Always Be Cool (ABC) Podcast - Bobby Kerr & Darren Copeland of SummitLendingUSA.com - #150 Brien Darby | Executive Director for Cultivate KC, a locally-grown nonprofit working to grow food, farms, and community in support of an equitable, sustainable and healthy local food system for all.

#150 Brien Darby | Executive Director for Cultivate KC, a locally-grown nonprofit working to grow food, farms, and community in support of an equitable, sustainable and healthy local food system for all.

07/05/23 • 8 min

Always Be Cool (ABC) Podcast - Bobby Kerr & Darren Copeland of SummitLendingUSA.com

Cultivate KC is proud to introduce Brien Darby as our new Executive Director! Relocating to Kansas City with her husband and young daughter, Brien came to us from the Denver Botanic Gardens. She was born in K.C. and still has family here. We are so pleased and excited for you to get to know her.

Brien’s food knowledge began in her childhood garden, where her father would set aside space for her brother and her to grow whatever they’d like. She helped with farms at her high school and college and appreciated the lessons farming gives to students as well as supplying food to the cafeterias.

Her first paid farming job was at a 3-acre restaurant farm in Boulder. She created a crop plan to suit the needs of the five-restaurant group associated with the farm. By then she knew that growing food was her passion! To cut down her commute, she found a benefited position with the Denver Botanic Gardens and soon built a successful suite of urban agriculture programs.
Brien learned of Cultivate KC in the summer of 2016 and thought it seemed like a one-stop shop for food access, urban agriculture training, support and advocacy. She’d been hoping for an opportunity to join the organization.

When asked what excites her about working with Cultivate, Brien replied, “Who wouldn’t be excited by the magic that is watching a tiny seed planted in the ground, grow into a plant, produce a bounty, and craft the very seeds that will start the cycle over again?” She enjoys living with the seasons and understands that each year from death springs a renewal of life. Along with the Cultivate team, she’s excited to share these seasonal rhythms and lessons and make farming and food accessible to more people.

She also recognizes that any job within the food system can be daunting, because we’re in some small part responsible for a supply chain that provides the most basic human need: food. She said, “if we approach our work with a level of respect and care deserving of our product and our customer, we should feel exalted and awed by what we can accomplish.”
Comparing KC’s urban farming scene to those in other cities, one unique aspect Brien observes here is visibility. It seems in some parts of town, you can’t go a few blocks without seeing a community garden, urban farm or community orchard project. Compared to many other comparably sized cities, she also sees more of an emphasis on farming as a profession in the urban space.

Some issues Brien sees that are not unique to K.C.’s urban farmers are the rising cost of land and competition from development as well as the myriad of challenges climate change brings. Higher overall temperatures (especially nighttime temperatures) and i

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#149 | Matt Anthony, President and CEO, Y&R North America | Founder & President of Head For the Cure

As President and CEO, North America, Matt Anthony is the driving force behind Y&R’s continued evolution as a modern agency in the United States and Canada. As a founding partner of Y&R’s digital agency, VML, Matt possesses an entrepreneurial fervor, a deep knowledge of the complex digital landscape for brands, and long-standing relationships with many in the Y&R Group and WPP networks. Since taking the helm as President and CEO in 2013, Matt has been integral in the attraction of new clients throughout the North American network and the strengthening of the alignment between Y&R and VML.
From 2011 to 2013, Matt served as Chief Digital Officer of Y&R, responsible for strengthening and optimizing the digital competency of the global Y&R Advertising network.
Concurrent to his role as Chief Digital Officer and prior to joining Y&R, Matt Anthony was the catalyst behind the explosive growth of VML. When Matt joined the small Kansas City-based agency as its fourth partner in 1994, VML had one major client and fewer than 10 employees. Since then, Matt has led the formerly small shop’s expansion to a formidable global digital agency with more than 1500 employees across 22 offices on five continents, turning out difference-making, award-winning work for some of the world’s most famous and respected brands.
In 2001, Matt guided VML’s decision to join the WPP Group of leading communication agencies, and then managed the agency’s alignment into Y&R Group four years later.
Matt is a passionate, tireless supporter in the fight against cancer. In memory of his brother Chris, whom he lost at age 37 to a glioblastoma brain tumor, Matt and his family established the Head for the Cure Foundation to raise awareness and funding for brain cancer research. Proceeds from Head for the Cure 5K Run & Walks, now in 15 markets, are directed to the Brain Tumor Trials Collaborative, a consortium of 24 brain cancer centers across North America.

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#151 Frank Hicks - Owner, Knuckleheads World Famous Music Venue; C.E.O. of the F.O.G. (F*cking Old Guys) Club

Famous musicians to play Knuckleheads:

Merle Haggard, Sturgill Simpson, Bruce Hornsby, Edgar & Johnny Winter, Aaron Neville, Kevin Bacon, Blackberry Smoke, Burton Cummings of the Guess Who, Buddy Guy, David Allen Coe, Don McLean, Fabulous Thunderbirds, Johny Lang, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Costner, Los Lonely Boys, Marcus King, Poco, Queensryche, Uncle Cracker, Randy Bachman, Skid Row, Tanya Tucker, Bob Jovi, Soulshine
Humble beginnings - Motorcycle repair shop (FOG Cycles) turned best live music venue in the midwest.
- Story of how the name of the business came to be? (Three Stooges)
- Importance of not being married to an idea or business idea for eternity - plans change sometimes, growth mindset, etc.
Leon Russell first show you booked, that didn’t quite pan out? - 6 Gold Records, 2 Grammys - Story about getting burned and life lessons surrounding this occasion
- Schooled up on contract law, etc
Story of murals of deceased musicians?
History of Knuckleheads site and buildings? History of Music and entertainment in the East Bottoms
- Late 1800s - Heim Brewing Co
- Railcars would carry customers to/from the brewery & City Market
Defiance during covid - Govt overreach, importance of live music during troubling economic and uncertain times
Knuckleheads - 5 venues in one - How did the idea of turning the bike repair shop into a live music venue turn into 5 venues?
My first experience and knowledge of Knucks - “Billy Bob Thornton’s band plays there!”
- Actually just played there last week
Before Reiger Whiskey’s massive operation ... .why and how did you choose the East Bottoms area in KC and how did you, essentially, convince people from all over to visit the E.Bottoms when they probably wouldn’t have otherwise?
TRAIN - The train’s howl shakes walls and rattles doors. It’s also frequently responsible for eerie, magical moments that can happen only at Knuckleheads. “Joe Ely was playing here one time.....
Expansion of outdoor area - why? Big cost to you?
Business lesson: Slow and steady wins the race, 1% better every day and then 25 years later....you’re where you are.
“This is the kind of stuff that makes you feel like you’ve done something.” - Frank Hicks
“Was never about the money. It was about having a big party with friends, in my backyard. Everyone who comes here is equal and we all come for the same reason - to enjoy live music.”
Known for charity fundraisers and community events - Frankie D, 86 year old Kansas City man who was dragged to death in a carjacking in 2017, while trying to figh