All Episodes

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. ...

Dr. Heidi Golding is the Founder and Practitioner at Living Well Chinese Medicine in Loveland, Colorado. She’s an acupuncturist, an herbalist, and one of the most interesting health professionals I’ve become acquainted with. Heidi likes to describe her practice as a fusion of traditional wisdom and modern technology. She is a student of both Japanese and Chinese herbs and acupuncture, with a strong background in tech. We did something new for this episode, in that Heidi and I both had a sturdy...

Annie and Mike Griffith are fellow members of the Rotary Club of Fort Collins Breakfast - or, more commonly known - Breakfast Rotary. We meet at 6:45 am at Ginger & Baker in Fort Collins, every Thursday morning - come and check it out sometime! Annie grew up in the travel industry, with her grandfather delivering sightseeing tours and her dad developing a healthy freight and people-moving bus service along the Front Range, later moving into airline travel and hotel bookings. After college at CS...

Dan Anderson is the President and CEO of Kingdom Way Ministries, and a Strategic & Leadership Coach with Five Capitals. Kingdom Way's mission is to help marketplace leaders thrive in business, life, and ministry. They do this through peer advisory groups, coaching, and community events that, in his words, connect Sunday’s inspiration to Monday’s perspiration. His business offers a membership model quite similar to LoCo Think Tank, but with a decidedly faith-oriented curricula. Dan shares his pe...

Kent Obermann is the Founder of Tooth Zone Network, a pediatric dentistry enterprise that grew to include locations in Fort Collins, Loveland, and Longmont and as many as 60 employees. Kent founded the practice in 1982, fresh out of dental school and intro practice, with a high-rate loan “from Vinny the Loan Shark” after banks turned him down. Kent sold the business in 2017 after 35 years of creating - and maintaining - children’s smiles across the Northern Front Range - and their mission contin...

In this episode you’ll get a glimpse behind-the-scenes of LoCo Headquarters in my conversation with LoCo Experience Producer Alma Ferrer and our new Marketing Manager Alisha Jeffers. We give focus especially to Alisha, her arts background and travels that eventually led her to LoCo. She talks a little about her introductory project with us to revamp our logo, and suggests reading her guest blog post for the complete narrative with pictures here. We also take some time to review and share highli...

Althea Hrdlichka is the Founder and Owner and Midwife at Tender Gifts Midwifery and Birth Center in Fort Collins. After years of supporting Northern Colorado moms through at-home births, Althea took a leap of faith and opened her birth center in the fall of 2020, navigating an abundance of regulations - covid and otherwise - and finding strong market demand for their services from the beginning. I first met Althea several years ago, when she sought support through the Larimer SBDC for a busines...

Hope Hartman is the Executive Director of the Larimer County Small Business Development Center, located on the Front Range Community College campus in Fort Collins. The Larimer SBDC provides education and connection to entrepreneurs across Larimer County. In this episode, we explore the role of the SBDC in the business ecosystem, Hope’s “why” in pursuing the role, and the meandering journey of an impactful career that positioned her for success in this role. Hope’s first love was theater, and w...

Aaron Everitt is a regular guest of the LoCo Experience, with this being his fourth appearance. He’s well-connected in Fort Collins as a real estate broker for Resident Realty, operating a delivery service provider organization, and now adding a local commercial delivery service to the mix called InMotion. We’re happy to announce that InMotion is our first official outside sponsor of the the LoCo Experience. This episode will kick off our once-quarterly real estate update with Aaron. He’ll shar...

Bonus episode from the blog: Sharing gratitude for new additions to LoCo and new offerings just around the corner, the serendipitous path that led to this plate full of blessings, and exploring the meaning of the word fateful and the greater perspective it offers. The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Logistics Co-op | https://logisticscoop.com/ 💡Learn about LoCo Think Tank Follow us to see what we're up to: Instagram LinkedIn Facebook Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Mandy Mullen is the Founder and Owner of the Run Windsor Race Series. She also founded and serves as Executive Director of Windsor Gives, a non-profit extension providing fitness opportunities and education throughout the community. Mandy is a mom on a mission to be healthy and to encourage physical and mental fitness in youth and across entire communities. In this episode, we talk about the beginnings and evolution of Run Windsor, a costly and ultimately failed effort to develop a gym and fitn...

Bob Flynn is the co-founder of Green Ride Colorado, which sold in 2018 to become Groome Transportation here in Northern Colorado. Groome specializes in airport-to-city shuttling between Northern Colorado and Denver. Bob talks about the process, ethos and hard work behind building a transportation business that is environmentally friendly. The momentum that Green Ride created continues with Groome today, and Bob has retired to live a simple life sailing and wandering Canada and the US in his cam...

Ty Fulcher is the owner of four of the finest eating and drinking establishments in Old Town Fort Collins: Social, Union, the Melting Pot and Rodizio Grill. Ty came to Fort Collins in 2002 from Washington State and trained as a sommelier in Italy soon after. Upon his return, he applied what he learned at the Melting Pot and moved up to management. Ty soon expanded into the world of craft cocktails, entering and winning bartending competitions. He became inspired to further his passion for fine b...

Margo is the Western Region President at Banner Health and has her PhD in Organizational Development from CSU. Margo shares her inspiring journey from frontline nursing into management, developing a passion for education and training that continued throughout her later executive career. Margo pulls back the curtain on our healthcare system in this episode. She shares the challenges of the industry in general and specifically the efforts her organization made to keep their teams connected and en...

Richard Fagerlin is the founder and president of Peak Solutions Group and author of the book Trustology. Richard is known across Northern Colorado - and the nation - for his keynote presentations and his team’s effective engagement in three key areas of management consulting: Customized internal leadership development Authentic and durable strategic planning Executive coaching + organizational engagement Richard shares abundantly of his expertise in building teams of trust. He’s got the gift...

In this month’s blog, I’ll be taking a broad-scope view of the scary times we’re in - and sharing reflections and examples of why we should fear not - but plan and work hard instead. The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by: Logistics Co-op | https://logisticscoop.com/ 💡Learn about LoCo Think Tank Follow us to see what we're up to: Instagram LinkedIn Facebook Music By: A Brother's Fountain