and I look forward to the day when LoCo Think Tank can hire his creative team to create a clever campaign - as their stuff is just so fun! Matt founded Party Land in the Los Angeles area in 2018, and moved the HQ office to Fort Collins for ...

A few weeks ago, longtime friend and local musician Max Mackey joined me in studio for a wonderfully authentic conversation (Episode 174), and afterward he mentioned that I really should have his girlfriend on my show because she’s so smart and experienced and I would just love her - and she was coming to visit in a couple weeks! And so I did - and I’m smarter for it, and glad to add another friend. The entrepreneurial journey for Chantill Lopez seems to have started with a move to Hawaii, when...

I popped into William Oliver’s Publick House a few weeks ago at the end of the day, to grab a quick beer and a snack - and ran into the owner whom I remembered from their early days - Ryan Wallace. William Oliver’s had been a regular lunch-spot for me when I worked at Capital West Bank - a top choice because the staff was always great and they served locally sourced fare in a non-pretentious fashion. After leaving the bank and becoming Old Town centric in my consumer behaviors though, William Ol...

In today’s episode of The LoCo Experience podcast, I had the pleasure of getting to know Kevin Fiske and Brittany McCahan from Fiske Electric. Fiske is an electrical design and contracting business with a homebase just outside Loveland, and clients all across Northern Colorado, the Western US, and occasionally, internationally. They have a highly diversified service offering, ranging from adding a new outlet in the garage for a homeowner, to residential subdivisions to commercial and tech instal...

By scanning Jill Simonds’ LinkedIn profile, one can see that she is achievement-oriented. Coordinator to Manager at her first career stop, and then Manager to Director at the next, and then Director of Marketing & Operations to Chief Operating Officer & Integrator. That last stop is where Jill earned her EOS stripes and Integrator Certification, and in 2023 she started her own firm, Savvy Strategic Partners. Savvy helps EOS-implementing(ed) firms build their leadership team, by serving in the r...

I met Max Mackey soon after he opened Moto Haus Coffee in South Fort Collins off College Avenue. I’d recently become the proud owner of a 1976 BMW R75/6, and the former owner told me of a group of old (and some younger mostly BMW guys that met regularly for evening coffee and riding. It was the coolest spot in town for the riding community for several years, but was ultimately killed by the Great Recession. I kept the R75 for over 10 years, and she served me truly, upstaged in most parking lots ...

In April of 2020, in the early days of the lockdowns and pandemic threat response - we got new neighbors. Days after, we invited them to our then-12th annual backyard Cinco de Mayo party. Thinking “Oh, great, we’ve moved in next door to crazy people” they politely declined our invitation, but did accept some leftover pork carnitas and cilantro-lime coleslaw I set on the fence. But after eating that leftover pork their hearts were won - and we’ve been over-the-fence-friends with regular patio tim...

This week on The LoCo Experience, we welcomed back Aaron Everitt, our sponsor through his business, Logistics Co-op, and regular guest of the show for real estate updates and real talk on national and local politics. Aaron has been creating content on X the past year or so as @loanly_hipster, some of which has been supportive of RFK’s Presidential run, and he caught the attention of the campaign a few months ago. In May, Aaron was invited to have a one-on-one meeting with RFK prior to the Rally ...

A few years into their marriage, Autumn Fleck and her husband, Trevor, made the decision that they wanted to budget well, save hard, and retire early so they could travel the world and live a life set apart. And then one day - she had a cockroach run down her arm! - and the next day she found a cockroach in her daughter’s bed! - and of course informed her husband they needed to call for pest control. “What are we going to cut from our spend so we can fit that in the budget?” was hubby’s response...

Diego Rago Vega is a chef, a writer, a philosopher, and a permanent resident here on political asylum - but he came to America long before it was trendy. He and his family operated an import/export business in Venezuela, and as the nation’s economic fortunes crumbled under first Chavez and then Moralez, the enterprise became unsustainable - in part because the family wasn’t aligned with the government, or willing to be compromised. Diego’s business is Obsidian Atlas, and he provides strategic m...

I first learned about Toddy, LLC circa 2013, during the twilight of my banking career. The story I heard was that the owners of a local marketing agency, Clay Pot Creative, had purchased a manufacturing business in Texas, and moved it up to Loveland! The company made cold brew coffee systems (whatever that was), and seemed to have a strong product in a niche market - a banker’s dream client! I failed to connect but tried again to reach them a few years later as I was growing LoCo Think Tank - bu...

I got acquainted with Todd Brooker through LinkedIn, where we follow some of the same voices, and learned last fall that he spends a lot of time in Fort Collins - where his daughter Libby Brooker is a goalie on the CSU soccer team! It took us a minute, but this spring we finally got properly acquainted over lunch, followed by a long-form conversation in The LoCo Experience studios. Todd is the second Texan I’ve had on the podcast, and the second from Austin - apparently the Fort Collins of that ...

Duane and Chad Stroh are the father and son that lead the team at Healthy Harvest in Berthoud, CO, which also includes Duane’s wife and Chad’s sister, and one red-headed step-child in a key operations role. They were initially involved as investor-partners of the business, but as partners departed and their market awareness grew they pivoted the company to specialize in production and wholesale distribution of non-GMO cooking oils across Colorado - and entering new markets across the American We...

In today’s episode, I was honored to be joined in studio by Ed VanDyne, one of the most fascinating guests we’ve had on the show. When you look up serial entrepreneur in the dictionary, you’ll find Ed’s smiling face, and the ideas that have sprouted his various companies are consolidated from ideas and learnings from previous chapters, including a lengthy season managing the MIT Racing Team, and spinning a technology company out of Woodward, VanDyne SuperTurbo! The innovative sails for Tetrahedr...

Dr. Katie Foster booked time with me out of the blue last spring (which never happens), and brought cookies and we shared a very enjoyable coffee and conversation. She was weeks away at the time from opening her business, Timnath Kids Dentistry, and was exploring the business community at large and curious about LoCo Think Tank. She’s not a member at LoCo - yet - but she’s our kind of people. When she can carve time away from a young business and two young children we’ll be ready to find a great...

I was introduced to Micah Johnson by Jeffrey Beyle, one of my guests during Season 1 of The LoCo Experience (Episode 29 if you wanna check it out), and one of my spies in the Boulder area. By spies I mean those who think of me when they meet someone with an interesting business journey to share, and a lot of value to share with the business community through a podcast conversation like this one! Micah is what most would call a serial entrepreneur, with multiple starts and exits, and some fail...

Diana Rogers Jaeger joined me for an uplifting conversation and shared her fascinating life and career journey that led her to Northern Colorado in 2022. Diana is the founder and owner of Love to Appreciate Consulting, and recently released a new book - “Let Go of the Rope - Create Unlimited Confidence”. Love to Appreciate was founded in 2017, and is focused on helping companies keep their best and brightest. Initially Diana was particularly focused on creating a work environment that Millennial...

I was introduced to Peter Yu by a mutual friend, as the liberty-minded person’s best pick for Colorado’s 4th Congressional District. Peter has a great record of success in both big and small business, fell just short in his race for Colorado’s 2nd District in 2017, and has remained active in the political sphere since his first run. Peter is the first American-born child of a Chinese family, who arrived together in 1969 with six children, no money, and no English skills. They lived in cramped co...

Justin Follin came all the way from Austin, Texas to Fort Collins a few weeks ago - not to be on the show, but to visit his younger brother Sean - my guest on Episode 134, who introduced him to me as a potential guest. Both brothers are in the strategic planning industry, which I found fascinating, and Justin had a fresh book out in 2023 - titled as you might guess - Be a Better Team by Friday. The book brings together strategic planning and high performance coaching and psychology, and does it ...

My guest today was Shani Canillas, Owner and Editor of The Scout Guide Fort Collins. The Scout Guide is a visually appealing coffee table kind of book, featuring classy storytelling pictorials of gold standard local businesses. It’s a franchise that has a strong foundation in the Southeast part of the country, but is increasingly spreading west. Shani picked up her first guide in Bozeman, Montana, and the organization grew from 82 to 90 established communities in 2023. Shani acquired the Northe...

If you tuned in for our bonus episode last week, you’ll know that today’s episode is a bit of a change-up from our normal routine. I met Viktor Bjerre a few weeks back, while recording the bonus episode on Greenheart Exchange, and he later followed up with an expression of interest to learn more about podcasting. This led to a get-to-know phone call, and soon after an invitation by me to him to serve as Guest Host of The LoCo Experience, interviewing your regular Host, Curt Bear. The occasion is...

Many who know me in Northern Colorado know that my wife and I have a fondness for hosting exchange students, and for the past 2 years, our outlet for getting these students has been an organization called Greenheart Exchange. I’m joined today by a Regional Manager and the Regional Director of the organization, Lisa Melville Peterson and Lasha Crowell Seaman - and they also brought along several exchange students for short get-to-know conversations. Greenheart’s foundation is youth exchange, but...

Aaron Everitt was back in the studio for our quarterly check-in, fresh off a trip to Boston visiting a college with his son. We started our conversation with a whiskey taste test, featuring Blanton’s Bourbon gifted me by Mat at Wilbur’s, Smoke Wagon Uncut the Younger Bourbon, and Stellum Rye Whiskey. We talked about Boston and some Founding Father stories, we talked about the border crisis and Ukraine funding, and we talked about new developments at Logistics Co-op, Aaron’s company and sponsor o...