All Episodes

Dan Bennett is in his second season with Lightning eMotors, previously known as Lightning Hybrids, and has had a front row seat to the evolution of a significant local enterprise, now employing over 200 as the anchor tenant at the Forge Campus in Loveland. Initially offering hydraulic-hybrid drivetrain modifications to enhance fuel efficiency, Lightning Hybrids subsequently shifted its entire business model (and name) to instead provide fully-electric drivetrain systems for mid-size commercial t...

Rayno Seaser founded The Egg & I in 1987, as a breakfast and lunch restaurant in what is now mid-town Fort Collins. Before long, additional regional locations were added, and though a franchise was never the plan - the market demanded it. Rayno grew the enterprise to around a dozen locations before selling 90% of the franchise company, and then watched The Egg & I grow to over 100 locations before being acquired by First Watch - which was one of Rayno’s first restaurant industry contacts going b...

Warren Yoder is the CEO of the Yoder Family of Companies, which includes numerous Weld and Larimer County enterprises - namely Weld County Garage, Yoder Chevrolet, ABRA of Fort Collins and Greeley, The Carriage Shop, Kayman Direct, Iron Clad Manufacturing, Truck City, Drivewise, and Driven Financial. All are in the automotive industry and adjacent, and Warren has spent his whole career in the automotive sector - which like any sector - is the people business. This episode runs fast through a se...

Sean Fox and his partner Zac Horton founded Mjolin Technology in 2018, after working together at Greystone Technology. We might call it a boutique IT agency, named after Thor’s hammer! Sean’s family has a long banking heritage, and before getting into technology, he was a Loan Officer / IT Administrator for their family banking organization - and he remains CTO today! We talk about a lot of nerdy stuff in this one - building and maintaining secure systems, common mistakes business owners make w...

Antonio Barbera is the Founder and CEO of Table Tennis Connections, a 501c(3) Non-Profit Organization that builds community and empowers neural development through table tennis AKA ping-pong! Dr. Barbera has developed the NeuroPong™ system to forestall and even reverse the effects of neurodegenerative diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinsons, and cognitive impairment - and is highly effective in supporting youth with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder - AKA ADHD. Dr. Barbera began hi...

Chas Greener, formerly a Dance Director at Mountain Kids in Fort Collins, transitioned into content creation after an injury in 2019. She now runs Chas's Crazy Creations with over 10,000 YouTube subscribers and an active website. Additionally, she operates Site Consulting Services, assisting creatives in maximizing their online presence. This episode zooms in on the life and journey of a creative solo-preneur - how to build community among creatives with authentic communications, intentional pa...

Samson Jagoras was a Division I football player at CU, and soon became an early-stage and key leader and eventually minority partner in Madwire/Marketing 360. Darius Bell came to know Samson while he was a standout employee at Madwire, and is a lifelong student of brand and marketing. Together, Samson and Darius have created the Pain to Profits Podcast, and are building a business education and brokerage platform for the next generation - Clearly Acquired. Their mission is to simplify business ...

Chris Cox found relief from long-term back pain through use of CBD in 2016, and soon turned his growing knowledge of and passion for holistic medicine into a retail enterprise - Plenty Wellness in Loveland, Colorado. Plenty Wellness carries the highest-quality retail CBD products in the region, and has a very education-focused and consultative approach. Buzz Screens was founded in 2022, as an efficient way for local businesses to reach community marketplaces - their screens are located in dozen...

Valeria Ortiz, founder of Vortiz Insurance, offers education and insurance packages for the Medicare market, with its headquarters in Greeley, Colorado. I met Valeria at a local event and struck up a conversation which eventually led to Valeria joining LoCo Think Tank and sharing her story. Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Valeria worked in marketing for a similar agency before moving to Colorado. After facing challenges as a single mother with limited English skills, she found stability ...

Phil Pelto is the Co-Founder of Firestorm B2B Networking and Certus B2C Networking - The Power of Network Effect & How to Build Authentic Connections, both with an increasing number of chapters and members across the Colorado Front Range. Phil Co-Founded Firestorm while he was working as a suit salesman in Minnesota nearly 15 years ago, scaled rapidly and expanded to Florida, and then hired a professional manager to operate the business while he moved to Germany to pursue a girl he met at Oktobe...

Sean Godbey founded Old Town Spice Shop in Fort Collins, Colorado with his brother and parents in 2010, with an original plan to expand to five retail locations within just a few years. They found some retail success, but the overhead and staffing complexities of retail soon shifted the plan into a more wholesale-focused operation, supplying bulk and custom spices for restaurants, food manufacturers, breweries, and more! As the lockdown response to Covid destroyed demand for retail and wholesale...

Seth Coonrod is the Founder and Owner/Operator of Timberline Audio Video in Loveland, Colorado, and also a LoCo Think Tank member. He worked as a key employee of a similar company in North Carolina in his earlier years, and founded the company immediately after moving to Colorado. In this episode, we get into the nerdy stuff of luxury home audio video systems, talking tech trends and smart homes and more, and also get a bit nerdy on business - creating quality estimates, sourcing sometimes many...

Shelley Polansky has been on the team at BBB of NoCo and Wyoming since 2008, serving in Dispute Resolution, Education, Communications, and Outreach before ascending to the leadership role in 2019. LoCo Think Tank has been a BBB member since 2021, and they’ve hosted many chapter meetings and trainings in their amazing conference rooms!` My conversation with Shelley spends a lot of time on exploring the what of ethical business practice, alongside an examination of her own foundations and motivat...

Nathan Wilbanks and Alex Swanson are the Founders of BizOp Media, a content and strategy-driven marketing agency headquartered in Fort Collins. In 2021, Nathan departed Bizop to develop new ideas, and eventually founded Jaq n Jill, a subscription-based AI-powered writing tool, focused on the collaborative power of an AI tool and a thoughtful content creator. We get deep in this one - deep into the utility and limitations and dangers of Chat GPT and Open AI and various iterations, and deep into ...

My guest this week was Franklin Taggart - a fellow consultant with the Larimer County Small Business Development Center and founder of Franklin Taggart Coaching. Franklin was the first podcaster to feature me on his show! My story of going from banker to food trucker to LoCo Think Tank guy was a great fit for his Reset Podcast, and I’ve been blessed by dashes of his wisdom throughout our time together with Larimer SBDC. Franklin was a career musician “back East” for many years, until health cha...

John Kefalas is currently a Larimer County Commissioner, elected to his second term in 2022, and previously served many years as a Colorado State Representative and later, State Senator. He previously worked in education, advocacy and outreach, with special emphasis on career development, housing, and serving the underserved and marginalized. John has a reputation for being one of the most progressive political figures in Northern Colorado, and we spend a lot of time in this episode pulling bac...

Drew Yancey is the President and COO of Incite Performance Group in Fort Collins, and the LoCo Facilitator for a pair of Next Level chapters. He’s also the author of a new book, his third, with co-author Larry Linne - “Leading Performance, Because It Can’t Be Managed.” In this episode, we unfold principles from this book with a theme of helping leaders guide their teams toward the work style and environment in which they can thrive. Drew has been on our podcast once before. This time, he went i...

Aaron Everitt, broker with The Group, joins us to give his quarterly update on the Northern Colorado real estate market, sharing market and interest rate updates, and examples of opportunity in any market. Aaron is also one of our newest LoCo Next Level members, a partner in a delivery service provider, and Founder of InMotion, our newest sponsor of The LoCo Experience Podcast. In this episode, we’ll focus in on the founding of InMotion, along with stories of successful scaling opportunities th...

My guests on today’s episode were AJ and JJ Fountain, bandmates with locally-famous campfire folk music band A Brothers Fountain, and co-founders and partners of Stoked Ember Productions. This was the brothers’ 2nd time on the podcast, because I think they’re a lot of fun to be around, and they always share great stories! The brothers and most of the band went on a 20-day, 18-show tour this fall, all across the midwest and southeast and points between. Followed shortly after that was a weeklong...

This week we somehow fit three of the Northern-Colorado famous Trainor Brothers into the podcast studio, with Brian, Adam, and Joe Trainor all sharing their stories and philosophies with me and with our listeners. The three brothers are a total of four years apart and were raised by their single father, an enterprising teacher that kept the family fed with side jobs and construction projects. Brian and Adam both went to CSU on athletic scholarships. Brian got into real estate - as a broker and ...

Becky Allsup is the owner of Becky’s Custom Interiors, which in turn holds Niche Design House and Rebecca Windsor & Associates. Niche is primarily an upscale commercial and residential design center, and Rebecca Windsor provides national-scope design, procurement, and installation services - especially for rapidly growing retail franchise operations. Her business journey was a joy to uncover: Young interior designer sees opportunities everywhere, attracts a team of smart, loyal, and dedicated pe...

Matt Shoup is a serial entrepreneur, author, inventor, real estate broker and investor. He’s the President of M & E Painting and Roofing, Inventor of The Pirate Patch, and a realtor with C3 Real Estate. Matt’s first book was “Become an Award-Winning Company” and his new book - just out - is “Painted Baby”. He’s also a Professor and Partner at Northern Colorado Jiu Jitsu, and there’s more but no time to mention it all! There’s a lot of ideas Matt shares in this one to make your business life eas...

Nick Armstrong is among Fort Collins’ most interesting people! He’s the Geek-in-Chief of WTF Marketing, the Pepper Pioneer of FTW Hot Sauce, and the Lead Organizer of both Founded in FoCo and Fort Collins Comic Con! He’s also a freelance community organizer in various ancillary capacities, and a recently BARELY unsuccessful candidate for Fort Collins City Council. In this episode, we zoom especially in on the Founded in FoCo event and highlight some of the amazing speakers, workshops, and event...

Dudley Brown is the Founder and President of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO), and the President of the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), both based in Loveland, Colorado. Ben Gates is a previous guest and longtime friend, President of NG Companies and CFO and Partner in Kinetic Research Group, a firearm manufacturing business based in Idaho that specializes in stocks for competitive long-distance shooting. After a short career in politics after college, Dudley launched RMGO in 1996. ...