Sean Godbey is the owner and operator of Old Town Spice Shop, a specialty spice retailer based in Fort Collins, Colorado. A Fort Collins native and Colorado State University graduate, Sean originally pursued a degree in recreation and tourism before stepping into the family business and transforming it into a thriving local institution. Under his leadership, Old Town Spice Shop has grown into a trusted supplier for home cooks, restaurants, breweries, and Colorado State University dining services. Known for his commitment to integrity, collaboration, and community involvement, Sean continues to blend entrepreneurship with his passions for the outdoors and local impact.
Sean Godbey is a Fort Collins native, Colorado State University graduate, and owner of Old Town Spice Shop, a specialty spice shop in Old Town Fort Collins. He has helped grow the business into a trusted supplier of custom spice blends for regional restaurants and breweries, including a collaboration with New Belgium Brewing on the sour ale “The Great Godbey.” Sean enjoys the outdoors, nature photography, and serving the Fort Collins community.
Small businesses are the backbone of thriving communities, but standing out today often comes down to values—integrity, collaboration, and genuine community care. In this episode, you’ll hear how those values can become a small business’s competitive advantage, not a liability.
Sean Godbey, owner of Old Town Spice Shop, shares how he has grown from a single Old Town storefront into a trusted regional supplier for restaurants, breweries, and Colorado State University by operating on trust, handshake agreements, and long‑term relationships. He explains how collaborative partnerships, empowering his team, and a “generosity first” mindset have shaped the way he does business in Fort Collins.
On this episode of The Love FoCo Show, host Jeff Faust talks with Sean Godbey about entrepreneurship, community‑minded leadership, and what it looks like to love Fort Collins through a local, values‑driven business. You’ll learn practical insights on building collaborative partnerships, serving other local businesses, and growing sustainably without sacrificing integrity.
Narrator: This is the Love FoCo Show.
Sean Godbey: There's stuff like, you know, just making payroll, you know, cash flow, and making sure that you have enough money to pay your team because I found out at some point, employees don't like to show up if they don’t get paid.
Narrator: Welcome to the Love FoCo Show. Our podcast highlights the incredible people who make Fort Collins the place we're proud to call home. Each week, your host Jeff Faust sits down with local leaders, community champions, and changemakers to share their stories, what they love about our city, and how they're helping it thrive. So whether you're out on the trail, at a brewery, or walking through Old Town, thanks for tuning in.
Jeff Faust: What makes a great small business leader? I'm so excited to unpack that question through our conversation today with with Sean Godbey, the owner and operator of Old Town Spice Shop, a local business here in Fort Collins. I'm so thankful that Sean spent some time with us today. In his story, you'll hear all kinds of things from how he got a beer named after named after him, from, his passions for the outdoors and how that bleeds into a small business, and how old school characteristics like integrity and collaboration and relationships make a difference in everyday leadership. So grateful for Sean and his time, with us, and I hope you enjoy this conversation today.
Well, Sean, thank you so much for giving me some of your time. I'm really excited to hear more about your story, tell your story to Fort Collins and the surrounding area. The nature of the Love FoCo show is I always wanna get into what you're doing to love our city and give back and and what how you fall in love with us. But, I like to start every podcast the same way, just hearing a little bit about your story, particularly your Fort Collins origin story. And we all have such different stories, and yet our stories are kind of weaved together in this city.
And so for you, we're like you born and raised here. Did you move here? Tell us a little bit about your Fort Collins origin story.
Sean Godbey: Yeah. So I moved here when I was a a baby. So like pre one.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. So pre memories. Yeah.
Sean Godbey: This was
Jeff Faust: this was your parents decision, not your decision. Yes.
Sean Godbey: So grew up in Fort Collins, actually actually South Of Fort Collins, which is now Fort Collins. You know, I remember when Horsetooth was, you know, the far farthest south part of of Fort Collins. Yeah. And so, you know, lived in Fort Collins growing up, went to, you know, Werner Elementary and then Preston Junior High. We were the second class in Preston Junior.
Jeff Faust: Oh, wow. Yeah.
Sean Godbey: And then Fort Collins High School, the new Fort Collins High School, but I think we were the my brother and I were the third class through or second class all the way through Fort Collins High School. Yeah. And then CSU graduate, and so
Jeff Faust: I've I've You're really a you're really a hometown guy. -Yeah. -You're really I always love like whenever I talk with people, whenever they start You can tell the folks like me who transplanted in like after their adult life had begun and folks who grew up here. Because they almost always start with the phrase, I remember when.
Sean Godbey: -Yeah.
Jeff Faust: Like, they're just something about like the city is just ever changing. Of course, is still changing today. But you go back ten, twenty, thirty years. I mean, it's incredible to see, and hear stories. I hear stories.
You have real stories of how the city is just emerged and changed and expanded and even migration within the city.
Sean Godbey: Okay.
Jeff Faust: And the patterns of migration within the city and Northern Colorado is super interesting I would imagine.
Sean Godbey: Yep. Yep. The good bad and the ugly.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's all of it for sure and that growing city adds all kinds of different complexities for sure. So you said you were you moved here when you were pretty young, but where where were you actually born? Like, where was it in Colorado?
Oh, Phoenix.
Sean Godbey: Phoenix, Arizona.
Jeff Faust: Okay. Sweet. So, your summers are a lot more mild now. Yes. I appreciate it.
Yeah.
Sean Godbey: I don't do well in the heat.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. I've got some friends that live there and July is like, Yeah. Why on earth? Like, it's the opposite for us. Like, people are always escaping January, February.
Sean Godbey: Yep.
Jeff Faust: Here to to enjoy hotter weather.
Sean Godbey: Yeah. My grandparents still live there. And so I visit them periodically. But I prefer not to visit during
Jeff Faust: this summer. Yeah. For sure. For sure. Well, we are standing right now in your old town spice shop, which I want to get into you as a business leader in our community and and get into all of that.
But I do find myself curious. Like, your upbringing, your childhood, what led you to want to tackle business? And like were you always a business mind? Were you always kind of leading class projects as you, you know, lead your company now? Or where did this stuff come from?
Sean Godbey: No. I I never wanted to have my own business. The idea of doing business for me for a lot of years was just not interesting, didn't have any real want to to go down that route. My grandpa, who I've always looked up to, was a business owner, and he he owned Dascopro. And so if you go to Ace Hardware somewhere, those blue chisels
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Sean Godbey: And stuff, he that was his company.
Jeff Faust: Oh, cool.
Sean Godbey: And so he he always wanted me to get a business degree and that kind of thing. And my drive was more outdoorsy. Okay. And so my my degree is in recreation and tourism.
Jeff Faust: Oh, really?
Sean Godbey: I love hosting people to, you know, natural things and, you know, getting them outside and getting them into nature and and just seeing what's special about every unique location. Yep. And so that was my hope and goal was to to do.
Jeff Faust: And did you, as a child did you, like, grow up in scouts or just like you're just a product of Colorado and you're hiking and skiing and doing all the stuff?
Sean Godbey: Both and. I did scouts and we grew up my dad was a wildlife biologist.
Jeff Faust: And
Sean Godbey: you know, growing up, I would go out and work with him in the field. We would work on black footed ferrets. And so he was on the original team of reintroducing black footed ferrets to the Western US and figuring out what that looks like and everything. I still do that today with my son. Him and I still go out and work on ferrets.
Really? Every, you know, once or twice a year with friends that are still in that industry. Yep. And so, you know, that's that's other fun things that that I do just to to stay in the things that I truly have passion for and love.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. You
Sean Godbey: know, business is also become a huge love for me, and growing small business, working with other small businesses, and, you know, working with our team and and providing jobs and, you know, all sorts of things like that.
Jeff Faust: Is it it's it's fascinating to me how much of our lives today, like, you can reach back. Mhmm. You know, you can reach back to your dad and and doing stuff in in the in the biology department, you know, and working outside and seeing that kind of continue on in your life. And and, hopefully, your son's being exposed and and growing in passion for that as well. But you can reach even further back another generation and see your grandpa owning this business.
And, you know, I think your words like his desire for you was to step into this. And and yet still those seeds were planted. And and here we are today. What kinds of things do you remember about your grandpa? I mean, you said that you've always looked up to him.
What were some of those characteristics or some of those things that kind of drew you to him and and who he was?
Sean Godbey: Yeah. He he even today, he is a strong man that very forward on what he thinks. Don't always agree with him on on some of the things he thinks, but he always operated his business and his life in the same realm of, you know, my word and my handshake means that I'm gonna do what I said I did. I'm gonna do.
Jeff Faust: Right.
Sean Godbey: And business today has gone away from that. And so that saddens me, but I still try and find, you know, little pockets of that. And Fort Collins is one of those communities that for the most part, you can still do that and operate in that in that realm.
Jeff Faust: It's kind of a bummer, isn't it? Like, I mean, just, like, reflecting on what you just said. I mean, I you know, we you could probably fill in the blank with, like, the characteristics that we would identify that, but maybe I integrity would be a great way to describe that. Right? It's kind of a bummer that integrity is like old school.
Yeah. Like, why why can't that just be normal? Like, it I mean, does it you know, should it be old school or new school? How how about it's just, the way
Sean Godbey: Yep.
Jeff Faust: That we should move forward that yeah. It's it's, it's kind of a bummer that integrity isn't necessarily, like, synonymous or, part of the way things are are going. So that's a great thing to see and witness and and continue to implement. And you had begun to talk about how that's still kind of part of the lifeblood of Fort Collins. Tell me a little bit about that.
Like, do you how do you see that operating? I mean, obviously, it's We're not talking giant There are big corporations in Fort Collins, but but you're a small business owner probably connected with a bunch of other small business owners. That integrity is still part of the culture of Fort Collins in a way.
Sean Godbey: Yeah. So we, because we are an ingredient supplier, whether that is to home cooks or to businesses and restaurants or breweries or distilleries or or anything. A lot of what we do is is, you know, working with people to find a common goal, you know, fulfill a common goal. For the home cook, it might be how am I gonna season this dish or something like that. For, another business, it might be, you know, we need a lower price on this to be able to be have a competitive edge in the market.
And so, you know, we go into business with a handshake and figure out how we can be mutually beneficial. Yep. You know, I recognize that my customers on the commercial side need to be able to make money, which means that I need to be competitive on pricing. I recognize that we also provide something unique. And so, you know, said small business to small business.
An example is when we were moving locations, we needed to move our production facility or create a production facility. When we first opened, we opened on Linden Street and did everything in that facility. So we brought in product. We ground product. We package product.
We blended there. Everything is sold there. Today, we had to break out that production because we moved to a location that didn't allow for it. And so I was talking to another friend of mine who owns brewery in town. He also had another food related business, and he let us move in to his back hallway and rent that from him.
And we didn't have a lease for the first, I think, fourteen months we were there. Yeah. It was just all on a handshake. Yep. And knowing that, you know, when utilities came in, we had a percentage that we were gonna pay and we paid it.
And that we were neither of us were gonna do something to rock the boat too much for the other. Yep. And so that, you know, that's just case study for small businesses working together. We did formalize a lease at some point just more for, you know, liability reasons and that kind of thing. Yep.
But then we also do that with
Jeff Faust: That does feel old school. Mean, I I even, like, even kinda go by. It almost feels like he spit in each other's hand and Yeah. And grabbed each other's hands and and shook on it. Yep.
But that's sweet. That is I mean, and that is like the mutually beneficial thing. Mhmm. That that helps, you know, everybody thrive. Yeah.
The rising tide lifts all boats and these small businesses can support one another and Yep. And and help each other move forward. I I I feel like even just hearing that little piece though, I do have like so many different questions. One of the things that I'm I'm curious about is like how you get in the spice game in the first place.
Sean Godbey: Yeah.
Jeff Faust: So, I mean, like recreation, outdoor major at CSU, which was probably incredible because, like, you can go up to the mountains and you can do I mean, all kinds of stuff. Where did the turn take or, like, where did the where did you take the turn towards spices and running a small business? Because, again, now we're we're in your old town shop. We're surrounded by incredible smells, all kinds of hot sauce and spices and and salty, you name it that we can buy. How do you how did you get from one place to the next?
Sean Godbey: Yeah. So the business idea was originally my brother's. We our family business, always been a family business. And he essentially had the idea of he went into a spice shop. He was living in Montana.
It was like, oh, this would be fantastic in Fort Collins.
Jeff Faust: Right.
Sean Godbey: And Fort Collins at the time didn't have any spice shops. Okay. Currently, I think we have three. And so he brought it to our parents who were looking to invest in something at the time. I love my brother.
He's an idea guy. He's fantastic at what he does, but he's not at that point in his life, and he's he's vastly changed from this, at that point in his life, he wasn't a great builder.
Jeff Faust: Mhmm.
Sean Godbey: He was a dreamer, and, you know, so his dream for our business was to open a store and then open four more stores within five years.
Jeff Faust: K.
Sean Godbey: And there's a lot of reasons for that and that strategy, but it doesn't never happened. Sure. And so there's a lot of reasons for that as well. Our parents got divorced first year in the business, which meant that nobody wanted to put any more money into the business. Sure.
And so, you know, that so that was hard. But the idea that my parents were putting in all this money and they didn't want to necessarily rely on my brother to do it because he's, you know, like I said, the idea guy. Right. And so they came to me asking if I wanted to do the operations Yep. Of it.
And so at that point, I was like, yeah, that sounds sounds interesting and fun. And and so that's when I delved into it. Over the years, my brother, I bought him out. He moved to New Orleans and then to Florida and now has his own law practice and that kind of thing. And he just was like, I'm not doing anything with it.
Yeah. Feel free to buy me out. Yep. And then my mom passed away and my dad retired and was sick of the the passer income messing with his retirement accounts and stuff.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Yeah. Is it it's it's it's interesting. Right? I mean, I have, you know, I have a sister.
My my brother, unfortunately, has passed. But even watching my kids grow up, like, seeing the different giftings, seeing the different personalities. Like, in my children right now, there's probably an idea person. There's probably an execution person. There's probably someone who's just ready for the party and just ready to have a good time too, you know?
And and these things make up a family. These things make up even momentum and and inertia for next steps. And so, yeah. Thanks for sharing part of that with me. And and I I have to imagine that even though, you know, four or five shops in in a number of years, even though that didn't happen, you you have two locations that you've already mentioned.
I know you've been a mainstay here in Old Town as long as I've lived here. And so, and I also know you produce all kinds of spices for all kinds of businesses. Yep. So something has gone well for you. Your your leadership and the demand and your ability to kind of innovate and move forward with with times.
Yep. Sounds like business has been good at times as well, including probably struggles.
Sean Godbey: But Sure.
Jeff Faust: How is it how has, you know, the Spice Shop grown over the years?
Sean Godbey: So, I mean, we've grown in a lot of different ways. But it started with that integrity piece. And so we were doing so it was it was probably fourteen years ago or thirteen years ago that I was walking in the back door from our in our in our business, and I saw one of the owners of the brewery of a brewery. And it it was actually the same brewery that we ended up renting space with later down the road. But he all the breweries at that time, there was seven in Fort Collins at the time, were getting together and they were doing a collaboration beer.
All three breweries. And it was called the collusion ale. And they were all getting together and trying to figure out what they wanted to brew and how they want to do it.
Jeff Faust: That's fascinating to me because I I from the outside looking in, I mean, I I I probably couldn't name all these breweries, but I imagine Odell's was part of them. I imagine New Belgium. You know, some of these, or even some of the smaller ones, like, was Horse and Dragon and Horse
Sean Godbey: and Dragon wasn't around there.
Jeff Faust: Weren't around yet.
Sean Godbey: So it was
Jeff Faust: That's, one of my personal favorites,
Sean Godbey: by the way. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah.
We we we sell to them. We work with them actually.
Jeff Faust: Awesome.
Sean Godbey: It was New Belgium, Odells, Equinox, Cooper Smith's, Crooked Stave. Yeah. Crooked Stave was originally founded in Fort Collins. Really? And then moved down to Denver.
Jeff Faust: Okay.
Sean Godbey: And opened a tasting room up in Fort Collins and has since closed that and
Jeff Faust: then
Sean Godbey: back in Denver.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Sean Godbey: And then there was two others that I'm I'm not Yeah. Remembering.
Jeff Faust: But it's interesting to me like because again, I think from the outside looking in, I would be like, oh, these guys are like fighting for customers. Yeah. You know, you're going to one spot, you're going to the other, you're you're loyal to one. Yep. You'll you'll drink this other stuff if it's at maybe your friend's house.
Like, but what you're describing is a pretty collaborative approach even within space that would maybe, you know, want to earn more business from one of their competitors.
Sean Godbey: Yep.
Jeff Faust: That's really interesting to find collaboration in the midst of competition, I guess. Yes.
Sean Godbey: And so what I did is I went up and said hi, you know, shook his hand, and he's like, hey. I wanna I wanna introduce you to some people. And at that point, I was introduced to all the, you know, brew masters, all of the
Jeff Faust: The phone's just going on. I mean, this is the life of a local business owner. Right.
Sean Godbey: Introduced to all the brew masters, introduced to all of the brewery owners if they were there and, you know, took the time to shake hands and talk to people. And, you know, they were saying we're they were doing this collaboration beer, and they just wanted fun ingredients in it. And so I walked them through 30 ingredients that they could use. Yeah. And they chose some.
And that was when I first got connected to New Belgium as well.
Jeff Faust: Okay. And Which you have your own little story with new I mean, as I'm standing here with you right now, just behind your shoulder, I see the great Godbee, which is an oak aged sour. That is your I mean, how do you get in the spice business but then how do you get a beer named after you? I mean, that's that's pretty awesome too.
Sean Godbey: Well, so I mean, started with that handshake. Yeah. You know, being able to connect with the purchasing team there and saying, you know, how can we work together? How can we make this, you know, mutually beneficial? It They were an independent brewery at that time.
And so they came to me and we started sourcing products for them regularly that they had a hard time finding or couldn't find. We connected with them with some other organization, other places if it's something that we couldn't, you know, provide for them. Yep. And then what we did is we actually, you know, they have, I think, seven brewers or did at the time Yeah. Different divisions
Jeff Faust: Okay.
Sean Godbey: Of the brewers. And as we grew and and made better connections in our industry and worth importers and that kind of thing, then I would meet with the brewers and say, should be using this ingredient. Yeah. I've got a great source for it. It would be awesome in this beer.
And then, you know, from that became this, you know, relationship with their brewers always looking for fun things and and that kind of thing. And that's where that beer came out of. Yeah. Was, you know, one of their brewers called me one day and was like, I I have this idea. I want you to write a recipe for us.
We're gonna brew it. We're gonna call it the great godbee and it's gonna be awesome.
Jeff Faust: That's sweet.
Sean Godbey: And I was like, oh, I'm not sure about the name. Yeah. And I talked to my wife about it and she's like, nope, you gotta they're too good of a customer. Yeah. You gotta let them do whatever they wanna do.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Yeah.
Sean Godbey: Yeah. And so we went forward with it and, you know, I I wrote the recipe for the beer. I helped brew it. And then, you know, they brought it out in Bombers. And, you know, it's sold in in Colorado and in their Asheville brewery.
Jeff Faust: Oh, that's sweet.
Sean Godbey: So, yeah. A lot of fun.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Very cool.
Sean Godbey: Quite quite the honor.
Jeff Faust: Very cool. And the breweries, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but the breweries, they're not the only major employers that you're doing business with. I mean, you're you're providing spices to all kinds of different folks. Yeah. Small, medium sized business, whatever it is.
Major employers even with CSU. Right? So tell me a little bit about some of your other partners. I mean, how else are you like, where are you else? Are you selling spices?
Sean Godbey: Yes. So, I mean, so it all goes back to that handshake integrity. Yeah. CSU, we got connected. One of the chefs would come in and buy specialty items periodically and got to know him a little bit.
His name is Steve and one day he came in and he's like, why is it that I have to come here? He's like, we should just be buying from you. Yeah. And I was like, I agree you should.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Well, I can help you make that happen. Yeah. And
Sean Godbey: and he said, are you gonna be here for another couple hours? He's like, I'm gonna bring the purchasing team here. And, you know, an hour later, he walks in with the two guys that make purchasing purchasing decisions for all of the, you know, dorm restaurants. Yeah. And
Jeff Faust: That's a lot of food.
Sean Godbey: You know, we shook hands. We talked about what we could offer, that kind of thing. We had to go through the the bid process through the state and Sure. And all that kind of thing. And and so they've been buying from us for,
Jeff Faust: I don't know,
Sean Godbey: probably twelve years Yeah. And, you know, that's it's pushed us to be better. Yeah. But that's also
Jeff Faust: Yeah. I would imagine they use a lot of a lot of spices. Yeah. There's a lot of humans over there. Yeah.
Major employer and a lot of people moving in and out of our city through the university.
Sean Godbey: Thing with businesses. Restaurants in town that are wanting to have something uniquely their own. Austin's wanted their own Cajun seasoning for their popcorn shrimp or they wanted their own, you know, grill, you know, seasoning for their steaks. Something that's really gonna make them stand out.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Sean Godbey: And so we work with them on recipes and, you know, same with, you know, Silver Grill, you know, we make their hash brown seasoning and, you know, the Music City Hot Chicken, we make all of their their seasonings for, you know, their spice levels and heats. Yeah. And those guys, what's funny is I I've actually known them since we did Cub Scouts together.
Jeff Faust: Really?
Sean Godbey: And so, you know, that was a I got an email from somebody and, like, hey. Can we meet about this?
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Sean Godbey: And we get together and I'm like, I know you. Yeah. You know, and sort of reconnect over
Jeff Faust: It's just so interesting to listen to you because, I mean, I you know, if if anybody's listening to this podcast and they're a business owner or they wanna start a business or you just wanna do, a little bit of a case out, we could do, you know, a whole semester on small business and entrepreneurship, of course, and we couldn't capture it all in one podcast. But in the last ten minutes, I I've heard three key things just kind of come out from you just to reflect back to you. I hear integrity. Like, this is just the mainstay. It's part of who you are.
It's part of how you were raised and what you witnessed in the generations before you, but you've made it part of who you are, and that's you know, your your company in the way that you you lead today. I've heard collaboration, even a even in the midst of people that would maybe be seen as competitive against one another, they're still collaborating together, which seems really important. And now you're pulling on just relationships, just a history of relationships. It, you know, you got connect with these guys because you did Cub Scouts together. These things, you know, our lives are they're just a collection of stories and relationships.
And and you can lean on those to to grow your business. And so, yeah. I mean, if integrity and collaboration and relationships, that'll get you pretty far.
Sean Godbey: That will
Jeff Faust: In a lot of in a lot of spaces. Absolutely. Yeah. No, thanks for sharing that. I think that's incredible.
So you've been here for and and leading old old town spice for how many years now?
Sean Godbey: This would be our sixteenth year.
Jeff Faust: Sixteen years. Would highly recommend anybody to come in to your your, retail shop here in Old Town. The shelves are filled with all kinds of goodies, for your own kitchen as well as gift boxes and all kinds of other things for other people. But you've been doing this for sixteen years. You've you weren't born here, you were essentially raised here and you grew up here and went to school here.
I I always whenever I talk with folks that have been here, they they just give me the rundown of the schools too. I love that. Yep. All the way through CSU. What have you really come to love about this city?
And and what are the things that stand out to you of like, this is where I want to keep calling home. Not just call home for a while but like I don't want to go to Phoenix. I want to stay here. I want You know, what about this place says has helped you fall in love?
Sean Godbey: Yeah. I think I would say the community, you know, just everybody is so passionate about, outdoors, passionate about food. I mean, Fort Collins has become quite the little foodie town. Yeah. You know, there's lots of different food ingredient retail stores.
There's lots of restaurants. A lot of those restaurants are local restaurants. Restaurants. Yep. A lot of the the really successful ones that have been here for, you know, fifty.
Jeff Faust: They have a yeah. They have a history here. Yeah. Yeah.
Sean Godbey: And, you know, and so that history I love. I love being able to walk anywhere in Fort Collins and run into people that I know. Yeah. You know, Fort Collins is becoming a bigger bigger town, smaller city.
Jeff Faust: Mhmm.
Sean Godbey: But there's not somewhere like, I I could go to a restaurant and I will run into somebody I know. Yep. I can go to, you know, shopping and it doesn't matter if it's old town or if it's down, you know, e east of town or, you know, south of town. I'll still run into people I know that or I grew up with. I've got friends that we went to preschool together.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Sean Godbey: And I'd run into them randomly, periodically, just say hi and, you know, sort of catch up.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. And and you had mentioned that you were married, that your wife Mhmm. You know, gave you the wise words of, no. Just go with what New Belgium wants. That's that's a good idea.
Yeah. You guys have children as well. And and so you're you're in the school system, and your kids are making these kinds of friendships too.
Sean Godbey: And Yeah.
Jeff Faust: And, man, being a parent of kids in school, like, it's a whole another way to meet all kinds of people and fall in love with the city and fall in love with people because there are all the activities and
Sean Godbey: Yep.
Jeff Faust: All the stuff.
Sean Godbey: Yeah. So I've got a daughter that's at Fossil right now. Yeah. My son is at Front Range now. And so he's probably gonna be transferring over to CSU in the next probably next year if I had to guess.
Yep. But he's just getting some prereqs out of the way to make it a little more affordable.
Jeff Faust: For sure. So Yeah. Well, Listen. I love We've never I've never done this on the podcast before. I was always been in someone's office or I've been, you know, outside trying to manage sound and things like that.
But we are here alone in your store right now before you even open. Could you Could we like walk around? Sure. And just just tell me maybe, I'm sure you have all kinds of things that you love in here but I'm looking at anything from spices to to sauces to gift baskets that you can buy. What are what are, like, some of your go tos here in the store?
That if you're, listen. If I was gonna buy these these four or five things, this is where I would go. This is what I'm drawn to. Do you have some of those in your store?
Sean Godbey: It's always dependent on what I'm cooking. And let me preface it that 99% of these are my recipes.
Jeff Faust: Really?
Sean Godbey: And so that's like choosing between kids.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Yeah. Right. You have an affinity for all of them. I understand.
I understand. Yeah.
Sean Godbey: So but I do have my go tos. Yeah. Our grilling seasonings, I grill a lot. Yeah. Smoke meat a lot.
That kind of thing. The SPG is my go to for sort of all purpose seasoning. Yeah. And so, you know, that's even even steak or, you know, going a little further and just like, you know, pasta or something. Yeah.
Just just something. It's it's a go to. It's very different than most SPGs out there because the one of the peppers we use is a green peppercorn.
Jeff Faust: Okay.
Sean Godbey: Not just black peppercorn.
Jeff Faust: Yep.
Sean Godbey: And so it provides a lot more depth of flavor.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Well, I love even just coming down the row here. I see the SPG, and then I see some of your, like, outdoorsman stuff coming through. You know, the the bull elk ham rub next to the truffle sage crust black footed ferret. You know, I mean, this is, fascinating stuff just to see kind of even your history and some of your passions, bleed into the execution of how you're running your business too.
Sean Godbey: Well, so those came out of the sort of a multipurpose thing. They I wanted to get seasonings into our national parks.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Sean Godbey: And so that's still a continued conversation that I'm having
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Sean Godbey: With some some of the national parks and stuff. But my, you know, small business can be all consuming. And so you have to have your own brain space that is away from doing business. And for me, one of those things is wildlife photography. And so Just helps you clear the head and kind of find
Jeff Faust: that margin where you can entertain your thoughts. And
Sean Godbey: so these rubs were a way for me to showcase my photography. I think all but one of them are my photos that I took and just able to bleed business into a personal little
Jeff Faust: bit. Well, tell me a little bit more about that because I'm not sure, you know, if you're not running a small business, you might not might not know. You People might just think it's just means less zeros than a major corporation. But there are different challenges. Oh, yeah.
For a small business owner. I mean, I have to Well, don't want to imagine. You tell me. Like what particularly, you know, years ago and then going through even COVID in old town. I mean, that had to have been a challenging time for small businesses and all kinds of.
Sean Godbey: Yeah. I would say there's a ton of levels of issues around small business and operating a small business. One of the biggest hurdles is regulations. Every industry has their own regulations and stuff. So, you know, I was talking to a small business owner yesterday who found out that the items in a store for a small business are taxed annually until they are depreciated.
And so he opened a new store with his wife for one of her things that she was doing and and he found out that, oh, we have, you know, dollars 200,000 in shelving and, you know, equipment to be able to operate this business. Yeah. And Lamar County shows up and says,
Jeff Faust: Here's your bill.
Sean Godbey: Here's your bill.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Sean Godbey: And he's like, well, we already paid for all this. And they're like, yeah. But you gotta pay taxes on it. And he's like, well, we already paid taxes when we bought it. And he's like, like, no.
We you you gotta do that every year. Wow. Until it's depreciated. And he's like,
Jeff Faust: I Yeah. What do I need to do? Need to scuff it up a little bit. Yeah. And
Sean Godbey: so, you know, and and so there's things like that that you just find out.
Jeff Faust: Right.
Sean Godbey: We
Jeff Faust: And in a small business, you don't always have like a a giant finance team or a giant legal team to lean on with some of those things. It's got Yeah. That's gonna run through you guys. Yeah.
Sean Godbey: Yeah. And so, you know, there's stuff like that. There's stuff like, you know, just making payroll.
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Sean Godbey: You know, cash flow and making sure that you have enough money to pay your team because I found out at some point, employees don't like to show up if they
Jeff Faust: don't pay. Yeah. And I'm right there
Sean Godbey: with them. I I don't wanna come if I'm not gonna make money. For sure. For sure. And so all of that can, you know, taxing on the mind.
Jeff Faust: Tell me a little bit about what's over on the other side of here. We I just see a sign that says beer. Yep. And then I see hopped up coffee and and are the I are these beans that are roasted with different spices or these things that you would that someone would buy to, make their own, like, garage beer?
Sean Godbey: So Hopped Up Coffee was a collaboration again
Jeff Faust: There's that word again.
Sean Godbey: With a friend of mine that had a coffee shop here in town. It's since closed, and he's moved, moved out of out of the area. But him and I were drinking a beer at Odell's on the patio, and we were talking about how we could collaborate together. And so at that point, we started talking about, you know, well, what would it look like for us to make a coffee that had beer elements? -Yeah.
-You know, beer town, lots of breweries, that kind of thing. And
Jeff Faust: And lots of coffee coming now.
Sean Godbey: Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Faust: Has that always been part of the thing or have I just noticed like a little bit of an explosion in the last five to ten years since I've been?
Sean Godbey: Yeah. I would say the last five or ten years it's definitely expanded. Yeah. But, you know, there's always been the under underpinnings of Yeah. Coffee culture
Jeff Faust: Yeah.
Sean Godbey: Yeah. In the area. And so we we, you know, having worked with so many breweries and stuff, like, well, I we could write a recipe.
Jeff Faust: Right.
Sean Godbey: And so what we did with that is we took locally roasted beans and then blended it with malted barley, hops, and spices to mimic different beer styles. Yeah. And so there's a Scottish ale, a black IPA. We did a lemon wit, we did chocolate porter, you know, all sorts of things like that.
Jeff Faust: Oh, that's awesome.
Sean Godbey: So lots of fun. And from that, we also made a hopped up seasoning line. And so it's similar. It's, you know, beer centric for seasonings. So there's a Dunkle, there's a hazy IPA, you know, and it's infusing those flavors into whatever you're cooking.
Jeff Faust: Yeah. Oh, that's sweet. Yep. That's sweet. What a what a cool little shop that you'd have down here, and I and I know there's way more operations in your your place down south where you're actually doing all the grinding and the packaging and the shipping, everything like that.
I've so much appreciated this conversation. I I I would love to land it with just kind of one last question. Let you riff on this, talk about it any way that you can. Because we talk about your origin story, how it even went from childhood through the scouts outdoors to the spice game. We've we've talked about what you love about our city.
Just I feel like I learned a lot about leading small business and and just ways that, and values. I would say values that have kind of helped lead lead you forward. I I'm curious. So I would love for you to talk a little bit about ways that, you are loving our city. Our phrase is love FoCo.
We're trying to love our city one life at a time through the services that we provide. As a local business owner, just as a man, as a leader, as a father, husband, how are you loving our city? How are you giving back? Tell me a little bit about ways that you're kind of demonstrating that kind of love to to those around us.
Sean Godbey: Yeah. So we do As a business, we provide gift boxes and stuff for auctions all
Jeff Faust: We've the experienced some of that generosity ourselves. Yeah. Thank you for that.
Sean Godbey: So our philosophy on giving is to give to everybody that asks. And so if you come in and you are trying to raise money for a nonprofit, you have to be a five zero one c three. Yep. And that's just our check to make sure you are a legitimate, you know, organization. Seems fair.
And you will if you come in and bring your paperwork and ask for a donation, you will walk out with the donation. Yeah. Everyone on my team is empowered to make that make that donation. Yep. They don't have to ask.
Nobody has to email me anything. Nothing. It's everybody does it. Yep. And so we give thousands of dollars and product away every to help fund all of the causes in Fort Collins.
Jeff Faust: There's a lot of good nonprofits in our area.
Sean Godbey: Personally, I serve with our church. Yeah. And so I serve on the security team and and then I also work with the missions department periodically and I work with an organization called Serve six eight. Mhmm. And so they have a feeding team that we're working with them business wise to be able to make something that they can sell, we can sell, and it would go back to help them financially.
Yep. And so portions of those proceeds will go back to serve six eight. My son and I, every week, we volunteer at the Rocky Mountain Raptor Center doing perch maintenance and that kind of thing for, the raptors that are being rehabilitated. So we love pouring into the city.
Jeff Faust: Well, just sounds like this is just of innate with small businessmen and women. You know, you are hyper local. You're gonna prove that by setting up shop and employing folks from the city, providing things for But also you find yourself involved in the nonprofit world volunteering. Because this is this city is part of who you are. Yep.
And, yeah, I think that's that's apparent. It's apparent spending time with you and and hearing part of your stories. And we'll put links in our show notes to places like Surf six eight and Right. The Raptor place. I know I've been in small contact with them as well.
Yeah. My son first heard that. He had illusions of Jurassic Park. And I told him, no. We're talking about a different kind of raptor.
But, yeah, we'll put links to all those as well because I think all that stuff is worth learning about. Sean, I I just appreciate your time. I appreciate what you're doing for our city. And I just wanna I wanna say out loud again that if you have not been to the Old Town Spice shop, make sure you come in and stop by. You will not be disappointed.
So, Sean, thank you so much for your time. Yep. And we'll let you get back to it.
Sean Godbey: Sounds good.
Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Love FoCo Show. If today's conversation inspired you, share it with a friend who loves Fort Collins as much as you do. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode, and leave us a review. It helps more people discover us. To learn more about Love FoCo and find opportunities for loving our city one life at a time, visit lovefoco.com.
For now, keep loving Fort Collins well.
