The LoCo Experience

Ginger Graham is the Owner of Ginger and Baker. They are one of the finest cafes in town that also serves as a steakhouse and bakery.  Our conversation journeys through a high-impact career that culminated in her becoming CEO of a medical product company known as Advanced Cardiovascular Systems. We then discuss her transition moving to Fort Collins and building her own cafe.  Ginger is a highly in...

Zach Schroeder is the Co-Owner of Poudre Sports Car LLC, which has been is business for over 50 years now! They specialize in European sports cars and Zach is a master Porsche technician and a race driving trainer. We talk about Zach's childhood and how he developed his passion for sports cars, working with his father at a young age. We also talk about the origins of the company, challenges h...

Kathryn Higgins and Silencia Cox are the Founder and CEO, of Motherlove Herbal Company. They create organic products for herbal remedies, specifically for pregnancy and breastfeeding.  We talk about Kathryn's early inspiration for her business, combining her father's medical background and her mother's herbal background. We also discuss the funding, how you get something like this g...

In this month’s blog, I’ll be examining communication habits – both my own and those I see in others – and unfolding what I find and understand as best practices.  The title that came to me this month is Are You Speakin’ My Language, and I’m going to hone in especially on: How can we best ensure clear understanding in our daily communications and interactions? What are the essential elements of cl...

Patrick is the Owner of Soukup Real Estate, a real estate firm here in Fort Collins and Janay is a two time Olympian with a bronze medal at the 2012 Olympics in London.  We talk about Patrick's journey in real estate investment management and his business Soukup Real Estate. We also discuss Janay's experience in the Olympics and illustrate the challenges she went through.   They have an...

Ann Hutchison is the President and CEO of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce, which advocates for business solutions in our community. Ann graduated from UNC with a communications degree and a speech degree.   We discuss what the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce does and how they catalyze positive change for businesses.  We also go over topics like talent development, transportation, a...

Peter and Beth are the Founders of, You can Choose, Ready Touch, and their newest venture, Mainn, is a business connection software device.  Ready touch was their first and most successful business so far and it was a software company that scaled up over the period of 10 years. You Can Choose is a book and a philosophical pathway for entrepreneurs to really understand themselves.  They have a grea...

Clint's the Co-Owner of Purpose Driven Wealth at Thrivent. They have three offices, in Windsor Colorado, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Durango Colorado. During our conversation we talk a lot about building a business in the financial services industry. What I found interesting is that Clint has built a team of advisors that work together but they also compete against each other, as well as the gener...

Jeremiah is a relatively recent transplant to the Fort Collins area from relatively rural Maine, where he developed a couple of businesses with partners.  So he's an e-commerce veteran. And so he's looking for his next adventure as he's become a real estate investor and interested party in crypto markets and different things.  we go through his whole business journey, what it takes...

My guest on today's episode was Aaron Everitt, a long time friend of mine, a realtor in Northern Colorado, as well as the founder of InMotion and the owner of a delivery service provider here regionally. And so this is Aaron's third time on the podcast and it's because we just enjoy each other's company and conversation and having philosophical discussions. And so we talk about...

This month, I’m reflecting on a pair of conversations I’ve enjoyed recently on The LoCo Experience podcast, with a pair of married couples - Miles and Val Kailburn of Old Town Media, and Wally and Miriam Veigel of Wally’s Speed Shop.  Interestingly, in both cases the business was started by one of the partners, and as it grew and needed more support - the other partner joined the business and help...

My guest on today's episode were Miles and Vallene Kailburn, Founders and Chief Executive Officer and Chief Creative Officer of Old Town Media located in Fort Collins. Old Town Media is the company that built my first website for my food trailer.  Bear's backyard grill way back at the beginning of LoCo Think Tank. They've come a long way. We didn't really get into it, but they&...

Wally and Miriam are the owners of Wally's Speed Shop in Loveland, CO. Wally's Speed Shop is a hot rod restoration shop, for early six-volt and up to late-model vehicles providing full customizations for a variety of clients. He started in 2016 in a 1600-square-foot shop and now occupies a pair of buildings totaling 16,000 square feet.  Miriam joined the business really formally in durin...

New Episode with Nicole Armstrong, Jenny Stetson, and Shawn Keffer the Leadership Team of The Matthews House, a nonprofit organization in Fort Collins, serving all of Larimer County. Nicole is the Executive Director, Jenny's the Operations and Development Director and Sean is the Experiential Education Director. This was my first three guests podcast! We get into what the Matthews House does,...

Eric Holsapple is the Founder and CEO of LC Real Estate Group & Founder and Lead Facilitator of Living In The Gap.  He's been involved with real estate here in Northern Colorado since the early nineties, he has a Ph. D. from CSU that he got when moving back here to Colorado. He started implementing mindfulness practices into his firm at an early stage.  We spend a lot of time talking about hi...

Current events have had me noodling on the topic of authority, particularly where it intersects with culture, responsibility, and with Liberty. Like most of my writings, this has developed as an internal conversation shared here with you all. Where to start with this one. So many options, why not start with Will Smith? The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by:  Purpose Driven Wealth Thrivent: L...

Becky Ezzel is the founder of Smart Book Business Solutions, it is a bookkeeping service for small business owners, especially those under 20 employees or so. She's grown her team to be 10 employees strong and they have 170 clients thereabouts in Northern Colorado. She found herself a single mom of a two-and-a-half-year-old and a five-year-old with a job that was awesome and satisfying, but d...

My guest was Suzanne Miller. She is the Welcome Coordinator at the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce. She's a wife and a mom and a grandma, and she's just a really neat lady. We talk a lot about leadership at every level, even if you're not the CEO or the president of a company, how you can still be a leader within the organization.  Suzanne is the founder also of a movement cal...

Mike is the founder of Prairie Rose Development and the former executive director of the Colorado Lending Source and is a candidate for the Colorado Secretary of State. He is from Australia and studied at the university of Melbourne, he got with Ford Motor company and later went back to school, got his MBA with an economics focus and found his way to America. We talk about all kinds of economic to...

In this month's blog, I’m going to dip into some business stories, including my own, and enter into an examination of the role that story and narrative play in our lives.  How do the stories we tell each other provide clarity and understanding, and how do the stories we tell ourselves impact our direction and habits?  Finally, I’ll share some tips and observations on how we can help ourselves...

My guests were Dr. Bobby and Jamie Cawthron, former owners of Aspen Grove Veterinary Care and The Cabins at Aspen Grove. Jamie is a LoCo facilitator and a former member of LoCo Think Tank, she's also the founder of Path Forward business consulting. Dr. Bobby remains as chief of staff for Aspen Grove veterinary. They sold their business last year and we talked about the purchase of that busine...

My guest on today's episode was Heidi Ganahl. Heidi is a Republican candidate for Governor of Colorado, a Regent at the University of Colorado and she's the founder of Camp Bow Wow, as well as other ventures. She's a mom of four and married to the top barbecue guy in the state.  We dig into Heidi's story with this one.  Before founding Camp Bow Wow, Heidi suffered the tragic lo...

My guest today was Hunter Wylie, Co-founder and CEO of Beyond Blue Media, a full service digital marketing agency here in Fort Collins. They've grown the business in five short years to 16 full-time employees, and have a full service spectrum, including SEO, web development, apps, videos, social media,. etc. Learn tips on how to do your own digital marketing, if you're not in a place yet...

My guest on this episode was Brad Piepenbrink, the Owner of Recycled Cycles in Fort Collins. He purchased the business in July of 2021. After 43 years of being owned by Dave Hudson, a long-time LoCo Think Tank member. Brad's had an interesting journey. He grew up in Illinois, went to college in Florida, and then really fell into politics. He moved into ever-increasing roles of responsibility,...

My guest was Sarah Lukemire, Founder and Lead Strategist at Brindle Digital Media. Sarah tells a lot about her story of getting into the marketing industry, where she earned her chops early after college. How her dad talked her out of dropping out of college to open a tanning salon. She shares her top four tips for self marketers. We share a good conversation about the most important things in lif...