Colorado Business Podcast

Air Force veteran Kyle Pettit joins us to share how he transitioned from Special Ops aviation to a thriving career in Colorado real estate. We discuss the challenges of the current market, the rapid evolution of Colorado Springs, and why supporting local small businesses is critical for our city. Finally, Kyle opens up about his "Make Money Matter" philosophy and the importance of using...

MATT MEISTER explains why LOCAL NEWS is dying in COLORADO. After 25 years in broadcast, he reveals the agendas that forced him to walk away. At the peak of a legendary career in broadcast meteorology, Matt Meister decided to ditch the corporate script and bet everything on a community-run startup. In this episode of the Colorado Business Podcast, Matt reveals the "corporate rails" that held him ba...

It’s Not About The Food": Why The $90 Billion Diet Industry Wants You To Fail . Michelle Doyle and Lindsey Doyle have spent a decade on the front lines of the medical and wellness industry, and they’ve seen a horrifying pattern: the $90 billion diet industry isn't designed to make you healthy, it’s designed to make you a repeat customer. In this episode of the Colorado Business Podcast, t...

We are settling the debate on the true identity of Colorado Springs. In this special roundtable episode, we sit down with Celebrity Chef Brother Luck and Chelsea Gondeck (Interim CEO, Downtown Partnership) for a raw, unfiltered conversation about the future of our city. From the controversial "North vs. South" rivalry to the harsh realities of safety in the downtown corridor, nothing was...

Gabrielle Simmons lost everything. She had the 800 credit score, the real estate portfolio, and the “perfect” life on paper, until a $100,000 tax bill and a market crash forced her into bankruptcy at 29 years old. In this episode, Gabrielle opens up about her rise from a truck driver to running the largest investor community in Colorado, and the devastating crash that followed. She reveals exactly...

Is your startup actually going to survive, or are you just burning cash? In this episode, we sit down with Max Cupp, Executive Director of Exponential Impact (XI), the engine turning Colorado Springs into a legitimate rival to Silicon Valley. Max reveals the brutal reality of what it takes to go from "zero connections" to building a billion-dollar unicorn. We break down the "Mudita&...

Your hiring process is broken. You are hiring for skills when you should be hiring for the one thing you can’t train: behavior. In this episode, Reanna Werner (Founder of Savion HQ) reveals the brutal reality of entrepreneurship—from being "ruined" for the corporate world to managing the two things that keep every founder awake at night: their people and their money. If you’ve ever felt...

RainTech founder Andrew Jahnke reveals why he rejected millions in private equity to give 100% of his company's profits to his employees. In this episode, we explore how he’s using AI to implement a 32-hour work week, why he believes "People First" is a lie, and his blueprint for building a business that puts people over profit—period.

AJ Matthews, founder of Be Our Guest Getaways, joins us to share how one family trip to Disney turned into a full-time business helping others experience the magic. From 22-person family reunions to the “Disney bubble” that makes your real-world problems melt away, AJ breaks down what makes Disney different, why planning it alone feels like drinking from a fire hose, and how his passion for creati...

What if the career you spent 20 years building was wiped out overnight? And what if the 'backup plan' you started out of desperation ended up being more successful than your original dream ever was? That's not a hypothetical, it's the true story of our guest, Robert "Black Pegasus" Houston. In one of our most powerful episodes yet, Robert shares the unfiltered story of hi...

Is Colorado's pro-business reputation a myth? According to new data, the state has plummeted to 48th out of 50 in private-sector job creation, and net migration has dropped by over 52%. While our quality of life remains high, the economic policies from the state capitol are creating massive headwinds for business owners and entrepreneurs. In this critical conversation, we sit down with Johnna...

Is Colorado's pro-business reputation a myth? According to new data, the state has plummeted to 48th out of 50 in private-sector job creation, and net migration has dropped by over 52%. While our quality of life remains high, the economic policies from the state capitol are creating massive headwinds for business owners and entrepreneurs. In this critical conversation, we sit down with Johnna Reed...

What would you do if you received 9 offers a week to sell your life's work? Trent Urban, the founder of Wirenut Home Solutions, faces this reality every day. In a world where private equity is buying up local businesses, Trent is holding the line. But his reason for never selling isn't about the money, it's about a promise he made to his father and a legacy he's building for his so...

97% of all family businesses are destined to fail by the fourth generation. It's a brutal statistic that has wiped out countless legacies. So how has Perkins Motors, an 80-year-old car dealership, defied the odds to become a Colorado institution? In this deep-dive conversation, fourth-generation owner David Perkins reveals the raw, unfiltered story of surviving multiple near-disasters, from a...

What happens when the one thing you've built your entire identity around collapses? For founder and designer Taylor Draper, that collapse wasn't just a business failure, it was a life-threatening crisis that pushed him to the brink of suicide. Growing up without a father, Taylor programmed himself to believe that his worth was directly tied to his achievements, a dangerous mindset that led...

We see them on our screens every morning, delivering the news with perfect composure. But what is the true cost of living a life in the public eye? After nearly two decades as the calm voice in the storm, what happens when the cameras turn off? In this raw and unfiltered conversation, veteran FOX21 News anchor Abbie Burke pulls back the curtain on her 17-year career. She reveals the journey from a...

A single anxiety attack shouldn't cost $26,000. For most people, a bill that size is a story of financial ruin. For Travis Bockenstedt, it was a declaration of war. This is the incredible story of how one man transformed his personal trauma with the broken healthcare system into a revolutionary business model that is saving patients money and doctors from burnout. From a poor farming family in...

He was offered $100,000 to sell control of his local Facebook group, The 411 for the 719. He turned it down without a second thought. Rob Thompson, an Air Force veteran, leveraged military strategy to build more than just a community page; he built a digital town square that generates an estimated $7.4 million in local revenue and has become the true pulse of Colorado Springs. In this episode, Rob...

In one of our most vulnerable conversations yet, Craig Glass, a former Bible smuggler behind the Iron Curtain, sits down to share the raw truth about shame, masculinity, and the generational wounds that are silently destroying men. Craig’s journey began with a childhood accident involving a pitchfork and his younger brother, a secret he buried under a lie for over 30 years. That single moment of s...

Erik Fox was a debut author with just 70 sales to his name. Then, one TikTok video exploded to over a million views, turning his psychological thriller Monarch into a viral bestseller overnight. But behind the "overnight success" is a raw story of a failed first project, getting sober, and developing a brutal mindset that refuses to accept excuses. In this episode, Erik Fox reveals the u...

Robert Kittridge spent 30 years as a fire chief, running toward disaster and saving lives. But beneath the uniform was a man running from a deeply violent past, a trauma that secretly fueled his entire career as a rescuer. When the weight of conformity became too much, he embarked on a radical journey that forced him to burn his old life to the ground. In this conversation, former Fire Chief Rober...

Is the current AI hype just a repeat of the 1999 dot-com bubble? A veteran software developer of 27 years, David William Silva, reveals the shocking parallels between past tech booms and today's AI revolution, and shares a critical warning about how passive AI use could be damaging our cognitive abilities. In this episode of the COS Business Podcast, we sit down with David William Silva, a dev...

Fred Tolerico bet everything on the American dream. He spent $30,000 of his own money to move 1,800 miles across the country and launch his junk removal business, Junk-N-Haul. Then, just months later, a global pandemic threatened to wipe it all out before it even began. In this episode of the COS Business Podcast, Fred reveals the unfiltered, brutally honest truth about entrepreneurship that most...

Jay Dial's journey from the terrifying, "deafening, blinding" world of professional bull riding to building a Colorado Springs rodeo empire is a powerful lesson in faith, risk, and entrepreneurship. After a moment in the bucking chute that felt like a divine message, he walked away from the sport he loved to answer a different calling: building a business from the ground up. In this...

Colby Rasplicka took over his family's 34-year-old windshield repair business with one major condition from his dad: he had to buy it. Now, he's transforming a traditional trade by embracing the complex technology that makes a simple repair cost over $1000 and navigating the challenges of a new era of entrepreneurship. In this episode, Colby shares the unfiltered story of his journey from...