The LoCo Experience

Craig and Molly Secher founded Realities for Children in 1995, which serves the otherwise unmet needs of thousands of abused, neglected, or at-risk youth in Larimer and Weld County, Colorado every year through direct services and emergency grants to over 30 nonprofit partners.  

This innovative organization boasts over 250 give-back minded business members (of which LoCo Think Tank is one!) who receive marketing and networking opportunities through their membership, but also underwrite the administrative costs of the organizations so that 100% of donations go to serve kids in need!  

This episode blends so many amazing elements of a great business journey - and it’s one that’s only just getting started after over 25 years of service to our community!    Woven in are a founding story, a love story, and a passion for continuous improvement and innovation that you don’t often find in a non-profit (or any!) organization - and Craig and Molly are like the nicest people ever!  

You’re gonna love it!  

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Jim Rohrer began his career as a young man in the Sears organization, and quickly rose through the ranks as an innovative thinker, new programs leader, and turnaround specialist for underperforming divisions.  Among his accomplishments were helping to turn around the auto services business for the company, and both building out and disposing of 10 regional call centers that supported the catalog.  

In the time since he ended his career at Sears, Jim has worked primarily in small companies, again often as a turnaround or improvement specialist, or in some cases as an operating manager during seasons of change.  The main thing that stands out in this conversation is that Jim’s success has been built upon never being the smartest one in the room, and knowing that the secrets to business improvement are often known by those that serve the customers at the ground level.  Jim is a win-win win kind of leader, and we are hoping to build a chapter around him in the west Denver region in late 2021.

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

In this episode of the LoCo Experience podcast, Curt sits down with Jeff Beyle, CEO and Co-Founder of Sticker Control.  

Sticker Control makes Industry 4.0 tools accessible to small and medium size companies using RFID-powered analytics and optimization algorithms to drive efficiencies and system integration tools to break down data silos, all backed by AI-powered data preparation tools so our customers do not need a team of data scientists to adopt and use our systems.  

I don't really know what all that means, but I know Jeff is an awfully smart and kind fellow that I met at a manufacturer's conference a couple years ago.  We've stayed in touch, and I think it's fair to say we're each intrigued by the others' journey - and I hope to serve him as a LoCo Think Tank chapter member when we get into Boulder County.  

Jeff took a background in software and law to craft an executive career with Fortune 500 and 50 companies, including Coca Cola and Getty Images.  After moving to Colorado for a quality of life focus, he's begun a new chapter as Co-Founder of a bootstrapped startup, where they've been making a strong go of it and have a suite of new products that could be game-changers in the nursing and assisted living center industry.  

Lots of great twists and turns in this one, and great insight into the decision criteria of a leader of a bootstrapped startup.  

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

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

What I’m thinking after interviewing Ali Davachi, is that this man needs to be a LoCo Facilitator for a future Longmont / Boulder County chapter of LoCo Think Tank.  Stat.

It’s the coveted win-win-win-win - 1) Ali would win because he’s working to down-size his role in his company RealWare, is a recent Colorado transplant from “back East” and would love more community connection, and has already come to be an advocate for LoCo Think Tank  2) The Longmont business community wins because they’d gain access to his special talents in a highly-leveraged and durable fashion 3) LoCo HQ wins because we’ll have attracted yet another overqualified and undercompensated business veteran to Team LoCo, and 4) The world wins because I believe by learning the role of our true clients (the LoCo Facilitators who power our chapters) that Ali would help LoCo Think Tank grow smarter and stronger faster than we otherwise would.  (there’s probably more wins if I try, but you’re bored already).

Now I’ve just got to ask him proper, have him say yes, and we have to decide together whether to work on launching a Thinkers chapter (5 - 25 employees typically) or a Next Level Chapter (25 - 250 employees usually).  He meets all of the criteria to be a LoCo Facilitator, and has worked with everything from startups to turnarounds to Fortune 50 companies.

OK, enough with the “should be kept inside your head” conversation - here’s a bit about Ali:  He’s a patriotic American, of Persian descent, who started what came to be a market-leading computer company at 19 and exited at 24.  Then he built a dial-up ISP company - and exited again.  Then he started RealWare, LLC in 1999 as a kind of Smart SaaS consultancy - but he kept getting more and more clients who kept asking more and more of RealWare so he kept growing his international team.  Ali loves people and challenges and good conversation, and especially his children and beautiful wife Liz who grabbed him and made him hers before these crazy business journeys all started.

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

In today's episode, I'm joined by Pastors Aaron Santini and Daniel Smith of The Crossing Church in Fort Collins.  The Crossing was planted as a life group of Crossway Chapel in Greeley in the fall of 2009, and officially launched in March of 2010.  This episode details the very entrepreneurial journey of church planting, and shares the life stories of a couple of regular guys who've responded to God's distinct call on their lives.

Aaron was a multi-sport athlete throughout his high school years, and in his words majored in "eligibility" during college in New Mexico.  After being drafted into the Minnesota Twins organization, Aaron found himself with a lack of purpose and direction when injuries cut short his professional career.  It was all he'd been pursuing, since he was a child!  Daniel's journey takes him to CSU from his native Texas as a Marketing major, during which years he was also a partner in one of the earliest social media marketing agencies - promoting House of Blues concerts all across the US via My Space, Facebook, and eventually Twitter.  Club hockey and chasing girls were Daniel's big pursuits, and you're going to flip when you hear his LoCo Experience at the end!  (psst - it involves an off-campus riot near CSU!)

There's so much good stuff in this episode, ranging from the business of church planting to the process of sanctification, with a pair of open and humble servants of God.

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

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Jeff and Noah are "business neighbors" to LoCo Think Tank, and operate the Time Emporium Escape Rooms in Fort Collins and Loveland.  

Jeff acquired Loveland Laser Tag in 2011 after a pair of false starts to his entrepreneurial journey, departing a stable career with Hewlett Packard which had moved him to Northern Colorado from his native Texas.  His experience with software and systems soon led to a role with their laser equipment supplier, Laserforce International, based out of Australia.  Jeff now serves as COO at Laserforce, helping to design features and implement systems in other laser tag centers across the US.  

Noah Kline started his first job was at Loveland Laser Tag at the age of 16, and within the first year his eagerness to learn all aspects of the business convinced Jeff and his wife to invite Noah to join them for an out-of-state conference - for which he had to ask his parents permission for the time away from high school classes!  In the time since, Noah has developed continually in the role of Jeff's right hand man, and in 2019 he successfully lobbied Jeff to pursue an escape room concept as an addition to their entertainment offerings.  Given the opportunity to become an partner in the escape rooms enterprise, Noah jumped in with both feet, and the partners took the opportunity to acquire a second location in early 2020.  

This episode covers a lot of ground, and helps to demonstrate the often-winding journey of becoming an entrepreneur.  Our conversation draws out the value of having long-term and fully-engaged teammates, and finding new ways to add value for clients, suppliers, employees, and the entertainment industry at large.  

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 episode, Curt enjoys time with Peter Melby, CEO of Greystone Technology, only one week removed from their 20th birthday!  Peter shares important lessons from Greystone's founding and first years in business, and reflects on a business journey that has seen them achieve quarterly revenue growth for 50 straight quarters!  

Greystone is unusual for an IT company, first for its' size (~100 total employees in 4 locations at time of press!), but also for its' commitment to team principals and philosophies.  They're a people-first culture in a world of software and technology, and they put their best problem-solvers on the front lines.  Though they've built a great reputation and achieved consistency of growth only dreamed about in most companies, Peter also gets real about some of the missteps and learning along the journey, and the challenges and imposter syndrome leaders often face.

This episode is chock full of sound business and tested leadership principals, shared by a humble guy who brought me a nice bottle of Irish Whiskey for the occasion!     

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

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Jacob Leis and his partner Brian Oaks are "a couple of farm kids from Eastern Colorado" who've been involved in political marketing almost since college.  They founded Wintermind Group in January of 2019, after their employer "went a different direction" on an internal project that they'd been working on together.  The partners' theory behind the project became the foundation for their new venture, and they grew Wintermind Group to a staff of 8 persons and revenues of over $6 Million in their 2nd year of business!  

I've run across a lot of unusual business value propositions and growth trajectories over my days, but this is one of the most fascinating!  Their website says literally nothing about them, and the description of Wintermind Group on LinkedIn is intriguing though ambiguous - 

"Wintermind Group delivers digital messaging to highly engaged and tightly targeted consumer groups.  Our newsletter subscribers and website readers stay closely engaged with our curated and custom content. This allows us to deliver your message to engaged consumers with a proven track record of interest and intent.  Interested in learning more? Contact us here on LinkedIn."

Are you interested in learning more? - then give this episode a listen, 'cause I can't explain it in the space of an episode description.  It's about leveraged data and direct marketing messages that the receivers want to receive.  

I can say that I've been friends with Jacob for over 10 years and have never really understood what he does, but after this episode I'm closer.  And it's pretty cool, and you'll get a kick out of our conversation, and hear a story about how WIntermind Group is doing great business in politics by heavily disrupting "the way things are done".  

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

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Do you know how to grow your business past yourself? Eric Coet, Owner of 44 N and Strategic Practice Leader at Peak Solutions, shares his business strategy knowledge in this LoCo Shorts episode.

Sometimes YOU are the greatest block to your success, that’s why identifying ways to grow beyond yourself is critical, even if you are a solopreneur (psst–Eric is!). Eric details his professional journey and lessons learned from working at Hensel Phelps, to working in a distillery, to starting his own consulting firm.

He’ll make you think about your business trajectory differently, like the idea that you’re either in a crisis or preparing for one. Or when you try anything extraordinary, you likely get your butt kicked and you’ve got to be ok with that.

Listen in to this episode to catch questions like:

“Are you a good leader or are you leading good people?”

“How are you leading the next generation?”

“If your competitor would take you down in 3 moves, what would they be?”

“Is this in alignment with my values?”

Learn more about Eric here.

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

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Brandon Avery is a VP Risk Advisor for IMA Financial Group, heading the Commercial Insurance Division.  Sounds pretty boring, and Brandon would tell you that insurance isn't very exciting overall. 

BUT - Brandon's business journey is very exciting!  Brandon formed a partnership in 2013 with Josh Fyhrie and together they built Colorado Insurance Advisors into a regional brand and 10X'd their revenues in just 7 short years.  We explore his life and business journey, much of which was spent as a member of LoCo Think Tank, and reflect upon the critical skills needed and decisions made along the way.  

Brandon is passionate about business & family, dedicated to excellence in golf, and he's all about making no excuses and working hard every day to be your best.  He's recently become a LoCo Facilitator, serving the Thinkers Too chapter based in Fort Collins.  This is a fun and useful conversation with a good friend and business mentor, B-Money he prefers to be called.  (not really!)

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

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain