The LoCo Experience

Antonio Barbera is the Founder and CEO of Table Tennis Connections, a 501c(3) Non-Profit Organization that builds community and empowers neural development through table tennis AKA ping-pong!  Dr. Barbera has developed the NeuroPong™  system to forestall and even reverse the effects of neurodegenerative diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinsons, and cognitive impairment - and is highly effec...

Chas Greener, formerly a Dance Director at Mountain Kids in Fort Collins, transitioned into content creation after an injury in 2019. She now runs Chas's Crazy Creations with over 10,000 YouTube subscribers and an active website. Additionally, she operates Site Consulting Services, assisting creatives in maximizing their online presence.  This episode zooms in on the life and journey of a cre...

Samson Jagoras was a Division I football player at CU, and soon became an early-stage and key leader and eventually minority partner in Madwire/Marketing 360.  Darius Bell came to know Samson while he was a standout employee at Madwire, and is a lifelong student of brand and marketing.   Together, Samson and Darius have created the Pain to Profits Podcast, and are building a business education and...

Chris Cox found relief from long-term back pain through use of CBD in 2016, and soon turned his growing knowledge of and passion for holistic medicine into a retail enterprise - Plenty Wellness in Loveland, Colorado.  Plenty Wellness carries the highest-quality retail CBD products in the region, and has a very education-focused and consultative approach.  Buzz Screens was founded in 2022, as an ef...

Valeria Ortiz, founder of Vortiz Insurance, offers education and insurance packages for the Medicare market, with its headquarters in Greeley, Colorado. I met Valeria at a local event and struck up a conversation which eventually led to Valeria joining LoCo Think Tank and sharing her story. Originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Valeria worked in marketing for a similar agency before moving to Col...

Phil Pelto is the  Co-Founder of Firestorm B2B Networking and Certus B2C Networking - The Power of Network Effect & How to Build Authentic Connections, both with an increasing number of chapters and members across the Colorado Front Range.  Phil Co-Founded Firestorm while he was working as a suit salesman in Minnesota nearly 15 years ago, scaled rapidly and expanded to Florida, and then hired a pr...

Sean Godbey founded Old Town Spice Shop in Fort Collins, Colorado with his brother and parents in 2010, with an original plan to expand to five retail locations within just a few years.  They found some retail success, but the overhead and staffing complexities of retail soon shifted the plan into a more wholesale-focused operation, supplying bulk and custom spices for restaurants, food manufactur...

Seth Coonrod is the Founder and Owner/Operator of Timberline Audio Video in Loveland, Colorado, and also a LoCo Think Tank member.  He worked as a key employee of a similar company in North Carolina in his earlier years, and founded the company immediately after moving to Colorado.   In this episode, we get into the nerdy stuff of luxury home audio video systems, talking tech trends and smart home...

Shelley Polansky has been on the team at BBB of NoCo and Wyoming since 2008, serving in Dispute Resolution, Education, Communications, and Outreach before ascending to the leadership role in 2019.  LoCo Think Tank has been a BBB member since 2021, and they’ve hosted many chapter meetings and trainings in their amazing conference rooms!` My conversation with Shelley spends a lot of time on explorin...

Nathan Wilbanks and Alex Swanson are the Founders of BizOp Media, a content and strategy-driven marketing agency headquartered in Fort Collins. In 2021, Nathan departed Bizop to develop new ideas, and eventually founded Jaq n Jill, a subscription-based AI-powered writing tool, focused on the collaborative power of an AI tool and a thoughtful content creator.   We get deep in this one - deep into t...

My guest this week was Franklin Taggart - a fellow consultant with the Larimer County Small Business Development Center and founder of Franklin Taggart Coaching.  Franklin was the first podcaster to feature me on his show!  My story of going from banker to food trucker to LoCo Think Tank guy was a great fit for his Reset Podcast, and I’ve been blessed by dashes of his wisdom throughout our time to...

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 progre...

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 e...

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, w...

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 fal...

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.  Br...

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:...

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...

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 espe...

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 lo...

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 st...

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 ser...

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 membershi...

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 cre...

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 po...