Trailer | Digging Into the LoCo Experience & Shorts Episode

Welcome to the LOCO Experience Podcast with LOCO Think Tank Founder Kurt Bear. Listen in as Kurt digs deep into the business and life stories of business owners and thought leaders at different stages of growth from all walks of life. Launching and growing anything can be a crazy experience, so expand your thinking and level up your understanding of what it takes to find success in the world of free enterprise. Hi I'm Kurt Bear, founder of the LOCO Think Tank and host of the LOCO Experience Podcast. I'm here with Rory Shardt today, host of the LOCO Shorts Podcast and business developer at LOCO Think Tank, and we're going to tell you a little bit about this new podcast and why you might want to listen. But first Kurt, I think we should probably set the stage to let our audience know really what LOCO Think Tank is. LOCO Think Tank is now a series of small business owner peer collaboration groups. Each group is facilitated by a small business veteran and members meet once a month for four hours typically with up to 12 fellow members to really get perspective, accountability and encouragement along their business journey. We have three sizes of businesses. We have the builders, chapters for the five and fewer employees, thinkers for the five to 25-ish employees, and then the next level is that kind of $5 million and over maybe 30-plus employee kind of organization around our local communities. We also have a catalyst chapter that's for the key employees of these organizations and other organizations that aren't members. At LOCO Think Tank, we serve as the mixologist. We run through a process of vetting members before we bring them in. Everybody gets a veto of any new prospective members, and we're really looking for the right special talents to add to the sauce to make it all richer for everybody. So what makes LOCO Think Tank different from other peer groups? Well, there's a couple things. One is gotta be our culture. We have a culture of just safety, transparency, and abundance that I don't think other organizations can really match, but really our special sauce is the facilitators. We have a series of business veterans. They're people that have had a successful business journey. They don't need a job, but they could use a little bit more purpose in their life. And so we bring them on and train them in our local way how to be a facilitator, and then we do most of the marketing, mixing, and finding of the really talented business operators, and they deliver the goods for us. So what are the key things that your members get each month? Well, first of all, they get a safe place. It's just kind of a lonely place, sometimes being a business owner. It's just a place where people can be transparent and vulnerable. They can share knowledge that they have, special knowledge and information. They can be more confident about their decisions because they've run it past their board of directors before taking that decision. And they can really have kind of a continuous learning and accountability that business owners that don't have something like this can just not obtain elsewhere. That sounds interesting and definitely unique. And I think what I should also say is because our facilitators have had a successful business journey, they're not in it for the money. We do pay them, but we don't pay them what they probably command if they wanted to go get a job. And so, therefore, our members can really get that peer advisory experience at a price that's much less than most of our competition. Now that we know a little bit more about why Locos started and what Locos does and how it serves business owners, tell us more about why did you create the Locos Experience Podcast? Well, why did we create it? First of all, but the Locos Experience Podcast, you know, one of the things we've learned through now six plus years of running peer advisory chapters is that it's sometimes nice to learn from the experiences of others than learning them yourself, a lot less costly sometimes and just, you know, making better decisions faster ultimately is at the core of what we do, but doing that because we have that multi lens. And so nobody's doing a small business journey alone. And so when we have these successful small business veterans on here to tell their story, they have learning lessons that will help somebody that's already in that kind of a situation today, they're finding themselves entering that kind of circumstance. And so having that perspective and understanding maybe the failures or the successes is really a way for people to, like I said, learn from other people's mistakes instead of just their own. And how are you going to explore those stories with individuals or small groups of people? Well, the first podcast I really started listening to was the Joe Rogan Experience, shout out to Joe. You can be on my show if you want to anytime, really, we'll clear our schedule. But I think that long format podcast is just such an important format because I've always been a really good questioner as a bank person, a bank small business lender for a long time. I always had to learn about people's stories and how they got to where they are right now as much as just seeing what the numbers said. And so I think through going a little deeper with people and asking, you know, that next why question and maybe one more why after that to really explore those, not just like technical aspects of business, but really in the end all businesses personal and it's those relationships and what you did when this thing happened that I think people can really learn from. I like the detail that you go into with that. Well, and I think an important thing to understand also is that sometimes you don't have time for the local experience podcast and that's where the local shorts come in. So Roy, tell everybody listening what the local shorts are going to be. Good question. So the local shorts are a little bit different from the local experience podcast that Kurt hosts. So what I do in the local shorts is I have the opportunity to meet with business owners and thought leaders and people in the community to get their quick stories of key lessons they've learned in their business or even in life and how that impacted really the trajectory of their business and really what came next. So getting those quick bite size lessons about business is an easy way to help people maybe going through that same situation learn quickly. So what can our listeners expect from the local experience podcast and the local shorts podcast? Well, with both podcasts, I think what people can find is real stories of real people with real business learning. With the local experience, the longer format, we're going to have whiskey and long interpersonal conversations, not just about the business topics, but also about those personal navigations along the way and ultimately all of business is personal. With the local shorts, you'll probably find shorter snippets, some quick business learnings and a little bit about some new people you've never found before. The local experience will be a little more rare and the local shorts a little more often and we'll have some bonus coverage here and there as well. So if you're a business owner on your business journey, I think these two podcasts would be a great way to get connected to new ideas and perspectives on what's going on in business. And I think the storytelling that Kurt mentioned, celebrating that whole person participation as a business owner is a great way to look at your business in a different way and really be encouraged that you're on the right track and really I think local has a lot of resources to help business owners and the greater community. While we hope you'll listen, we hope you'll subscribe. We want to thanks and give a shout out to a brother's fountain for providing the music on the intro and the outro free of charge because we have low budgets around here. And Rory, I just want to say thanks for helping create this podcast and anybody listening right now, I hope you love it and I hope you share it with your friends. Thank you for listening to today's episode of the Local Experience Podcast. This is Kurt Baer, founder of the local think tank and host of the local experience and I'm here with Rory Shah, local business developer and host of the local shorts episodes. We hope you heard some new ideas and business perspectives in this episode. Our mission and all that we do, including this podcast, is to share collaborative business ideas and solutions that uplift the business community. Subscribe and follow us for you listening to podcasts to get new episodes as they are released. Curious about logo? You can learn more about us at localthinktakes.com where you'll find more information about our chapters, business resources and events for business owners and teachers. If you're looking for perspective, accountability and encouragement along your business journey, why not apply for a chapter near you today? Why not? Why not? Why not? We'll catch you next time on the in-depth local experience podcast with me, Kurt. And with me, Rory, provide size business lessons in the local shorts. Bye! Bye! Bye!