The LoCo Experience
The LoCo Experience is a long-form conversational podcast that dives deep into the journeys of business leaders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers in Northern Colorado. Hosted by Curt Bear, Founder of LoCo Think Tank, the show brings real, raw, and unfiltered conversations—where guests share their successes, struggles, and lessons learned along the way.
LoCo Think Tank is Colorado’s premier business peer advisory organization, founded in Fort Collins to help business owners gain perspective, accountability, and encouragement to grow both personally and professionally. LoCo chapters bring together business owners at all stages of the journey into professionally facilitated peer advisory chapters, led by experienced business veterans. These groups provide a trusted space to share challenges, seek advice, learn togethter, and support each other’s success.
The LoCo Experience Podcast extends this mission beyond the chapter meetings— bringing the wisdom, insights, and stories of local business leaders to a wider audience.
Our triad mission with this podcast is simple:
Inspire through real stories of resilience and success.
Educate by sharing valuable business insights.
Entertain with engaging, unfiltered conversations.
If you love “How I Built This” and the free-flowing style of Joe Rogan - but with a Northern Colorado focus - you’ll enjoy The LoCo Experience! Our closing segment, "The LoCo Experience," asks guests to share their craziest stories — and we get some doozies!
It’s a passion project with purpose, and we invite you to listen, follow, and share, and maybe consider sponsoring. Know someone with a great story? Nominate your favorite business leader for an episode!
- Update frequency
- every 7 days
- Average duration
- 99 minutes
- Episodes
- 269
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
EXPERIENCE 196 | Forrest Cramer, Luxury Furniture Artist
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 i…
EXPERIENCE 195 | Exit Strategies and Growth Capital for the Lower Middle Market - A Conversation with Aaron McCambridge, Managing Director of Citadel Advisory Group in Fort Collins
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 longe…
EXPERIENCE 194 | Building Predictable Systems for Growth and Pushing Through Revenue Plateaus - A Conversation with Brian Kerlin, Founder and CEO of Optitude and Creator of the Optitude Growth Academy
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, wh…
EXPERIENCE 193 | Party In The Front! - Overcome Loneliness and Find Community Right Where You Are - A Conversation with First-Time Authors Jeff Dillon & Ty Dannebring
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…
BONUS EPISODE | Aaron Everitt & Emerson Everitt join The LoCo Experience to talk Election 2024! - Live during the Election Coverage!
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 i…
EXPERIENCE 192 | It’s all about the EXPERIENCE! - Talking Food, Love, and Community with Juli Trujillo, Executive Chef and Juan Rodriguez, Business Manager, Co-Founders of Juli Y Juan’s Kitchen
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…
EXPERIENCE 191 | Investing in Relationships and Opportunities with Anthony’s Pizza & Pasta - A Conversation with Andrew Rauch and Garrett Brizendine, President of FR Companies, LTD and CEO of EPIQ Ventures, LLC.
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 Garret…
EXPERIENCE 190 | Where Every Client in a Big Deal - Talking Full-Service Marketing & Events with Christine Forster, CEO and owner of Big Deal Company
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 T…
EXPERIENCE 189 | Ham & Eggs were $1.40 when we started! - Journey from a Greasy Spoon Diner to a Fort Collins Breakfast (& Lunch) Institution - A Conversation with John Arnolfo, Former Owner/Operator of Silver Grill Cafe
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 …
EXPERIENCE 188 | Reasonable, Affordable, Sustainable - A Conversation with Ben Aste, Founder & CEO of Uncle Benny’s Building Supplies, and Candidate for Larimer County Commissioner for District 3
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 sta…
EXPERIENCE 187 | A Journey through Ministry and into Entrepreneurship with Noah and Allli Hutchison, CEO and Principal Designer at Hutch Design Build
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…
EXPERIENCE 186 | Writing a New Chapter in Her Career Journey - AND Helping Purpose-Driven Women Begin & Succeed in their Next Chapter - America’s Encore Career Strategist, Julie Ulstrup
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, …
EXPERIENCE 185 | Big Boats, Small Business, and High Finance with Tom Trimmer, Co-Founder of Custom Marine Products and Principal of Trimmer Capital Management
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 sta…
EXPERIENCE 184 | Finding Great People and Building Strong Teams with Trish Bowen-Bannister and Isaac Bowen, President and General Manager of Snelling Staffing Agency of Northern Colorado, and (Isaac) Principal of Benchmark Search Group
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 …
EXPERIENCE 183 | The Chemistry of Resilience with Jennifer Watson, Speaker, Leadership, Performance and Wellness Coach, and CEO of Watson Worldwide
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 o…
EXPERIENCE 182 | Drink with Your Dog - Every Dog Owner Should Listen! - Training Dogs Since 10 Years Old! with Amber Quann, CEO and Lead Dog Trainer at Summit Dog Training in Fort Collins
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 competition…
EXPERIENCE 181 | Born a Social Worker! - A Conversation with Kelly Evans, Executive Director of Neighbor to Neighbor, Inc. - Delivering Housing Access in Larimer County and Beyond
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…
EXPERIENCE 180 | A Candid Conversation with a Sales Heretic - Don Cooper on The Myth of Price, Why Should I Choose You?, and more.
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, …
EXPERIENCE 179 | Welcome to Party Land! Building Brands and Making Advertising More Fun (and Effective) with Matt Heath, Founder and Chief Creative at Party Land
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 con…
EXPERIENCE 178 | Body, Neurology, and Smart Business with Chantill Lopez, Author, Podcast Host, and Co-Founder of the Embodied Business Institute
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 gir…