The LoCo Experience

In today’s conversation, I’m joined by longtime Producer of The LoCo Experience, (and continuing as Operations Manager of many hats at LoCo Think Tank) Alma Arellano, along with our newest employee and incoming Producer of the podcast, Ava Munos!  We dig into Ava’s background a bit - which revolved around competitive dance for years - and explore some of the changes coming for Season 5 of The LoCo...

Nate Hines is the President of Hines, Inc., a global leader in design solutions for irrigation water management.  He is a husband, father, armchair historian, philosopher, and business enthusiast.  He received his secondary education from Oxford University, with degrees in History and Ancient History.  The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by:  Purpose Driven Wealth Thrivent: Learn more 💡Learn...

Becky Lauridson is the Founder of IOME Self Care, a LoCo Think Tank member, a fan of Lens Neurofeedback, a wife, mother, and elk hunting guide on her family ranch near Craig, Colorado. The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by:  Purpose Driven Wealth Thrivent: Learn more 💡Learn about LoCo Think Tank Follow us to see what we're up to: Instagram LinkedIn Facebook Music By: A Brother's F...

My conversation today was with Ryan Reed-Baum, CEO and Owner of TruLog, a company founded by his father, Ted, but that Ryan basically re-launched years later.  To set the stage, we need to add some context.   In the mid-80’s, Ted worked for Knudson Manufacturing, building and servicing gutter and steel siding manufacturing machines.  By the mid-90’s, he’d started his own business (R & B Home Impro...

I met Matthew Fugate circa summer 2017, when LoCo Think Tank was really starting to become a thing, and Matthew was a fresh-in-town Realtor.  I remembered him well for two reasons 1) He was enthusiastic about LoCo Think Tank but could never remember my business name or my name - he’d shout from across the street in Old Town - Hey LoCoNoCo Guy! and 2) He made a big splash with a bus bench purchase,...

Since he was a little boy, Forrest Cramer has always been an artist.  He was drawing recognizable profiles and pencil-shading landscapes at an age when most of us were working on stick-figures, and in his late teens he had the opportunity to apprentice with a local violin-maker.  He wasn’t ready yet to make it his lifetime craft, landed a role in antique furniture restoration - and later - as his...

I’ve known Aaron McCambridge for perhaps 15 years, as he’s been an occasional visitor to my Rotary Club, where his father is a longtime member.  I’ve known about Citadel Advisory Group for even longer, as they were a client of the bank I worked at the last stop in my career, going back to 2007.  When I left the bank in 2013, Aaron had only recently entered the industry in what was effectively an i...

Brian Kerlin had a successful sales career of over 2 decades when the first cornerstones of Optitude were laid, and he became enamored with the entrepreneurial lifestyle while dating his now-wife, who had a successful professional services company - but was struggling to build the systems for predictable growth.  Brian helped her discover and overcome those challenges to growth, and soon started s...

I met Ty Dannebring at church one Sunday, when he hunted me down and said “Can we have a conversation about possibly being on your podcast, with regard to our new book?”  Knowing nothing, I said, “of course” - and then after a coffee and conversation I was eager to spend time in the podcast studio with Ty and his co-author, Jeff Dillon.  Ty is a financial advisor with a big idea, and Jeff is a Pas...

Today's episode features regular guest Aaron Everitt, along with his 17 year old son, Emerson, discussing the election coverage and election season of 2024.  We started at 7:30ish PM MT, and called it a night by 9:30 PM MT as it became obvious Trump was going to be #47.   Aaron is a highly-acclaimed X.com creator of independent material, including a series of 100 essays on philosophical and e...

In my early years of LoCo Think Tank, when I was just getting out of the mobile food catering game, everyone was talking about the wonderful new caterers in town, Juli & Juan!  Soon after, we had the chance to get acquainted, and they catered one of our most successful events during LoCo’s strongest expansion year of 2019 - Tips, Tacos, & Tequila - featuring business tips, a tequila talk and tasti...

The business journey we’re featuring in today’s episode started when Garrett fell in love with Andrew’s sister (and later married), and took a great leap forward during the Covid pandemic when Garrett became the owner-operator of a standalone Anthony’s Pizza & Pasta location in the Central Park area of Denver.  He was working a full-time job in the automotive industry, raising young children, and...

I met Christine Forster at a big fun business event of some sort (we both can’t remember!) - circa 2022 - and we had a short but lovely conversation, and she was super interested in what LoCo Think Tank was all about, and gave me her card with encouragement to connect.  And then - her card got lost in the shuffle and we didn’t connect proper until this podcast conversation!   As much as I love sha...

John Arnolfo operated the Silver Grill Cafe for 42 years, and found his exit plan through my guest on Episode 143, Alan Jantzen.  John and partner Mike Gress purchased Silver Grill on Valentines Day of 1979 as an unheated one-room diner.  The business had been established by Leonidas “Flossie” Widger in 1933, and mostly served the blue collar workforce of early downtown Fort Collins.  Though the p...

Ben Aste is a conservationist, first and foremost, also an Eagle Scout and the son of a Swiss immigrant.  Ben started Uncle Benny’s Building Supplies from a small rented shed, because he couldn’t stand to see the waste in the lumber supply industry in which he’d been working for some years.  Uncle Benny’s grew quickly, and is growing still, despite an interruption in retail operations you’ll hear...

Noah and Alli Hutchison met during their college years at Baylor, and grew a friendship through their shared involvement in a church community - Antioch Waco.  Alli started doing interior design work for friends and their friends soon after college, and eventually they worked in church ministry, with Noah as the Childrens & Family Director.  They moved to Fort Collins in 2015 where Noah was the Ex...

Julie Ulstrup began her career in admissions counseling, soon transitioned to school counseling, and was a School Counselor for Poudre School District for 13 years.  Like many of the purpose-driven, she began to experience burnout after about 10 years - and made a leap in 2016 - transforming her hobby business of photography into a vibrant full-time enterprise.  In just a few years, she had more t...

Tom Trimmer, Jr. spent his growing up years in the Northern Suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, and was disappointed when his father got rid of the family powerboat (about the time he was old enough to start skiing…) and bought a sailboat instead.  The sailboat sparked a love of sailing however, that carries through to today, and spurred Tom’s first significant entrepreneurial venture - Bachelorette Par...

Trish Bowen-Bannister started her career in education, grew quickly in the field, and spent many years as the Director of Education for Weston Distance Learning in Fort Collins - a role very similar to the role my wife currently fills for the same organization!  She later became Campus President of another local education organization, but was keen to leave after a new CEO created a less-than-enjo...

I was joined by my longtime friend Jennifer Watson in studio this week, while she was in Colorado for the first stop of her Chemistry of Resilience Fall Tour.  It’d been a few years since we’d seen one another, as Jennifer moved to Greenville, South Carolina to be closer to her twin sister and growing family a couple years back.   Jennifer’s journey is inspiring in both achievements and authentici...

Amber Quann joined me in the studio this week to share her business journey, which started at the age of 13 after she’d built notoriety since she was 10 by winning many local and regional competitions in the 4 H community for her dog training skills!  Several neighbors and family friends got puppies around the same time, and so Amber started group training lessons in her front yard!  She’s been tr...

Don’t judge her for it, but Kelly Evans is and will forever be a Jayhawk.  Born and raised in and around Lawrence, Kansas, Kelly got her Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Kansas and soon after began a front-line role with a local non-profit.  Two-and-a-half years in, the board made the decision to depart the Executive Director, and asked Kelly if she would take the job!  Kelly is a na...

Don Cooper was referred to me by a mutual friend, Carolyn Strauss, in my search for a chapter speaker who would bring an innovative approach to sales training.  He brought his most popular workshop, The Myth of Price, and got great reviews from every attendee.  And - thankfully for our listeners, he made time to come by The LoCo Experience studios and share some of his principles for creative thin...

I met Matt Heath at our LoCo Social at Cheba Hut in April, where he had just finished up meeting with Marc Torres, Cheba’s  CEO and my guest on Experience #139.  We had an awesome and interesting conversation, which led to a zoom and then booking this podcast, and I look forward to the day when LoCo Think Tank can hire his creative team to create a clever campaign - as their stuff is just so fun! ...

A few weeks ago, longtime friend and local musician Max Mackey joined me in studio for a wonderfully authentic conversation (Episode 174), and afterward he mentioned that I really should have his girlfriend on my show because she’s so smart and experienced and I would just love her - and she was coming to visit in a couple weeks!  And so I did - and I’m smarter for it, and glad to add another frie...