The LoCo Experience

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 Colorado. After facing challenges as a single mother with limited English skills, she found stability working at a call center. Valeria started Vortiz Insurance as a side income, which quickly grew into a successful one-person business. The addition of her first employee allowed her to scale the operation even further.

Valeria's focus on community, education, and heart-driven service, particularly for Spanish-speaking communities, has built her an exceptional network and reputation. I anticipate great things for Valeria Ortiz and her business in the future.

Learn More about Vortiz Insurance

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

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 professional manager to operate the business while he moved to Germany to pursue a girl he met at Oktoberfest.  The manager crashed the business while Phil was winning the girl - which Phil considers a net win - and years later restarted the concept after moving to Colorado.  

Phil were only barely acquainted before this podcast session, and we kinda dork out on the whole B2B membership organization experience.  We’ve got a lot of overlap in the way we do things and why, yet we serve different audiences for different reasons - LoCo Think Tank members are primarily business owners and there to work ON the business, and Firestorm members include some owners but more often professional sales people, and they are there for strategic partnerships, education, and referrals.  

Phil has had a very interesting journey and he’s got a lot of big plans for the future, so I hope you’ll tune in and enjoy - as I did - my conversation with Phil Pelto.  

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

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 manufacturers, breweries, and more!  As the lockdown response to Covid destroyed demand for retail and wholesale purchase, online sales blew up - people were cooking at home - and Old Town Spice Shop was there to make sure the flavors were top shelf!  

Sean has a great entrepreneurial journey, a local boy who worked his way through college and worked for over 6 years in ministry with Vineyard Church before founding Old Town Spice.  He has a matter-of-fact way about him, and shares freely of the trials, pivots, and spicy moments of Old Town Spice Shop.  

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

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 homes and more, and also get a bit nerdy on business - creating quality estimates, sourcing sometimes many hundreds of individual components, and then making it all work - with margin!  And , we get deep into relationships and philosophy and the way of the world - it’s a very candid conversation with a guest I know you’ll enjoy getting to know!

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

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 exploring the what of ethical business practice, alongside an examination of her own foundations and motivations during her career.  The BBB is celebrating its 25th Annual Torch Awards for business ethics on April 27, 2023 - which also celebrates the 40th anniversary of the organization.  Shelley shares BBB history alongside her own journey into leadership - and becoming a mom - and what comes next.  

Shelley’s a great example of a servant hearted leader, in it for the right reasons - and I was honored to spend the time together, so I hope you enjoy - as I did - my conversation with Shelley Polansky.  

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

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 the utility and limitations and dangers of Chat GPT and Open AI and various iterations, and deep into the relationship between Nathan and Alex - who have been together since Alex was in Junior High, and had a baby together shortly after she graduated while Nathan operated a high-end custom motorcycle shop!  This episode brings great discussion about human intelligence, artificial intelligence, and relational intelligence, plus business and family with a pair of authentic and inspiring entrepreneurs.  

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

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 together with Larimer SBDC.  

Franklin was a career musician “back East” for many years, until health challenges made that journey difficult and then impossible.  After (and during) a season of challenge, his skills as a coach and encourager sprouted and blossomed, and today Franklin serves a very special niche - creative solopreneurs looking to build sustainable enterprises that fit their talents and lifestyles!  

This is a very inspiring and philosophical episode, with someone I’d call a pragmatic dreamer, and he’s got a smooth, velvety voice - so please enjoy my conversation with Franklin Taggart. 

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

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 progressive political figures in Northern Colorado, and we spend a lot of time in this episode pulling back the curtain on “how things really work” behind the scenes in government, and respectfully challenging one another’s ideas of “how they should work”.  The get-to-know in this episode goes beyond most you’ll find, and includes a dramatic segment where John shares his challenges faced as a man short in stature. 

So, please enjoy, and thanks for tuning in for my conversation with Larimer County Commissioner, John Kefalas.

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

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 environment in which they can thrive.

Drew has been on our podcast once before. This time, he went into more detail about his early business journey with his father, Greg Yancey and Yancey’s Food Services. He also describes the various engagements with, and appreciation for, peer advisory organizations he’s had over the years. He shares his critiques on each, as well as why he chose to join the team of facilitators at LoCo Think Tank.

Drew is an amazing servant to the Northern Colorado business community, and we’re so glad to have him supporting so many next level business leaders.

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

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, we’ll focus in on the founding of InMotion, along with stories of successful scaling opportunities that they’ve been providing to local small businesses through their affordable point-to-point delivery service. 

Later in the show, we get into the soup - the Alphabet Soup - and Aaron and I discuss the politicization of the many government agencies assigned to regulate and enforce activities and enterprise in America - particularly on a federal level.  FBI, CIA, DOE, DOJ, CPB, FDA, CDC, FHA, DHS, FJB - there are just so many it’s hard to keep them straight!   

Aaron is full of wisdom in so many areas. I hope you gain valuable insight from our conversation. 

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain