Dakota Collins was born the son of professional hippies - his mom worked in medicine, and dad in education - with construction on the side - and Dakota was raised largely free-range in the hills southwest of Fort Collins. He was born with a club-foot, which required repeated casting to straighten, and which eventually caused him to develop scoliosis. And then he discovered slacklining! In a matter of months his spine was straight and his life transformed, and he soon travelled the nation and the world as a professional slackliner, motivational speaker, and adventurist!

He later co-founded Breathe - a mindful community featuring yoga, extreme slacklining, meditation and more - and met his now wife at a Breathe festival - where they spent the full week together, and then she immediately joined the man she’d just met on a 30-day backpacking trip in Alaska. I write all this to share the notion that when Dakota Collins does stuff - he does it all the way!

Dakota founded Grey Rock Landscape and Construction in the fall of 2020, and hired his teenage sister to mow lawns, and built the business to 4 full-time employees before he quit his full-time job with Larimer County. Now 5 years in and 18 employees strong, Grey Rock has become one of the premier landscape design and installation companies in Northern Colorado. And it’s all about culture. It seems everyone loves Dakota, and you will too - so please tune in and enjoy my conversation with Dakota Collins.

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

💡Learn about LoCo Think Tank

Follow us to see what we're up to:

Instagram

LinkedIn

Facebook

Music By: A Brother's Fountain

In today’s episode of The LoCo Experience, I welcomed Nate Hines back into the studio for his second appearance - with the agreement that he gets to interview me for the second half of the show! Nate was our final guest of Season 4, (Episode 200) - and in 2025 he executed the strategy he shared in our previous conversation - acquiring and integrating three water engineering firms!

Hines Inc. is the leading voice in the #waterfirst movement, which encourages developers and property owners to consider water first when designing anything from a residential landscape plan to a city park to a major subdivision. This can save 30% or more on install, 30% or more on maintenance, and increase the longevity of systems through professional management. We zoomed in on Nate’s skills-building journey, which included bruising lessons from a failed merger, and the support and encouragement of an advisory board along the way.

For the second half of the show, Nate interviewed your host, Curt Bear. We discussed the philosophies that drive our policies at LoCo Think Tank, my why in becoming a small-L libertarian, and we closed with a selection of LoCo Experiences from yours truly - specifically, a quick tour of the five times I’ve nearly killed myself and my wife in raging rivers, on mountain passes, or on a motorcycle! - so please tune in and enjoy my conversation with Nate Hines.

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

💡Learn about LoCo Think Tank

Follow us to see what we're up to:

Instagram

LinkedIn

Facebook

Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Today’s episode features Kris Buchanan, Founder of Phase Three Product Development and Co-Founder and CEO of RedDrop Dx. RedDrop Dx has developed an FDA-approved, pain-free blood collection device that is used at home! Drawing on years of experience designing medical instrumentation and microfluidic systems, he and his partners set out to solve the “blood acquisition” problem as a standalone, scalable solution rather than a one-off component tied to a single test.

RedDrop offers a simple at-home kit that uses heat to bring capillary blood close to the skin’s surface, followed by a quick, virtually painless micro-needle activation that creates tiny openings and applies gentle vacuum to collect blood. The process avoids nerve stimulation, reduces contamination, and produces a consistent, lab-ready sample. RedDrop is FDA-cleared and sold business-to-business, primarily to diagnostic companies, healthcare providers, and testing services.

Kris is one of those sneaky entrepreneurs that fly under the radar, employing ~25 leading edge engineers at Phase Three Product Development - which his son Will is now managing - and changing the world of data collection (via blood) in the medical space. You’ll be sure to hear more about him and RedDrop Dx in the years ahead, but start here and please enjoy my conversation with Kris Buchanan.

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

💡Learn about LoCo Think Tank

Follow us to see what we're up to:

Instagram

LinkedIn

Facebook

Music By: A Brother's Fountain