Dr. Katie Foster booked time with me out of the blue last spring (which never happens), and brought cookies and we shared a very enjoyable coffee and conversation.  She was weeks away at the time from opening her business, Timnath Kids Dentistry, and was exploring the business community at large and curious about LoCo Think Tank.  She’s not a member at LoCo - yet - but she’s our kind of people.  When she can carve time away from a young business and two young children we’ll be ready to find a great chapter for her!   Before this conversation, I had no impression of what the ..read more

I was introduced to Micah Johnson by Jeffrey Beyle, one of my guests during Season 1 of The LoCo Experience (Episode 29 if you wanna check it out), and one of my spies in the Boulder area.  By spies I mean those who think of me when they meet someone with an interesting business journey to share, and a lot of value to share with the business community through a podcast conversation like this one!   Micah is what most would call a serial entrepreneur, with multiple starts and exits, and some failures.  Micah’s largest business venture to date was GoFanbase, Inc., a social media m ..read more

Diana Rogers Jaeger joined me for an uplifting conversation and shared her fascinating life and career journey that led her to Northern Colorado in 2022.  Diana is the founder and owner of Love to Appreciate Consulting, and recently released a new book - “Let Go of the Rope - Create Unlimited Confidence”.  Love to Appreciate was founded in 2017, and is focused on helping companies keep their best and brightest.  Initially Diana was particularly focused on creating a work environment that Millennials would be attracted to and wish to remain a part of.  Over the seasons, Dian ..read more

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Justin Follin came all the way from Austin, Texas to Fort Collins a few weeks ago - not to be on the show, but to visit his younger brother Sean - my guest on Episode 134, who introduced him to me as a potential guest.  Both brothers are in the strategic planning industry, which I found fascinating, and Justin had a fresh book out in 2023 - titled as you might guess - Be a Better Team by Friday.  The book brings together strategic planning and high performance coaching and psychology, and does it all in a readable and actionable 200ish page format.   While Sean has been in the s ..read more

My guest today was Shani Canillas, Owner and Editor of The Scout Guide Fort Collins.  The Scout Guide is a visually appealing coffee table kind of book, featuring classy storytelling pictorials of gold standard local businesses.  It’s a franchise that has a strong foundation in the Southeast part of the country, but is increasingly spreading west.  Shani picked up her first guide in Bozeman, Montana, and the organization grew from 82 to 90 established communities in 2023.   Shani acquired the Northern Colorado franchise in the summer of 2023, venturing out from a long caree ..read more

If you tuned in for our bonus episode last week, you’ll know that today’s episode is a bit of a change-up from our normal routine.  I met Viktor Bjerre a few weeks back, while recording the bonus episode on Greenheart Exchange, and he later followed up with an expression of interest to learn more about podcasting.  This led to a get-to-know phone call, and soon after an invitation by me to him to serve as Guest Host of The LoCo Experience, interviewing your regular Host, Curt Bear.  The occasion is the 10th anniversary of LoCo Think Tank, the primary sponsor of the show!  I ..read more

Many who know me in Northern Colorado know that my wife and I have a fondness for hosting exchange students, and for the past 2 years, our outlet for getting these students has been an organization called Greenheart Exchange.  I’m joined today by a Regional Manager and the Regional Director of the organization, Lisa Melville Peterson and Lasha Crowell Seaman - and they also brought along several exchange students for short get-to-know conversations.   Greenheart’s foundation is youth exchange, but these ladies unfold the behind-the-scenes and share their motivations and craziest expe ..read more

Aaron Everitt was back in the studio for our quarterly check-in, fresh off a trip to Boston visiting a college with his son.  We started our conversation with a whiskey taste test, featuring Blanton’s Bourbon gifted me by Mat at Wilbur’s, Smoke Wagon Uncut the Younger Bourbon, and Stellum Rye Whiskey.  We talked about Boston and some Founding Father stories, we talked about the border crisis and Ukraine funding, and we talked about new developments at Logistics Co-op, Aaron’s company and sponsor of The LoCo Experience Podcast.   And - we talked about @loanlyhipster - Aaron’s X h ..read more

Mandy Mullen’s previous episode (Episode 91) is The LoCo Experience podcast most-listened episode!  It’s an inspiring journey of a chubby post-college wife, then mom, growing her passion for running and fitness and community until it sprung forth as Run Windsor, a community-driven race series in the Windsor, CO region.  At the time of that recording, she was just sealing the deal to buy a pair of legendary races - the Wild West Relay from Fort Collins to Steamboat Springs, and the Flaming Foliage Relay from Idaho Springs to Beuna Vista.   For this big bite of new endeavors, Mand ..read more