The LoCo Experience

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 business back in 2006 and the growth of the business through the 15 years intervening the challenges of COVID.

We also discussed the vetting process of deciding who should be the person that employs your employees and accepts your values and the things that you've come to create as far as a business. 

Dr. Bobby is part of the yang gang, which is kinda cool. And we just really had a lot of fun sharing stories about finding those critical moments in business. Making the best out of what seems at one point to be a tough situation. So I hope you'll tune in these guys were a lot of fun.

We laughed more than probably almost any of our podcasts so far, but we also shared a lot of really smart business guidance. So tune in and enjoy.

Beyond Blue Media

Check out LoCo upcoming events!

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, culminating and becoming the chief of staff of the governor, Rick Scott at that time in Florida. And Rick is of course a national Senator for the state of Florida now.

Brad worked in a little bit of politics since then, but mostly was looking for a good business to buy. Near the mountains and ideally in his passion project with bicycling. So he found Recycled Cycles in early 2021 and is now a transplant with his young family to Fort Collins.

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 life, like family. And this one is just chock full of a really authentic person sharing a lot about what she does to make her clients succeed in the world of marketing.

Check out Brindle Digital Media

Check out our upcoming events like free business webinars

Learn more and register for the Community Grove Party

Episode 36 with The Matthews House Founder Jerri Schmitz

Episode 2 with A Brothers Fountain Bandmates

My guest today was Aaron Everitt. Aaron is a realtor at Resident Realty. He's a partner in a delivery services provider and he's the owner of a startup, a local delivery business called InMotion. He was educated in Canada and married a girl from up there.

We spent a lot of time talking about the Freedom convoy, the trucker strikes up there. We talked a lot about real estate, water availability here in Northern Colorado to support our continued growth, and just giving back to a community that's given so many blessings.

Aaron's a good friend and a great realtor, and he knows more about real estate and Northern Colorado than probably anybody I know. So if you love Northern Colorado, listen in.

💡 Learn More about LoCo Think Tank Here

🗓 Check out our upcoming events and Free Webinar Here

My guest for this episode was Sean Nook. Sean is the Founder and Owner-Operator at Black Bottle Brewery, which recently celebrated its 9th anniversary!  Black Bottle was the very last business start-up loan that I funded before leaving a 15-year career in banking!

Sean has grown a passion for homebrewing into one of the city’s favorite brewpubs.  We talked about the challenges of managing the brewery through the pandemic, reflected on the exciting earliest days of the business, and we discussed changes to the industry and the challenges of hiring and managing in today’s labor economy - as well as his love for cool sneakers.  We chased a lot of squirrels, and drank too much bourbon, and had a whole lotta fun.  As Sean would say, “Buckle Up, Buttercup” and enjoy!

Linkedin | EOS Worldwide 

If you prefer to read your blogs than to listen, please head over to the blog page on the LoCo Think Tank website and sign up for a once monthly newsletter featuring my blog plus many community events and useful links for the small business owner or enthusiast!  

My guest today was Elizabeth LeDoux,  the Founder, and CEO of Transition Strategists, an international succession and transition planning company headquartered right here in Fort Collins, Colorado.  We talked about her early days in business and relatively young transition to consultancy - where she now tallies more than 25 years of experience!  Elizabeth shares principles from her newest book, It’s a Journey, and throughout the show, she shares abundantly from her special knowledge and experience.  We also spent time discussing best practices for peer advisory groups - like LoCo Think Tank!  Elizabeth was also a longtime chair for the Women Presidents Organization and currently serves in the same role for TIGER21.

If you’re like me, you’re going to love Elizabeth, and this episode is full of golden business nuggets in a super-crucial area - successful leadership transition.

This episode features Greg Roeder and Josh Guernsey, Founders and Managing Partners at Waypoint Real Estate in Fort Collins.  Josh and Greg founded the firm five short years ago, and have grown to become a leading full-service firm in the region, with a staff of 35 providing commercial and residential brokerage, property management, and investment services.  They attribute their success to attracting great people, who attract great people, who attract great people!  We spend a lot of time talking about how marketing real estate has changed, the varying needs of clients, and some of the big changes ahead for our region and the greater industry.

This was a fun conversation with a pair of smart, focused, and community-minded business leaders.  Tune in to learn more about this fast-growing real estate firm and the principles and values that help them find true north with their team, their clients, and the community!

Jennifer Watson is the Founder of Jennifer Watson Leadership and Watson Wellness in Fort Collins, Colorado.  The businesses allow her to pursue her twin passions of wellness and leadership, and provide her the opportunity to help her clients become their best selves - at home and in the office.  Jennifer shares her journey of building a physical therapy practice starting right after college, and moving on from that venture and evolving to focus on leadership coaching and consulting in Colorado (and nationally!) in more recent years.  This episode is full of healthy nuggets - Jennifer unfolds her GUT Leadership Method, shares tips on finding truth in perspective, and the importance of stretching both body and mind regularly!  Jennifer is a natural entrepreneur, an adventurer, and I think you'll fall in love with her and more in love with yourself if you listen in and put her tips into action in your life!  

Jeff Schuster is the Founder and owner of Mechanics & Mindset Business Coaching, and also the author of Business Mechanics & Mindset - How Your Thoughts Create or Sabotage Your Business Success.  In a previous chapter of life, Jeff founded and grew an energy services company called Ennovate.

We discuss Jeff’s business journey with emphasis on key moments that empowered the growth of the company to over 30 employees, and we spend some time on the sale process and his later decision to get into business coaching.  Jeff is a Core Energy Coach, and helps entrepreneurs - especially those in the engineering and energy sectors - identify their challenge points both individually and on an enterprise level.  Jeff shares freely about how he helps clients shift their thinking to shift their business results, and along the way we talk of the importance of family, and how sometimes closed doors are a blessing.

Allison answered a classified ad - like, in a newspaper - and got an entry-level position as a Training Associate with Prosci in Loveland - then and now a leading change-management organization, now serving an international marketplace of mid-size, large, and Fortune 100 companies - as well as those in Colorado and all across the USA.  5 years later, she was the President! - having been selected by the Founder to succeed him in management of the company after private equity acquired a majority stake in the enterprise!  She stayed through another acquisition in 2016, and left the company to pursue other interests in 2018.

In 2019, Allison was recruited to be the Executive Director of the Warehouse Business Accelerator in Loveland - a non-profit dedicated to connecting scaleup companies with mentors, connections, and community resources in order to scale and create value in the world and jobs in the community.

Betina intentionally focuses on encouraging excellence in life and business with female business owners and leaders of non-profit organizations, but also with any purpose-driven organization. This episode explores her life journey, explores her tips and best habits to defeat overwhelm and build process, and also unfolding the essentials of the Hallos Relationship Intelligence methodology.  Curt & Betina are co-hosting an upcoming Hallos Certification Workshop, presented and led by the founder of Hallos, Marco Antonio. Check out the LoCo webinar hosted by Betina and Marco here for a Hallos overview.

Jerri Schmitz is a hero of mine, and an amazing example of putting faith in action to create lasting community change.  Jerri founded The Matthews House in 2005, a non-profit organization that now ranks (per CSU research) as among the most impactful in the state and region.  The Matthews House mission is to Empower youth and families by building trusting relationships and providing resources to disrupt the cycles of poverty and abuse - and they do it well.  They have grown into a leading human services voice in the nation, and have more than 50 staffers doing good in the communities of Larimer County every week.

The Positive Futures Pathway holistic approach created and developed by Jerri and her team doesn't attempt to fix one challenge and send clients on their way.  Instead, they help clients build a foundation for future success by addressing Housing, Well-being, Education, Employment, and Life Skills needs so they can imagine and build sustainable futures for themselves - regardless of the amount of abuse and neglect they've endured.  God loves you, and so does Jerri and so does the team at The Matthews House.

Jerri retired from the Executive Director role in 2019, and is now writing grants, providing support to the leadership team, and traveling the American West with her husband Matt in a 5th Wheel camper.  I was blessed to share some time on her last trip through town, for the podcast and a lovely 4 hour backyard dinner double date with out spouses.  If you know Jerri - likely you already love her - but listen in and love her even more because the who TMH story is unfolded in this episode!  If you don't know Jerri - you should.  

The annual gala fundraiser for The Matthews House is known as Cultivate Hope, and it will be held live and virtually on September 18, 2021.  We're always looking for more sponsor, donors, and attendees!

Blake Craig is the Co-Founder and Chief Labor Officer at Laborjack, LLC. Probably best understood as the Uber of Labor, Laborjack matches a flexible and ambitious labor force - mostly comprised of college students - with those needing stuff done. Initially conceived to become “The world’s largest moving company! - that doesn’t own any trucks”, Laborjack clients have now found hundreds of ways to engage a flexible workforce! Laborjack offers everything from event set-up and tear-down to garage clean-outs to landscaping projects and festival staffing, and many more business clients than initially imagined.

This is a bootstrapped startup story at its best, with an idea birthed as a college side-gig, incubated through several years of a commercial real estate career, and now taking on private investment en route to a Series A down the line.  It’s a story of taking small risks, with a direction in mind, and making the sacrifices necessary to allow an enterprise to grow to a sustainable venture.  Godspeed, good sir! - I’ve learned much from you, and we’ll all be cheering for your strong success!

In this episode of the LoCo Experience podcast, Curt sits down with Jeff Beyle, CEO and Co-Founder of Sticker Control.  

Sticker Control makes Industry 4.0 tools accessible to small and medium size companies using RFID-powered analytics and optimization algorithms to drive efficiencies and system integration tools to break down data silos, all backed by AI-powered data preparation tools so our customers do not need a team of data scientists to adopt and use our systems.  

I don't really know what all that means, but I know Jeff is an awfully smart and kind fellow that I met at a manufacturer's conference a couple years ago.  We've stayed in touch, and I think it's fair to say we're each intrigued by the others' journey - and I hope to serve him as a LoCo Think Tank chapter member when we get into Boulder County.  

Jeff took a background in software and law to craft an executive career with Fortune 500 and 50 companies, including Coca Cola and Getty Images.  After moving to Colorado for a quality of life focus, he's begun a new chapter as Co-Founder of a bootstrapped startup, where they've been making a strong go of it and have a suite of new products that could be game-changers in the nursing and assisted living center industry.  

Lots of great twists and turns in this one, and great insight into the decision criteria of a leader of a bootstrapped startup.  

What I’m thinking after interviewing Ali Davachi, is that this man needs to be a LoCo Facilitator for a future Longmont / Boulder County chapter of LoCo Think Tank.  Stat.

It’s the coveted win-win-win-win - 1) Ali would win because he’s working to down-size his role in his company RealWare, is a recent Colorado transplant from “back East” and would love more community connection, and has already come to be an advocate for LoCo Think Tank  2) The Longmont business community wins because they’d gain access to his special talents in a highly-leveraged and durable fashion 3) LoCo HQ wins because we’ll have attracted yet another overqualified and undercompensated business veteran to Team LoCo, and 4) The world wins because I believe by learning the role of our true clients (the LoCo Facilitators who power our chapters) that Ali would help LoCo Think Tank grow smarter and stronger faster than we otherwise would.  (there’s probably more wins if I try, but you’re bored already).

Now I’ve just got to ask him proper, have him say yes, and we have to decide together whether to work on launching a Thinkers chapter (5 - 25 employees typically) or a Next Level Chapter (25 - 250 employees usually).  He meets all of the criteria to be a LoCo Facilitator, and has worked with everything from startups to turnarounds to Fortune 50 companies.

OK, enough with the “should be kept inside your head” conversation - here’s a bit about Ali:  He’s a patriotic American, of Persian descent, who started what came to be a market-leading computer company at 19 and exited at 24.  Then he built a dial-up ISP company - and exited again.  Then he started RealWare, LLC in 1999 as a kind of Smart SaaS consultancy - but he kept getting more and more clients who kept asking more and more of RealWare so he kept growing his international team.  Ali loves people and challenges and good conversation, and especially his children and beautiful wife Liz who grabbed him and made him hers before these crazy business journeys all started.

In today's episode, I'm joined by Pastors Aaron Santini and Daniel Smith of The Crossing Church in Fort Collins.  The Crossing was planted as a life group of Crossway Chapel in Greeley in the fall of 2009, and officially launched in March of 2010.  This episode details the very entrepreneurial journey of church planting, and shares the life stories of a couple of regular guys who've responded to God's distinct call on their lives.

Aaron was a multi-sport athlete throughout his high school years, and in his words majored in "eligibility" during college in New Mexico.  After being drafted into the Minnesota Twins organization, Aaron found himself with a lack of purpose and direction when injuries cut short his professional career.  It was all he'd been pursuing, since he was a child!  Daniel's journey takes him to CSU from his native Texas as a Marketing major, during which years he was also a partner in one of the earliest social media marketing agencies - promoting House of Blues concerts all across the US via My Space, Facebook, and eventually Twitter.  Club hockey and chasing girls were Daniel's big pursuits, and you're going to flip when you hear his LoCo Experience at the end!  (psst - it involves an off-campus riot near CSU!)

There's so much good stuff in this episode, ranging from the business of church planting to the process of sanctification, with a pair of open and humble servants of God.

Jeff and Noah are "business neighbors" to LoCo Think Tank, and operate the Time Emporium Escape Rooms in Fort Collins and Loveland.  

Jeff acquired Loveland Laser Tag in 2011 after a pair of false starts to his entrepreneurial journey, departing a stable career with Hewlett Packard which had moved him to Northern Colorado from his native Texas.  His experience with software and systems soon led to a role with their laser equipment supplier, Laserforce International, based out of Australia.  Jeff now serves as COO at Laserforce, helping to design features and implement systems in other laser tag centers across the US.  

Noah Kline started his first job was at Loveland Laser Tag at the age of 16, and within the first year his eagerness to learn all aspects of the business convinced Jeff and his wife to invite Noah to join them for an out-of-state conference - for which he had to ask his parents permission for the time away from high school classes!  In the time since, Noah has developed continually in the role of Jeff's right hand man, and in 2019 he successfully lobbied Jeff to pursue an escape room concept as an addition to their entertainment offerings.  Given the opportunity to become an partner in the escape rooms enterprise, Noah jumped in with both feet, and the partners took the opportunity to acquire a second location in early 2020.  

This episode covers a lot of ground, and helps to demonstrate the often-winding journey of becoming an entrepreneur.  Our conversation draws out the value of having long-term and fully-engaged teammates, and finding new ways to add value for clients, suppliers, employees, and the entertainment industry at large.  

In this episode, Curt enjoys time with Peter Melby, CEO of Greystone Technology, only one week removed from their 20th birthday!  Peter shares important lessons from Greystone's founding and first years in business, and reflects on a business journey that has seen them achieve quarterly revenue growth for 50 straight quarters!  

Greystone is unusual for an IT company, first for its' size (~100 total employees in 4 locations at time of press!), but also for its' commitment to team principals and philosophies.  They're a people-first culture in a world of software and technology, and they put their best problem-solvers on the front lines.  Though they've built a great reputation and achieved consistency of growth only dreamed about in most companies, Peter also gets real about some of the missteps and learning along the journey, and the challenges and imposter syndrome leaders often face.

This episode is chock full of sound business and tested leadership principals, shared by a humble guy who brought me a nice bottle of Irish Whiskey for the occasion!     

Jacob Leis and his partner Brian Oaks are "a couple of farm kids from Eastern Colorado" who've been involved in political marketing almost since college.  They founded Wintermind Group in January of 2019, after their employer "went a different direction" on an internal project that they'd been working on together.  The partners' theory behind the project became the foundation for their new venture, and they grew Wintermind Group to a staff of 8 persons and revenues of over $6 Million in their 2nd year of business!  

I've run across a lot of unusual business value propositions and growth trajectories over my days, but this is one of the most fascinating!  Their website says literally nothing about them, and the description of Wintermind Group on LinkedIn is intriguing though ambiguous - 

"Wintermind Group delivers digital messaging to highly engaged and tightly targeted consumer groups.  Our newsletter subscribers and website readers stay closely engaged with our curated and custom content. This allows us to deliver your message to engaged consumers with a proven track record of interest and intent.  Interested in learning more? Contact us here on LinkedIn."

Are you interested in learning more? - then give this episode a listen, 'cause I can't explain it in the space of an episode description.  It's about leveraged data and direct marketing messages that the receivers want to receive.  

I can say that I've been friends with Jacob for over 10 years and have never really understood what he does, but after this episode I'm closer.  And it's pretty cool, and you'll get a kick out of our conversation, and hear a story about how WIntermind Group is doing great business in politics by heavily disrupting "the way things are done".  

Do you know how to grow your business past yourself? Eric Coet, Owner of 44 N and Strategic Practice Leader at Peak Solutions, shares his business strategy knowledge in this LoCo Shorts episode.

Sometimes YOU are the greatest block to your success, that’s why identifying ways to grow beyond yourself is critical, even if you are a solopreneur (psst–Eric is!). Eric details his professional journey and lessons learned from working at Hensel Phelps, to working in a distillery, to starting his own consulting firm.

He’ll make you think about your business trajectory differently, like the idea that you’re either in a crisis or preparing for one. Or when you try anything extraordinary, you likely get your butt kicked and you’ve got to be ok with that.

Listen in to this episode to catch questions like:

“Are you a good leader or are you leading good people?”

“How are you leading the next generation?”

“If your competitor would take you down in 3 moves, what would they be?”

“Is this in alignment with my values?”

Learn more about Eric here.

Brandon Avery is a VP Risk Advisor for IMA Financial Group, heading the Commercial Insurance Division.  Sounds pretty boring, and Brandon would tell you that insurance isn't very exciting overall. 

BUT - Brandon's business journey is very exciting!  Brandon formed a partnership in 2013 with Josh Fyhrie and together they built Colorado Insurance Advisors into a regional brand and 10X'd their revenues in just 7 short years.  We explore his life and business journey, much of which was spent as a member of LoCo Think Tank, and reflect upon the critical skills needed and decisions made along the way.  

Brandon is passionate about business & family, dedicated to excellence in golf, and he's all about making no excuses and working hard every day to be your best.  He's recently become a LoCo Facilitator, serving the Thinkers Too chapter based in Fort Collins.  This is a fun and useful conversation with a good friend and business mentor, B-Money he prefers to be called.  (not really!)

Gavin Kaszynski (ka-shin-ski) and Todd Welter joined me on the LoCo Experience podcast to share their respective business journeys, and especially to discuss the challenges and their suggested fixes for the health insurance industry in America.  

Gavin has newly transitioned to the role of CFO for the Orthopaedic & Spine Center of the Rockies - at the time of recording he was CFO at Associates in Family Medicine which you'll hear referenced in the show.  Todd is the Founder and CEO of RT Welter & Associates, an organizational development consultancy serving physicians groups across the US.  Todd is also an Affiliate Faculty member with University of Denver, teaching courses on Healthcare Macroeconomics and Innovative Strategies & Change.  

This episode ranges from health care to economics to politics, and includes plenty of philosophy along the way.  The punchline on how to best maximize health care outcomes for all, at the lowest overall cost?:  Get the federal government out of it, and allow market forces for large population groups to drive health care pricing and outcomes.  

I like to say sometimes - "I don't know if it's so that the smartest people agree with me, or that I find people to be more intelligent when they share my opinions!" - and it's relevant for this one.  These guys know finance, economics, and health care, and their awareness of the unintended impacts of well-intended solutions is impeccable.  If fixing health care matters to you, educate yourself and give this one a listen.  

In this LoCo Shorts episode Ben West, Owner & Operator at Radial Development Group, shares his journey to creating a company he always wanted to work for. One with flexible work schedules, ample training, and great culture.  Ben shares his motivation to create Radial from his own experience with burnout (and how to prevent it). He also highlights ways to create a great culture that can support the company when you’re not there.

Listen to this episode with Ben to get good tips to consider, like: get your priorities in order, make clear on commitments priorities that matter (not those that are easy), and make a “priority budget.”

At Radial Development Group, they help people who don’t know a lot about technology understand and use it to their advantage. Learn more about Radial Development Group here.

Zach Mercurio is the author of The Invisible Leader, Founder of ZM Consulting, and Affiliate Professor for Colorado State University at the Center for Meaning and Purpose.  

Zach is an expert on purpose, on purpose.  He's studied it, trained it, studied it more and shared what he's learned abundantly.  He's a Ph.D., further informed by a lot of elbow grease, research, and intentional thought.  

This episode is different than most of the podcasts that feature Zach, on purpose.  :)  He shares his tradecraft a good bit, you'll get tips and inspirations on how to find more purpose in your own work and how to spark it in the people you lead.  More than that though, this episode is about Zach and his journey and philosophies and his why.  We range from how he met his wife in a shoe-tying pub trick to an intense bit of conversation around whether one can reasonably claim both mantles (as does your host) of being both a Christian and a Libertarian.  

It's another good 'un, and I think most anyone who listens will come away with a nugget or two that they can apply and share, because that's what The LoCo Experience is all about.  

To learn more about Loco Think Tank, the producer and sponsor of this podcast, please visit our website at locothinktank.com!

Do you remember the moment when you made your passion your business? Ann Baron, Founder of Northern Colorado Community shares her business journey of creating a space for local business owners to convene.

Ann’s passion for people, sharing of resources, professional (& personal!) support, and connectivity paved the way for this continually growing multi-city business group. She shares stories of diversity, empathy, and opportunities of coming together to build something greater for business owners.

Learn more about Ann and Northern Colorado Community here.

AJ Fountain & JJ Fountain are Band Managers, Songwriters and Bandmates in A Brother's Fountain - a popular "Campfire Folk Music" band based in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as the Founders and Producer / Director / Videographers for Stoked Ember Productions, a Videography company built to stoke the embers of passion-first businesses through video and story production.  

The intro and outro music for the LoCo Experience Podcast is borrowed with permission from the song "Soul" from ABF's 2017 debut album, Pine Needles & Streams.  

This episode is a hoot, with a whole lot of storytelling and philosophy, a little bit of music, and the introduction of the "LoCo Experience" segment - "What's the craziest story you're willing to share with our audience?"  Before his ABF and Stoked Ember days, AJ was a part of another business journey, as the first key employee and eventual partner and GM of the popular natural soap company Dr. Squatch, and we pull a lot of business lessons out of that chapter also.  It's a great listen, and you'll wish you were in the room with us - :)