The LoCo Experience

New Episode with Nicole Armstrong, Jenny Stetson, and Shawn Keffer the Leadership Team of The Matthews House, a nonprofit organization in Fort Collins, serving all of Larimer County. Nicole is the Executive Director, Jenny's the Operations and Development Director and Sean is the Experiential Education Director. This was my first three guests podcast!

We get into what the Matthews House does, who they serve, success stories, and the why behind it. We discuss development of new programs over time that this organization has continued to do and how they innovate and find new ways of helping families escape poverty, and help children escape neglect and abuse. Each of these three has a passion-filled story about their why of being a part of this organization. 

I hope you enjoy this episode. I had a lot of fun with these three and I hope you learn a lot about the Matthews House and choose to become a volunteer or supporter.  

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Eric Holsapple is the Founder and CEO of LC Real Estate Group & Founder and Lead Facilitator of Living In The Gap.  He's been involved with real estate here in Northern Colorado since the early nineties, he has a Ph.D. from CSU that he got when moving back here to Colorado. He started implementing mindfulness practices into his firm at an early stage. 

We spend a lot of time talking about his business journeys, certain real estate projects, principles, and things like that. We also talked about mindfulness, meditation, being aware, and really how principles are so useful in our businesses and our families, and our homes. 

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Current events have had me noodling on the topic of authority, particularly where it intersects with culture, responsibility, and with Liberty. Like most of my writings, this has developed as an internal conversation shared here with you all.

Where to start with this one. So many options, why not start with Will Smith?

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Becky Ezzel is the founder of Smart Book Business Solutions, it is a bookkeeping service for small business owners, especially those under 20 employees or so.

She's grown her team to be 10 employees strong and they have 170 clients thereabouts in Northern Colorado. She found herself a single mom of a two-and-a-half-year-old and a five-year-old with a job that was awesome and satisfying, but didn't really allow her time to be a mom as much as she wished.

She was encouraged to launch her business properly. And she's grown ever since, mostly through referrals from her very happy clients. We talked about her growth plan, and how she developed her team and values.

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

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

My guest was Suzanne Miller. She is the Welcome Coordinator at the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce. She's a wife and a mom and a grandma, and she's just a really neat lady.

We talk a lot about leadership at every level, even if you're not the CEO or the president of a company, how you can still be a leader within the organization.  Suzanne is the founder also of a movement called Do A Liz Thing and it stems from the tragic loss of her daughter.

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Mike is the founder of Prairie Rose Development and the former executive director of the Colorado Lending Source and is a candidate for the Colorado Secretary of State. He is from Australia and studied at the university of Melbourne, he got with Ford Motor company and later went back to school, got his MBA with an economics focus and found his way to America.

We talk about all kinds of economic topics and sparking business development and loan programs. We also talk about his family and his journey and ultimately what let him to run for the secretary of state position. It's a really interesting conversation with a really interesting guy, Mike's got a great business journey.

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

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

In this month's blog, I’m going to dip into some business stories, including my own, and enter into an examination of the role that story and narrative play in our lives.  How do the stories we tell each other provide clarity and understanding, and how do the stories we tell ourselves impact our direction and habits?  Finally, I’ll share some tips and observations on how we can help ourselves, and each other, write a story with a happy ending.

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

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.

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

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

My guest on today's episode was Heidi Ganahl. Heidi is a Republican candidate for Governor of Colorado, a Regent at the University of Colorado and she's the founder of Camp Bow Wow, as well as other ventures. She's a mom of four and married to the top barbecue guy in the state. 

We dig into Heidi's story with this one.  Before founding Camp Bow Wow, Heidi suffered the tragic loss of her husband in a stunt plane crash, and was a single mom with two dogs after a failed 2nd marriage.  The idea for Camp Bow Wow was sourced from a stack of back-of-napkin business ideas sketched out with her first husband.  Heidi shares their launch story, why they decided to franchise and what was involved, and some of the principles and values that she instilled in that organization to help it become one of the fastest-growing franchises in America for many years!   

And, there's so much more - as always we get into faith, family, and politics, and she shares a bit about her why in regards to running for Governor - watch out Colorado, Heidi Ganahl is a mom on a mission!

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

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

My guest today was Hunter Wylie, Co-founder and CEO of Beyond Blue Media, a full service digital marketing agency here in Fort Collins. They've grown the business in five short years to 16 full-time employees, and have a full service spectrum, including SEO, web development, apps, videos, social media,. etc.

Learn tips on how to do your own digital marketing, if you're not in a place yet where you can hire an agency. We talk a fair bit about his transition to becoming a local facilitator here for LoCo Think Tank and the value he's received both as a member and as a chapter leader.

Hunter's got a great journey, he shares a lot of good information about marketing and sales and just finding your place, finding your lane as a business owner and, finding your path a servant.

Beyond Blue Media

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

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain