Leadon Family Foundation - My Local Press

The Art of the Matter on US Highway 50

Much has changed along the way we gather information, and with revisionist history aggregated from Artificial Intelligence. For instance, in my Folk Heroes radio program, I wrote and produced a show on The Green Spider Coffee House in Denver in the 1950's and 1960's. In my narrative, I wrote that Judy Collins played at the coffeehouse. I am grateful that I sent a copy of the shows to someone with authentic intelligence who is a genuine source and resource. Harry Tuft emailed me and corrected the

5 days ago

Becoming a CEO: An Odyssey in Leadership

San Diego: This week isn't over yet. I started the week planning the next season for Sound Century, the Colorado Chapter of the Leadon Family Foundation, and serving as President of Valley Park and Recreation in the Wet Mountain Valley. I got a note from Charlie Leadon asking if I knew anyone who could take over as CEO of the Leadon Family Foundation. I made some suggestions and spoke to a few people about the prospect. Charlie told me that Leadon University was moving quickly and Leadon Investm

6 days ago

CREATE Art Attacks – A Breakthru in Music and Art

Each year in rural and urban communities, artists draw, paint, and build artistic works. This happens in our little towns and big valleys somewhere between Memorial Day and Labor Day. What I find most interesting is that music and art of a region go hand in hand, as do theater and recording, broadcasting, and podcasting. The integration of music and art has been well documented — especially by recording artists who design their album covers — and through collaborations between recording companie

3 months ago

Schoolhouse Rock

Recently I came across some intriguing statistics on continuing education. There are more institutions that are considered distance education, especially for graduate and doctorate degrees. For professionals online certification and continuing education is a requirement to keep up with industry trends. In this day of expensive gas and shipping, commuting is not economical nor ecological and communities are needing to retain some talent for sustainability and growth. Ye Olde Schoolhouse To th

3 months ago

CREATE Rural Transit - Go Fund Yourself!

In 2025 I attended and presented a conference with local officials and transportation directors on local transportation needs and options. While it was great to have a conversation about the past, present and future of rural transportation one comment stuck with me. "There is a reason why entrepreneurs stay away from transportation. You can't make money from it." Everyone in the room shook their head. Yet in my thinking, I asked "Why not?" Fast forward to April 30th. A program on Enviornment a

3 months ago

CREATE: Community Chest

I never wanted a Monopoly, but I have played the Board Game many times! The next time I play I want to play with everyone who serves on a board with me. Maybe that should be our next invention! The Board Game that takes us through a Board Meeting with old and new business. The board would be a boardroom table, and each board member would have a boblehead game piece of themselves! Each would role the dice, pull from two stacks of cards. The orange stack would be called "By Chance," and the yellow

4 months ago

Port-CREATE or "Get on the Stick!"

I wrote a song about downsizing a few years ago, and as we journey on through this life it has become more apparent that carrying less baggage offers more flexibility for community building; recreation, education, arts/media, and entrepreneurship and documentation. When we moved to a small town in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, we bought a mixed use building and an acre of land. On that land we have three floors- a suite space for living in a walk-out basement, a shop for my wife's music store

4 months ago

CREATE Business Unusual

I attended a networking event in my little town. There was a good turnout. The discussion turned to the fact that at in a town with a few thousand folks, the major industry is not for profit. The event was a Rotary Club recruiting event. There were teachers and a few business owners but more so there were retired men and women. Of everyone there my wife and I were a third of entrepreneurs. It illustrates a bigger obstacle in rural Colorado, one that could be the solution to the next generation v

4 months ago

CREATE A Short Course on Obstacles

As a journalist, artist, and musician, my daily tasks are to CREATE daily at home, through work and in community. I have an addictive and contagious personality, most of that comes from coffee, curiosity and diligence. On the way home or to work I have run into a few obstacles. Most of it is perspective, another hazard are my own communication skills and of course it is what angle that I had been looking at or someone else is. I wonder how many times we CREATE Crisis where there is none. And how

4 months ago

CREATE Launch, Learn and Landing Well

There is an organization in the valley that Jill and I support called Landing Well. It is a service organization that boosts communications, transportation, health and food services for rural areas in the valley. I spoke last week on transportation, Rotary club, and CO-CHAPTER proposing initiatives for entrepreneurship, mentorship, and community outreach from three major Vantage points- 1. Launching Well- From MAIN Academy to Leadon Family Foundation University, Education in Entrepreneurship c

4 months ago

CREATE MAIN Education

All through Europe there is a campus. And all of Europe and Asia is their campus and their canvas. The mainframe is online. The student center is the cafe, coffeehouse, incubator. The dorms are apartments, hostels, and within the communities the students serve. Tetr University is accredited and offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in entrepreneurship, management, and technology. It started with High School. 30 day Boot Camps of internship with Entrepreneurs around the world. Team building a

4 months ago

CREATE Daily SUCCESS

Tuesday is recreation in the CREATE Daily Column. And it starts with analyzing seven daily habits of highly creative people. Everyone is creative. Yet there are fewer people who have found that spark that ignites between creativity and their work. That spark can be highly flammable! The spark starts with an ability to tell a story, with charm, grace and humor. Highly creative people can be extrovert and yet the introverted story teller is a pleasure to hear. I was a born extrovert, a singer, son

4 months ago

CREATE Community Radio Orchards

One of the many entrepreneurial projects of the Colorado Chapter Committee of the Leadon Family Foundation is to support objective journalism and media. One reason for the CREATE Daily on this platform is to practice and be an objective and editorial voice in the communities that we serve. The Sound Century Academy and RAB Studios are syndicating programs through our internet radio network feed with the goal to serve all 50 states. Our hope is to begin community radio stations in Fremont, Huerfa

4 months ago

CREATE Proactive Studios

Fire happens, we react, gather bags, papers, photos, evacuate, and pray for mercy. All good survival reactions. Floods and water, mold and mud, leaks and breaches happen. Many have experienced loss of heirlooms with a little hope that furniture, cutlery and dishes can be faithfully restored. And the scrapbooks and documents wind up in the scrap heap of a landfill. Fire and Rain In Colorado, I've seen fire and I've seen rain. And I have seen home, work and communities destroyed by both. I have a

4 months ago

Take the COCO to SOCO A Train Story Connecting Main Street

Mountain Main Street Connections by Richard Arnold Beattie “The street is the river of life of the city, the place where we come together, the pathway to the center.” William H. Whyte From Main Street and 5th Avenue in Westcliffe I look out from my studio perch. Looking Northwest I can see the Collegiate Mountain range which rises above the communities I serve in Salida, Poncha Springs and Bunea Vista. When I walk across our mountain chalet and walk onto my deck, I see down south, the Sangre

4 months ago

CREATE Funding Options in Education

Today's word problem. Is debt becoming our legacy, and if so, how much of our debt is from education? It is Wednesday, and while taxes are knocking on our door, what really is keeping us up at night is student loan debt. At Leadon Family Foundation, we are studying ways and financial projects that the define our Legacy as being what we leave our kids and how it becomes a perennial Orchard. Bad and lingering debt is bad fruit. Good investment in education for future generations produces good and

4 months ago

CREATE SUCCESS

A few years back I wrote an ebook called "The New Syndication" which was written for new media professionals who were just out of college and learning how to market media content and distribution. I had just left a large media company where I syndicated and negotiated with broadcasters on the east coast, Canada and Europe. Reads-Listens-Views A journalist colleague hired me to train his staff on the changes in Syndication. And so I wrote a 100 page ebook called "The New Syndication." And wit

4 months ago

CREATE Education through Colorado Charters

This is not an April Fool's Joke. It is a season of promise and hope. In Colorado, the Leadon Family Foundation filed and registered a Colorado Chapter to invest, seed and support community leaders, recreation and coaching professionals, educational and mentoring professionals, Artists and journalists, authors and media professionals, Travel and Transportation professionals and entrepreneurs who will support present, problem solving ideas for present and future generations of investing in the CR

4 months ago

CREATE Entrepreneurship - Will our Orchard Outlast our Lives?

July 1, 2058 This is a prelude. On the morning of July 1, 2058, I will celebrate my 100-year-old birthday. And if I am not here, I want you to know that I planned every inch of perennial fruit trees to bear the good fruit on this land that was begun in me to be fragrant, fruitful offering. On July 1, 2028, my 70th birthday someone asked me what is on my bucket list! I said “I don’t have a bucket list.” I have things I want to begin, that I would like to see through to people who will bring it o

5 months ago

CREATE Daily Travel and Transportation

I am a traveler. I often have a journal, a guitar on my back an overnight bag and a laptop. Short, long and medium trips experienced through the journey learning and serving the communities that I visit. One of the areas of CREATE Daily is concentrating and offering the benefits of travel and transportation options at home, through our work and in community. One of my initiatives is to build community chapters for the Leadon Family Foundation (and University) and offering benefits and opportunit

5 months ago