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
BONUS EPISODE | All About Greenheart Exchange with Lisa Melville Petersen, Lasha Crowell Seaman, and a group of International Exchange students!
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 c…
EXPERIENCE 156 | Whiskey Taste Testing, Boston Trip Reflections, and Creating Content on X (formerly Twitter) with Aaron Everitt
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’…
EXPERIENCE 155 | Growing Through Challenge with Mandy Mullen, Founder and Owner of Run Windsor, Co-owner of Run Colorado Relays, and Executive Director of Windsor Gives.
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 …
EXPERIENCE 154 | Leveling Up and Building Teams with Ian Simkiss - Executive Vice President of Centennial Management, Inc.
I was introduced to Ian Simkiss at a very interesting time in his career journey - as the soon-to-be-announced and newly appointed Executive Vice President of Centennial Management, Inc., overseeing …
EXPERIENCE 153 | A Journey through Sales, Management, Ownership, and Leadership with Mike O’Connell, former Owner of Mountain Woods Furniture and former Senior Director of Larimer County Small Business Development Center.
I met Mike O’Connell in the fall of 2013, early into his final career stop, when he became Director of the Larimer Small Business Development Center in Fort Collins - and soon before I left my bankin…
EXPERIENCE 152 | Delivering HR Expertise to the Small Business Community with Tami Parker, Founder and CEO of UNIcycle Business Consulting
Tami Parker had a long career in corporate HR, but 7 years ago, with a leap of faith and a supportive husband, she founded UNIcycle Business Consulting. As with most of us, her early years were spen…
EXPERIENCE 151 | Retail Alcohol Enterprise, Industry, and Ethics with Mat Dinsmore, Managing Partner of Wilbur’s Total Beverage and Wyatt’s Wet Goods
I first met Mat Dinsmore during my banking career, perhaps at the Salt N Pepper Lunch Club. Wilbur’s Total Beverage has been my go-to special occasion retail liquor store ever since, and Mat my ofte…
EXPERIENCE 150 | Family, Business, & Legacy with Justin & Eugene Boling, EOS Implementer & Founder of Boling Remodel
My guests on today’s podcast were Justin & Eugene Boling, father and son. Justin and I became acquainted this summer, and at a LoCo Think Tank event this fall I asked attendees as part of their intr…
EXPERIENCE 149 | Turning Good Times Grüvi with Anika Sawni - Co-Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Grüvi
I met Anika Sawni at the Unstoppable Women’s Conference in October of 2023, where she was an inspiring keynote speaker - in what I learned in this podcast was her very first keynote! She’d recently …
EXPERIENCE 148 | Happy New Year Northern Colorado! Season 3 Wrap Up with the LoCo Think Tank HQ Team - Curt Bear, Colin Jones & Alma Arellano
This episode is a recap of Season 3 with the team at LoCo Headquarters, Colin Jones, Director of Business Development, and Alma Arellano, Operations Manager & Podcast Producer. We go through many of …
EXPERIENCE 147 | Accidental Entrepreneur with Timiry McCaskell, Owner of Dora Grace Bridal in Fort Collins and WIndsor
Timiry McCaskell is the Founder and Owner of Dora Grace Bridal, named after her two grandmothers. Dora Grace has been fitting brides and prom dates and more in Fort Collins since 2011, and opened a …
EXPERIENCE 146 | Non-Profit Food Rescue with Nathan Shaw and Ben Jewell of Vindeket Foods
Nathan Shaw is the Executive Director and Founder of Vindeket Foods in Fort Collins, and Benjamin Jewell is the Chairman of the Board. Vindeket is a non-profit organization that was originally found…
EXPERIENCE 145 | Investing in a Regional Climbing Community - Together - plus Fitness and Yoga! - Aaron Tellier (Director of Marketing) and Shauna Hylenski (Director of Programs), 2 of 6 Partners of Climbing Collective
Shauna Hylenski and her husband Bryan have been Longmont-based entrepreneurs since 2015, when they came to Colorado from South Korea. Bryan had there built a reputation as a world-class sport and mou…
EXPERIENCE 144 | Dennis & LJ Houska of Houska Automotive Services - Reflections on a Family and Community-Centric Business Over Three Generations
Houska Automotive in Fort Collins was started in 1952, by Dennis’s father - Charles “Chuck” Houska, and still operates from the original location at 899 Riverside Avenue in Fort Collins. Chuck had b…
BONUS EPISODE | November 2023 Blog - Grateful for a Great and Full Ten Years! (AKA The Founding Story of LoCo Think Tank)
We're sharing Curt's blog from November, which is titled Grateful for a Great and Full 10 Years, a. k. a. The Loco Think Tank Story. "Last month marked the 10th anniversary of the last paycheck that…
EXPERIENCE 143 | Dishing Up Great Food & Stewarding Legendary Restaurants with Alan Jantzen, Owner and Restaurateur at Silver Grill Cafe and Vern’s Place
For almost 30 years, Alan Jantzen was the man behind the scenes for what became one of the Fort Collins restaurant industry’s most dominant organizations - Hot Corner Concepts. Featuring amazing bra…
EXPERIENCE 142 | NoCo Real Estate & Water Update; Free Speech, X.com; and Video Essays from @loanly_hipster with Aaron Everitt
Today we welcomed Aaron Everitt back to The LoCo Experience studios for our Northern Colorado real estate and water update, and as usual we got into all kinds of additional topics. Aaron had recentl…
EXPERIENCE 141 | Building Value for Enterprise Clients in the world of Podcasting and Scaling a Remote Team with Jake Jorgovan, Founder of Content Allies and Owner of Listen Network
Jake Jorgovan is a serial entrepreneur and podcast industry expert, whom I first met at a Colorado Podcasters gathering in 2022. He’s the Founder of Content Allies, a B2B podcast strategy, productio…
EXPERIENCE 140 | Disruption & Collaboration with Dr. Heather Rubin, Co-Founder & CEO of RapiCure Solutions
I met Dr. Heather Rubin at the Innovation Showcase Event held at the Warehouse Innovation Hub in Loveland in late August. Heather took home 2 of the 4 awards presented that day - the Most Disruptive…
EXPERIENCE 139 | Indentured Servant to CEO with Marc Torres of Cheba Hut “Toasted” Subs
Marc Torres started his journey with Cheba Hut in perfect “cheba” fashion - a failed drug test foiled his job prospects with the City of Fort Collins, and a snarky friend said “you should go work at …