Integrate & Ignite Podcast

Jon Eric Wallace is the President and co-founder of Indian Peaks Brewing Company, parent company of Left Hand Brewing Company. Eric grew up around the world as the son of an Air Force officer, and was exposed to good beer at a precocious age in Germany. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1984 with a degree in international affairs, and spent 8 years in the Air Force as a communications officer in Italy and Turkey before moving back to the U.S. in 1993. Upon his return, he was inspired by the renaissance in craft brewing developing here in the U.S. and, along with co-founder Dick Doore, decided to jump headfirst into the craft beer business. One of Eric’s focuses is giving back to the local community where he works, lives and plays. He serves on the Brewers Association Board of Directors, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival Advisory Board, is a member of Longmont Odd Fellows Lodge No. 29 and Skyline Kiwanis. Left Hand Brewing Company has been named both small and large Business of the Year by the Lo

Louie was a former music TV host, interviewing hundreds of a-list celebrities and now turned entertainment branding expert, with clients such as concerts, large music festivals, nightlife venues, and up and coming talent. Louie has been crafting and building their social marketing and branding for years. It really is unbelievable to see large scale ticketed events bring in tens of thousands of people and music talent grow their following to the hundreds of thousands - all due to social media content marketing and advanced tools. La Vella builds these brands like a boss.  Louis is not just a music marketing guy. He is asked to consult on all types of business industries, taking his stories and experiences in the entertainment industry and applies it to all businesses.

 Craig Beinecke and Adam Cookson are co-founders of TekDry International, a revolutionary, new, and growing retail consumer service for recovering water logged phones and devices while saving your data in 30 minutes. This is an encore interview on the Integrate & Ignite Podcast. Why, you might ask? Well….TekDry was featured on Shark Tank last night! And, we are conducting a post-show interview to learn more about this amazing adventure! Adam’s responsibilities include strategic business planning, domestic and international business development, capital formation, investor relations, and leading TekDry’s business team for growth and expansion. Craig is focused on developing strategic partnerships with retail stores to offer the localized TekDry service. The two gentlemen met during their MBA program at the University of Denver.

Mark was born and raised in Longmont Colorado. He attended Briar Cliff University on a baseball scholarship, and graduated with a health promotions management degree. Mark received his Master of Arts in Teaching with an emphasis in K-12 P.E. from Hasting College. He was the head Softball coach for 2 years as well as the Assistant Athletic Director. In 2005, Mark moved back to Colorado and worked for his brother’s landscape company. He joined Ward Electric in 2008 and in 2012 purchased partial ownership with his brother. Ward Electric Company is a full-service high voltage powerline contractor serving the entire Western United States. Mark has been married 13 years to Meg Ward. They have 3 children, Gracie (8), Beckham (6) and Bode (2).

Craig Beinecke and Adam Cookson are co-founders of TekDry, a revolutionary new and growing retail consumer servicer for recovering waterlogged phones and devices while saving your data in 30 minutes. This is Adam’s encore interview with Integrate & Ignite. Adam’s responsibilities include strategic business planning, domestic and international business development, capital formation, investor relations, and leading the TekDry’s business team for growth and expansion.  Craig is focused on developing strategic partnerships with retail stores to offer localized TekDry services. The two gentlemen met during their MBA program at the University of Denver. 

Barbara Weaver Smith is founder and CEO of The Whale Hunters®, co-author of Whale Hunting: How to Land Big Sales and Transform Your Company, and author of the new Whale Hunting with Global Accounts: Four Critical Sales Strategies to Win Global Customers. Her business development process is based on the collaborative culture of the Inuit people and how they engaged their entire village to land whales. Barbara works with companies to grow their business by making bigger sales to bigger customers. She has directly helped dozens of privately-held companies and B2B franchise owners to implement The Whale Hunters Process™ to dramatically increase their sales, deal size, and predictability. 95% of them do so! She reaches thousands of business leaders in workshops, seminars, and keynote speeches. Barbara also produces books, articles, podcasts, webinars, and online training programs for entrepreneurs who want fast, consistent revenue growth.

Through more than 20 years in the Workforce Management, sales and operations fields, Steve has a clear understanding of the challenges retailers face communicating with distributed locations. He noticed a change in the marketplace around the time he founded ThinkTime. Large, expensive, difficult-to-deploy systems no longer met the needs of today's retail organizations. Steve and his team built ThinkTime in the cloud, so it's more affordable and easier to install. He knows most retail companies can't spend days training staff on a communication system; you want to start communicating right away. Steve has previous relevant experience overseeing 200 associates and a $40M P&L for the retail and healthcare consulting practices at Kronos Incorporated - a $1B in revenue Workforce Management software provider. He has hands on operational and financial experience increasing consultants, revenue, margin, and team utilization. Steve has International experience deploying Retail Workforce Management s

Building better service systems is the thread through the tapestry of Linda LaGanga’s career history, which spans high-tech startup operations, clinical service delivery, and quality and process improvement. As an author and educator in clinical appointment scheduling and service operations, Linda has forged new frontiers of clinical appointment scheduling research and practice to promote better access to healthcare services. Linda is the VP of Quality & Informatics at Mental Health Partners, a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization. MHP was founded in 1962 as the Mental Health Center of Boulder County and opened at the county general hospital on North Broadway in Boulder. After leading a bicoastal professional and educational life, Linda settled in Boulder, CO where she walks to work as often as possible and minimizes her carbon footprint by using her Eco transit pass to the max.

Jason Blumer is the Chief Innovative Officer of his firm, Blumer & Associates, CPAs. The firm was one of the first to move from a traditional office to a virtual environment, where they serve digital, design, and marketing agencies only. Jason focuses heavily on business coaching and consulting, while his team meets the technical and compliance needs of the clients.  Jason also founded Thriveal in 2010 as a way to help CPA firm owners connect. Since that time, Thriveal has helped many firms grow by providing an online community, coaching services, webinars, and live events. The newest offerings include a Lab for experimentation, an Academy for continuing education for CPAs, and an Incubator for new firms. Jason is the host of two podcasts, the Thrivecast and The Businessology Show and speaks and writes frequently for CPAs and creatives, his firm’s chosen niche. He has been honored as one of the 40 under 40 in the profession (CPA Practice Advisor) as well as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Ac

As a founder and principal at SDR Ventures, a Denver-based investment banking firm, Chris works closely with clients executing mergers and acquisitions, securing equity and debt financing and implementing strategic initiatives aimed at maximizing shareholder value. He has 25 years of experience in strategic and transaction advisory services along with the Series 24, 62, 63 and 79 securities licenses. Chris is also a founding partner at Coulton Creek Capital and BlackBook, Inc.® Chris is a Vistage member and an advisor to Vistage International forums and serves as an Executive Board Member with the Denver Area Council for the Boy Scouts of America. He is a CPA and started his career at Deloitte & Touche after graduating from the University of Illinois. Chris lives in Denver with his wife and triplets and is working towards climbing the last nine to finish all 54 of the 14,000 foot mountains in Colorado.

Julie Reiskin is the executive director of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition (CCDC). CCDC advocates for social justice for people with all types of disabilities. CCDC is a leading disability rights organization whose unique model of blending legal and non-attorney advocacy has achieved results for thousands of Coloradans with disabilities. With a motto of Nothing About Us Without Us Ever, CCDC has led the way in citizen or client engagement and CCDC trained advocates permeate the Colorado public policy arena. CCDC and Ms. Reiskin assist other organizations with assuring real and meaningful participation by clients at all levels. Through CCDC and the disability community, Ms. Reiskin has gained expertise on nonprofit accountability and best practices, publicly funded long-term community based services, disability rights law, public benefits and the intersectionality of systemic and individual advocacy. Ms. Reiskin has proposed and helped to implement many solutions to create a sustainable and client frie

Shaun has spent his career cultivating teams to do amazing things. He cultivated a team at YMCA Camp Ockanickon to develop and deliver the highest quality experiential education programs. Today, he leads the team at iSupportU to provide the highest quality IT support and consulting.  Through all of these endeavors, learning has been a common theme. In order to truly know 'how to learn', he finished a Masters in Education to prepare him to teach. A thirst for understanding brought him to the field of technology. It was clear that the tool of tech can act as a powerful catalyst to learning and growth for people of all ages. While teaching, one of the most rewarding experiences was seeing how empowered the teachers had become when they learned to fully harness the power of technology in their teaching. This experience was the inspiration behind starting iSupportU as a company. Shaun wanted to see that same empowerment in individuals and businesses. Technology should make life better and bring people to

Lynn S. Evans, CFP® is a national leader in the financial planning industry, successful author, speaker, host of a top-ranked podcast, and has a strong record of accomplishment as CEO of financial planning and wealth advisory companies, including her latest venture, Women of Substance LLC. She has developed several groundbreaking presentations on the relationship between women and money. Her presentations encourage participants to look into their past for clues on what they were taught about money and how that colors how they relate to money as adult women, how to break those bonds, and how to have a happy, positive relationship with money. In her recent book, “Power of the Purse: Fear Free Finances for Baby Boomer Women”, Lynn addressed what she views as the financial knowledge gap of Baby Boomer women where traditional stereotypes are being re-examined and exciting new opportunities await on the horizon. Viewing divorce, retirement, and widowhood not as a time of withdrawal and fear, but gearing up for new

For his entire career, Alan has been involved in all aspects of point-of-purchase advertising from design to delivery. He co-founded Data Display Corporation in 1980. Later he acquired a small neon company as a division and renamed it Neon Glassworks. Data Display was sold in the mid 1980s and Neon Glassworks was renamed Zeon Corporation to better reflect the wide range of products and services offered beyond neon. Along the way, the company constantly changed to meet market needs and Alan’s own desire to bring the best brand identity products into the market. What started as a single designer turning company logos into neon signs has become a full design staff that utilizes a broad range of technologies including neon, LED, fluorescent, non-illuminated, and products that include signs, display racks, chalk boards and many others. Zeon was also the first company to build Point-of-Purchase displays out of reclaimed Colorado beetle kill pine. Zeon’s materials bag of tricks also includes reclaimed snow fencing,

Max Rogers is a veteran entrepreneur and leader with a track record of growing successful businesses. His business philosophy is deeply rooted in honesty, transparency, providing valued and excellent service while enabling employees to enjoy rewarding careers. As the President of AddOns, Inc., Max is responsible for scheduling, directing, coordinating and supervising the company so that AddOns, Inc. may service customers under the optimum conditions of productivity, efficiency, cost effectiveness and ease of operations. Max took partial ownership of AddOns, Inc. in 2003 after operating his own functional consulting group successfully for four years. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wyoming.

Lloyd Lewis is president and CEO of Arc Thrift Stores. Arc has 24 stores and 15 donation stations in Colorado. Arc provide advocacy for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and is one of the largest employers of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the state of Colorado. Lewis’ role includes oversight and management of Arc’s retail stores, corporate and support operations, and a staff of over 1,500 employees. Under Lewis’ tenure, revenue has grown from $30 million to $75 million annually, and earned income from $2 million to $10 million annually. Lewis currently serves as board chair of the Colorado Cross Disability Coalition and of the Atlantis Community Foundation. At Arc, Lewis is instrumental in forging relationships with communities of color, including Mi Casa Resource Center, the Latina Chamber of Denver, as well as other community organizations including the Mayor’s Road Home project. He received the Civil Rights Award from NewsEd Corporation for his work

Robin Autorino is an award winning chocolatier and has been named by Dessert Professional as one of the Top Ten Chocolatiers in North America in 2013. Becoming a chocolatier was a very unlikely outcome for Robin from the very beginning. As early as she can remember, she had been allergic to chocolate and was not able to enjoy it as a child or during most of her adult life. Grown up and in search of adventure, Robin joined the Navy to see the world. Having been stationed in Spain, Guam, Australia and many other locales throughout her Naval career, she was able to call many amazing places home. Living overseas far from family, however, can be difficult for a single mom; especially during the holidays. Robin found family amongst friends during her travels and often hosted holiday dinner parties for the other sailors and their families. To keep her young son from getting underfoot while she cooked and baked for gatherings, she had him dip pretzels in chocolate as gifts for the guests. After fourteen years of serv

Based just south of Denver in Centennial, Colorado, The Kitchen Showcase has been serving Colorado homeowners, builders, and interior designers for nearly 30 years.  Jason’s Father, Doug Pfaff started the business in 1983 and after graduating from MidAmerica Nazarene University, Jason Pfaff joined the family business. He has been with the company for 10 years now.

Kendra Prospero is CEO & Founder of Turning the Corner LLC, a Boulder-based career coaching, recruiting, and business cultivation services organization helping job seekers and companies transform the way they think about work. For job seekers, she helps them find work they love. From resume writing to career coaching, and job search essentials, she and her team accelerate the job search process. Kendra has spent years counseling people on their careers, giving resume advice and bringing talented people together. She has helped many people land great positions in fields they are passionate about and are thriving in. With her diverse background, she has a deep understanding of the different types of jobs and personalities that are out there and what makes that perfect fit. For companies, Kendra and her team work with executives and Human Resource professionals helping them with the development, launch, and management of effective talent management, employee engagement, visioning & strategic planning, an

Scott Baker is Mill Operations Officer for Icebox Knitting, LLC. Scott manages the daily office duties, procurement of raw materials, sales and logistics. Design Innovation is one of his favorite tasks, but the work flow calendar usually takes him away from the drawing board and puts him behind the keyboard. He began his entrepreneur career at the age of ten in Boulder, Colorado and finished his undergraduate work 1992 with a degree in Urban and Regional Planning with in emphasis in database management and a minor in Mexican-American studies from University of Colorado at Greeley. Using the models of city planning, Scott has applied his skills to running a factory. From the way people park their cars in the lot, placement of recycle bins, to storage of raw materials, the ebb and flow of the factory is optimized by his listening and providing employees the tools they need to succeed. His love of outdoors and enjoyment of re-purposing objects brought him to Icebox Knitting in 2006. Scott assisted in implementin