The LoCo Experience

My guests on today’s episode were AJ and JJ Fountain, bandmates with locally-famous campfire folk music band A Brothers Fountain, and co-founders and partners of Stoked Ember Productions.  This was the brothers’ 2nd time on the podcast, because I think they’re a lot of fun to be around, and they always share great stories!  

The brothers and most of the band went on a 20-day, 18-show tour this fall, all across the midwest and southeast and points between.  Followed shortly after that was a weeklong intensive recording session in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where they laid down their finest sounds so far - stay tuned for more on that!  

In this episode, JJ shares an awesome story about going viral on the Jerry of the Day Instagram channel via a kayak on a ski slope!  Always fun to spend time with these two, so I hope you’ll tune in for my conversation with AJ and JJ Fountain.  

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

This week we somehow fit three of the Northern-Colorado famous Trainor Brothers into the podcast studio, with Brian, Adam, and Joe Trainor all sharing their stories and philosophies with me and with our listeners.  The three brothers are a total of four years apart and were raised by their single father, an enterprising teacher that kept the family fed with side jobs and construction projects. 

Brian and Adam both went to CSU on athletic scholarships. Brian got into real estate - as a broker and investor, and recruited Adam to help with fix-n-flip projects.  Soon, 970 Services was growing into a Roofing and Restoration business and the brothers helped to seed two more businesses - H3 Construction, and Beyond Blue Media - and they coaxed younger brother Joe out of his teaching career to become the President of another acquisition - Epoxy Colorado.  

The Trainor Brothers Circus is what they (literally) call their holding company, and this episode is full of stories about overcoming adversity, starting something new, and navigating business and brotherhood together and with joy. 

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Becky Allsup is the owner of Becky’s Custom Interiors, which in turn holds  Niche Design House   and Rebecca Windsor & Associates.  Niche is primarily an upscale commercial and residential design center, and Rebecca Windsor provides national-scope design, procurement, and installation services - especially for rapidly growing retail franchise operations.
Her business journey was a joy to uncover: Young interior designer sees opportunities everywhere, attracts a team of smart, loyal, and dedicated people to bring those opportunities to fruition, and they stick around! Becky’s special sauce is her strong sense of team and family, and intuitive sense for opportunity, integration, and smart business.
Enjoy this conversation with an inspiring woman in business!

The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by:  Purpose Driven Wealth Thrivent: Learn more

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Matt Shoup is a serial entrepreneur, author, inventor, real estate broker and investor.  He’s the President of M & E Painting and Roofing, Inventor of The Pirate Patch, and a realtor with C3 Real Estate.  Matt’s first book was “Become an Award-Winning Company” and his new book - just out - is “Painted Baby”.  He’s also a Professor and Partner at Northern Colorado Jiu Jitsu, and there’s more but no time to mention it all! 

There’s a lot of ideas Matt shares in this one to make your business life easier, coming from a man who makes it seem easy to become a blackbelt while coaching kids sports, travelling the world, writing another book and running two companies and selling real estate on the side!  Matt shares how he balances it all and thrives in this fun conversation. Join us! 

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Nick Armstrong is among Fort Collins’ most interesting people!  He’s the Geek-in-Chief of WTF Marketing, the Pepper Pioneer of FTW Hot Sauce, and the Lead Organizer of both Founded in FoCo and Fort Collins Comic Con!  He’s also a freelance community organizer in various ancillary capacities, and a recently BARELY unsuccessful candidate for Fort Collins City Council.  

In this episode, we zoom especially in on the Founded in FoCo event and highlight some of the amazing speakers, workshops, and events that’ll be going on. LoCo Think Tank is hosting a Celebrating our Community event to kickoff the festivities on March 1, 2023. Nick also shares about his city council run and more about his newest venture - FTW Hot Sauce, FOR THE WIN.  Tune in and enjoy my conversation with Nick Armstrong!  

The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by:  Purpose Driven Wealth Thrivent: Learn more

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Dudley Brown is the Founder and President of Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO), and the President of the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), both based in Loveland, Colorado.  Ben Gates is a previous guest and longtime friend, President of NG Companies and CFO and Partner in Kinetic Research Group, a firearm manufacturing business based in Idaho that specializes in stocks for competitive long-distance shooting.  

After a short career in politics after college, Dudley launched RMGO in 1996.  Dudley invites us behind the curtain of building an advocacy organization, along with expanding the mission to a national scope with NAGR. Ben, who shared his career journey in Episode 6 of the podcast, now gives us more of his experience in shooting sports and his transition into becoming a partner and CFO of Kinetic Research.  

Lots of politically incorrect conversation in this one, and plenty of unvarnished truth about the way things work in state and national politics. If you’re curious why we need more guns for a safer America, you’ve come to the right place!

Learn more about Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, National Association for Gun Rights, NG Companies, & Kinetic Research Group

The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by:  Purpose Driven Wealth Thrivent: Learn more

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Dr. Heidi Golding is the Founder and Practitioner at Living Well Chinese Medicine in Loveland, Colorado.  She’s an acupuncturist, an herbalist, and one of the most interesting health professionals I’ve become acquainted with. 

Heidi likes to describe her practice as a fusion of traditional wisdom and modern technology.  She is a student of both Japanese and Chinese herbs and acupuncture, with a strong background in tech.  

We did something new for this episode, in that Heidi and I both had a sturdy microdose of dark chocolate psilocybin just before starting this conversation.  We got a little giggly, Heidi barely drank her wine, we somehow lost about 30 minutes of conversation that didn’t get recorded, and we had more edits than normal in this episode.  It remains a deeply personal and enlightening conversation, with great conversation around trauma and recovery, having a bendable mind, and growing up and living as a Jewish family in a mostly-Christian oriented world.  

Heidi and I always have wonderful conversations, and this session was no different - so I hope you enjoy sharing time with us during this conversation with Dr. Heidi Golding. 

Learn about Living Well Chinese Medicine

The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by:  Purpose Driven Wealth Thrivent: Learn more

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Annie and Mike Griffith are fellow members of the Rotary Club of Fort Collins Breakfast - or, more commonly known - Breakfast Rotary.  We meet at 6:45 am at Ginger & Baker in Fort Collins, every Thursday morning - come and check it out sometime!

Annie grew up in the travel industry, with her grandfather delivering sightseeing tours and her dad developing a healthy freight and people-moving bus service along the Front Range, later moving into airline travel and hotel bookings.  After college at CSU, Annie operated Aggie Travel in Fort Collins - much of the time as a single mom.  She has a wonderful and adventurous spirit!  She later sold Aggie Travel to Frosch, where she still works today as an Independent Contractor.  

Mike had a long career in the practice of law, having moved to Fort Collins to partner with a college classmate almost right after law school - the firm developed into a long-running and successful practice.  Mike’s specialty was courtroom litigation, particularly on the defense side in criminal law.  He also served as Adjunct Faculty for both CSU and Front Range Community College in the College of Business.  

Mike and Annie are each on their third marriages, and both suffered significant trauma on the way to finding durable love.  Beyond the business journeys, we dig into their journey of finding trust and love in this episode, as well as their shared love of Rotary.  It’s a charming episode with two of my favorite people, and I hope you find them as fun and charming as I do.  

The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by:  Purpose Driven Wealth Thrivent: Learn more

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Dan Anderson is the President and CEO of Kingdom Way Ministries, and a Strategic & Leadership Coach with Five Capitals.  Kingdom Way's mission is to help marketplace leaders thrive in business, life, and ministry.  They do this through peer advisory groups, coaching, and community events that, in his words, connect Sunday’s inspiration to Monday’s perspiration. His business offers a membership model quite similar to LoCo Think Tank, but with a decidedly faith-oriented curricula.

Dan shares his personal challenges in his journey to turn a hibernating ministry into a stable personal income. Along the way, he struggled through a low period during the pandemic when he contemplated suicide. He shares with listeners the process of recovering his faith and hope from there, and how God blessed his perseverance.

I hope you’ll tune in and be both challenged and inspired by my conversation with Dan Anderson.

Episode Sponsor: InMotion, providing next-day delivery for local businesses. Contact InMotion at [email protected]

The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by:  Purpose Driven Wealth Thrivent: Learn more

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Kent Obermann is the Founder of Tooth Zone Network, a pediatric dentistry enterprise that grew to include locations in Fort Collins, Loveland, and Longmont and as many as 60 employees.  Kent founded the practice in 1982, fresh out of dental school and intro practice, with a high-rate loan “from Vinny the Loan Shark” after banks turned him down.  Kent sold the business in 2017 after 35 years of creating - and maintaining - children’s smiles across the Northern Front Range - and their mission continues today!  

Tooth Zone was founded to confront an assumption of the day, that one can have a high-touch, relationship-driven dental practice or one can have a highly profitable dental practice, but you couldn’t have both!  An entrepreneur from an early age, Kent details some of his early blunders in business, how a consultant helped him turn his fortunes around, and what they did with training and team engagement to ensure the dual mandate of providing amazing service in a high-volume practice. In his later years, Kent became a highly sought-after consultant and speaker, and has been a keynote for the largest dental conventions in the nation!  

Kent is also a founding member and band leader for The Blues Dogs, a NoCo-favorite 10-member brass party band!, and a founding member of Mr. Smyth, which is a lockdown-driven collaboration band of the best NoCo musicians who couldn’t stand to stay locked in their basements for long!  All kinds of good stuff in this one, a wonderful conversation with an inspiring entrepreneur and a kindred spirit - whom I’d only barely just met before this conversation!  

Episode Sponsor: InMotion, providing next-day delivery for local businesses. Contact InMotion at [email protected]

The LoCo Experience Podcast is sponsored by:  Purpose Driven Wealth Thrivent: Learn more

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain