Common Good for the Common Wealth

Common Good for the Common Wealth: Creating Culture, One Experience at a Time

• Horizon Community Foundation • Episode 8

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0:00 | 30:22

What transforms a space into a place people never forget?

This week, Nancy Grayson sits down with Josh Heuser, founder of AGAR, to explore how thoughtful design, public art, and unforgettable experiences can strengthen communities. From the creation of Ghost Baby and Danger Wheel to helping shape BLINK, Josh shares why creating emotion, not just attracting attention, is at the heart of great branding.

Together, they discuss Northern Kentucky's evolving identity, the importance of preserving culture as communities grow, and why authentic, human-centered experiences will matter more than ever in an increasingly digital world. It's a conversation about creativity, entrepreneurship, placemaking, and imagining what's possible when we invest in people as much as places. 

SPEAKER_01

This is Common Good for the Commonwealth, where we feature uncommon advocates from Northern Kentucky who work every day to make our region more vibrant. I'm your host, Nancy Grayson, President and CEO of Horizon Community Foundation of Northern Kentucky. And I'm thrilled today to have Josh Hooser of Augar join us for a wonderful conversation around arts and brand and experiential kind of activations. It's going to be a fun conversation today.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. Looking forward to it and thankful to be here today.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks for joining us. So let's step back. I had to ask how to pronounce it. I've been pronouncing your company's name as Agar. It's spelled A-G-A-R, but it's technically Augar. And we're gonna we're gonna talk about how you came about with the name. How didn't you come about with the idea for the company? Uh, give us a little district.

SPEAKER_00

So the name was actually called Ionic Collective when we first started. Um, and it was around you know, taking the word ion, which is a positive charge, and utilizing this collection, collection, or collective of people that create ions to put a feeling or emotion behind brand or an experience. Um, we got hit with a trademark infringement two years and we didn't. We have one employee.

SPEAKER_01

That's why I might have to do that.

SPEAKER_00

And we laughed about it. Um, but then we got C Census letter. We said, okay, we need to take this serious. And it was also a time where we needed to really think of like, okay, we've started this business, what is it going to become? Um, and we really stumbled upon the word agar, which is always everyone always says agar. And by definition, it's the red substance found in a petri dish that agitates or grows culture. Um, and I feel that's kind of been our motto is growing culture through community brands and public art.

SPEAKER_01

So, what was your very first project that you did?

SPEAKER_00

Well, I mean, when you start a business, you do a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01

Sometimes it's like throwing spaghetti on a wall. I get that.

SPEAKER_00

Logic revising spaghetti. And you think the first thing we did in Denver in a um really breakthrough at spigreens? But I will say one of the first things we did was in northern Kentucky. Um, and it was the um remind me, and um my mind just went blank, but the shore, um, what's the condo building over Newport by the South Shore?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, oh yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00

We did an unveil like a private unveiling event on the top floor when it was under construction. Okay, and we invited a bunch of like city influencers into that space to see it under construction to help build Buzz.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Um, and it was really more of about event production. They needed someone to bring lights and a DJ and invite a few people, and that was one of the very first things we did as an as an entity.

SPEAKER_01

And so you mentioned events. I think a lot of the work that you do is very much experiential, at least that's what you're you're known for. Your your own personal brand and your corporate brand. And there's some pretty crazy wild things that you guys have done. I think of uh Danger Wheel is one when I heard about it. I my head just kind of exploded. Um, talk about experiential branding, what exactly is it? And then we're gonna talk about danger wheel.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. So experiential marketing or experiential branding to me is the most powerful form of marketing that you can create. Because for us, experience or experiential is creating a feeling. And when you create a feeling, the ultimate goal of any brand or company is to create an emotional connection with a human or a consumer. And experience, what the core of what we do is we we we want to make you feel something. So if you walk into, you know, whether that's ghost bay or you walk into danger wheel, you're gonna feel something. And that feeling creates an emotion, and then emotion creates a memory. And that's the most powerful thing that I believe any organization can do with this creative memory.

SPEAKER_01

And folks, now you see why I am so grateful that Josh is also on our marketing committee. We're still trying to wrap our mind around how does experiential branding fit in with Horizon Community Foundation? Obviously, giving back is a key experience for most of our donors. Um, but this is something that we're we're unpacking, I think, on a pretty regular basis. But now knowing and having that definition, um, with Danger Wheel, how how did you explain it to folks who are listening? I think it's something that a lot of people, um, when they hear your name, if they're familiar, that and Ghost Baby would be the other. Um, explain Danger Wheel. How did you come up with it? And what were you trying to solve? Like what was the brand and experience you were bringing to life?

SPEAKER_00

So Danger Wheel is exactly what it sounds like. It's adult downhill big wheel racing. Um, and this wasn't an idea that I had created. Um, this was an idea that my business partner Andrew Salzburn created um as he started to develop a neighborhood within over the Rhine called Pendleton District, which at one time was one of the most highly drug trafficking areas in the country. And he opened a retail space, Rivar there called Nation, as a place early in the development, as a place that people in the neighborhood could come and find common ground outside of a community council meeting. And that was the idea of this bar space. And then as that started to happen, well, okay, because it was a little bit of a desolate area, we have to think of something to bring people into the neighborhoods to discover it. And there happened to be a hill right in that location, and him and a few of his buddies created danger wheel to bring people into the community, and it kind of mimicked the neighborhood. It was a dangerous nail in the um, and they did a really good job of that, and you know, our agar, we put our resources around it to make that event happen, and we ended up any of the dollars raised was given right back to the community council.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's great.

SPEAKER_00

So they could then create more avenues and guts for people in their community to connect. Um and and that that was how it started, why it started, and um unfortunately it doesn't exist anymore, but everybody wants to revive it. And we're a believer that sometimes things just they come in a time and place and they're here and you know that they're gone.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, there's a season for everything, I think.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

And then um, I did mention ghost baby. I I will admit I have a fun story. The first time I went, um I was with some friends, it was a birthday, and this was um March 13th, 2020. So right before the pandemic hit. And I think we all were questioning whether we should actually be out at that point in time because we could see the writing on the wall that maybe the world was going to have to take a pause. I don't think we had an understanding at that point of what it really was, but uh it was a group of friends who loved music, um, who loved to dance, and we kept hearing about Ghost Baby. And actually you were you were kind enough to help us to make sure that we could we could go. Thank you. And it was just the most incredible experience. Um, actually, my older daughter who just graduated from medical school, she went with some of her Harvard friends and they said, we've never seen anything like this before. They live in DC and New York and Boston still. And uh they said this is just a really like kind of a treasure of a location. Um, you go down, it feels like a speakeasy. If you haven't been friends, please go. It's it's it's just this big, open, beautiful space. So that tell us the history. I love because there's a lot of uh kind of underground spaces in that area. And so, how did you get turned on to Dustin?

SPEAKER_00

It was um take a step back. Um, I was developing a project over on Washington Park called the Transept, and 3CDC was renovating the building, which is now Centrifuse, and found a logger and tunnel in 2014. Yeah, I got a phone call, I say, Hey, come take a look at this, and I climbed down a ladder. Um, it's very deep underground. Flashlights and looked around and I was like, Oh, cool, they found a loggering tunnel. I've been in Cincinnati over Ryan for 20 years. I've been in a few of these. It's just cool to refill history and see it. And then it wasn't until 2018 that you know our office was in 3CDC's building, and they had mentioned, hey, why don't you go take a look at that loggering tunnel again? We made some updates to it. And when I walked in it, there was two staircases and an elevator, and I was like, Oh, this is you know in development, but there's egress here, this connection be something. Um I couldn't get the vision out of my head and live like what it was from when I was down there. I said, Oh, I've got to do this. Um, and I think when you go to create something like that, I have a saying in communities and cities that capital moves faster than culture, and that typically when there's investment going into regions or areas, because there's a financial structure with that, um, developers or property owners tend to look for the safest um tenant because there's capital needs that they need to fill. Sure, versus being patient to find the right space, the right, the right business for that space. And I think it was a little bit of 3CBC, not just putting an omelette in there, which they could have. And several restaurateurs looked at it and couldn't make the numbers work uh because of the space, the back alley entrance. And I just looked at all of that as like, this is why I want to do the things. And people say, you know, it's a speakeasy, and I'm like, Well, no one speaks easy anyone to get everything on social media, share anything. There's such a thing as speakeasy. So we'll try to create that environment, but to your point, we opened on February 12th, 2020. Yeah, and we closed on March 14th.

SPEAKER_01

I think literally the next day after so I I did not shut it down, France, but yes, I have shut it down. Yeah, it was over.

SPEAKER_00

Now I will say there might have been some real speakeasy events that happen in there. Nobody knows what we're talking about. Yeah, I had bored of my house, even the space and is underground, so you can make some fun of it. Um, but yeah, it's it's one of those spaces that I think takes history, takes intentional design, um, and represents it in a way that anyone can find their way into it. And the big thing with Ghost Baby that I admire this day to day is that some people call it, you know, it's hard to get into, may say that's an exclusive venue, and I'm like, this is the most inclusive venue in the city because anybody at any time can make a reservation and they get free entertainment. Yes, something we don't get anymore, and there's a value proposition to that. So yeah, we might be booked two, three months, gym busy season in advance on the weekend, but someone opened their phone and made a reservation and it didn't cost them anything. Right. It didn't matter who they were, and that's why it works across all socio and economic factors is you go in there, there's 21-year-olds, there's 67-year-olds, and everything, everything in between, enjoying an experience together. Um, and I think that's the magic that a lot of people overlook outside of it being four stories underground, a well-designed is it's it's extremely inclusive.

SPEAKER_01

Well, you feel like in a totally different world. So, to your point of the experience of it, it's very special, it is unique. Um, I yeah, I I see it as very much um open and very accessible. Sometimes people cancel their reservations. Sometimes you can go up and whoever the gentleman bouncer is at the front is quite lovely, and he'll say, Yes, we we have some we have some seeds at the bar if you want to go down for a drink or two. But um, the name ghost baby, where did that come from?

SPEAKER_00

So there's many different versions of reasoning.

SPEAKER_01

It's haunted. I love a haunted space.

SPEAKER_00

And it has a lot of different meanings um to myself um for different things within my just life with the time. Um, but at the core of the folklore story, true or not true, Xaver's a contractor when they found the building. I was down there hanging lights, um, construction lights, and he got to about the third one and he heard a crash, and the light bulb, the first one broke, and he he shined his light up the ladder, and he swore he saw little baby feet steps. Um, so that was the and he vowed never to walk into the space, and that is a slippery that was told to me and a picture sent to me. Wow before after I had opened the place.

SPEAKER_01

So and when did that theoretically have that?

SPEAKER_00

2013-14 when they found something. Yeah. Um, so yeah, that was the piece. And then ghost baby. I really leaned into that, and like the design is I always say it's pre-prohibition flabber style meets the electric 80s. So that's a lot of things. That's a lot to take in, but you know, it's you know, you know, pre-prohibition is the space, you know, vloggering tunnels. You know, we always look at the old years, it's like the 20s, the roaring 20s, is like this pinnacle of American society. But yet people wore some of the same clothes over and over again. Yes, they use mixed cocktails, and like, you know, I guess the alcohol didn't taste good. Like, we have really good alcohol now, and we we collude it with cocktails, which doesn't make a lot of sense, but back then that's why you had cocktails, orchestras played in bars. Um, so there's this ghost of an era um tied with this idea of like the iconic deities, like, hey baby, and like I don't even know if you're allowed to say that anymore. Probably depends on what situation so it's this tension of like pre you know pre-prohibition flapper style meets the electric deities and just these different lifestyles of human American nostalgia and kind of all kind of thrown into one. So I don't think anyone would ever walk in there and think that.

SPEAKER_01

I am I am now, but that's the movie in my mind.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, create something. Yes, how do you pull American culture or memory nostalgia into a feeling that you exude when you when you walk into a space?

SPEAKER_01

I want to switch it up a little bit. So Northern Kentuckians and uh you know love our community. We're we're part of Cincinnati, we're part of Kentucky, sometimes we're neither. Uh our listeners know I I repeat that refrain a lot that we have that union kind of space. What is Northern Kentucky's brand?

SPEAKER_00

Oh um so what I I've thought about this a lot. You know, I I come from independence, Kentucky. I was brought up here in Kenton County. Um, and I often refer to where I'm from. Uh, when people ask me, are you from Cincinnati? What part of Cincinnati are you from? I always say the south side. Oh. And they look at me like I have foreheads. Like I didn't even know there was even in Cincinnati, like asked me that.

SPEAKER_01

I love it.

SPEAKER_00

I would just say south side, and then my hell, you look at me and like there is no south side. Um, it's can it's Kentucky. And I think there is what I love about what's happening in in Northern Kentucky and Covington right now, is there's this underdog mentality. Yes. Um, and I think it's leaning into that and being a little more um just nimble and quicker, less bureaucratic, um, and just a desire to like create and do better every day. And I see it in in northern Kentucky, and I feel like it's um there's an energy here, and I've seen energy in different parts of our city over the last 25 years, and they they come and they they go. Um, but there feels like there's a strong foundation and it continues to build. Um, so I would hope that Northern Kentucky leans into that underdog um mentality and just and just continues and grows because there's there is a different feeling um on the streets of Covington that hasn't been there 10 years ago. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, when I uh graduated from law school, which was in 2000, I'm playing my age card here right now. Um so please be gentle with me, friends. Um I I remember people did not want to cross the river because they thought of crime or they, you know, had the old Newport kind of idea of the mafia and Sin City, although now we're kind of leading into that entertainment space now again, uh, for Vinport. Um, but it's I I feel like it's the river cities have this sense of like creativity, like there's a lot of entrepreneurship that's occurring right now. Um, I've heard of Covington being referred to as a village. So you hear um Emily Wolf and Paul Lettman, for example, talking about Mainstrass and their five restaurants, and she's an artist as well, and it has that experience in mind and how it's a village that they're raising their children in and that they're building for their neighbors and and for future generations. And so I do think um we are a little grittier, maybe than Cincinnati and a little bootstrappy.

SPEAKER_00

And you have an advantage, yes, and there used to be you know, I used to go to Main Straws 20 years ago, and you know, I remember stickers back in the day that said, put your shirt on, Kite. Yes, and I guess I'm almost like take your shirt on, logo, you know, shirt off and and and you know, beat on your chest proudly.

SPEAKER_01

Suns out, guns out.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, like as this like readiness wins, it's real, it's you can feel it. Um, and there's a a lot more momentum happening on this side of the river than is happening on the other side of the river that's been had great momentum in the last 20 years. Um, and I I feel that as a you know, as a regional you know, person from northern Kentucky spends a lot of time in in Cincinnati, like there's a different shift in mindset that's happening here and the region's feeling it and it's just stay hungry and take sure off.

SPEAKER_01

Well, and I love that we're urban, suburban, and rural. We we try to reflect that. I mean, when we launched at Horizon, we that's why we launched. We needed something of our own, and it, you know, this very well being part of the work that we're doing, but making sure that we're nimble and reflecting what the needs are of the VDV. And, you know, it does look different in different pockets. So what the needs of Havington are, there may be similar needs if it's housing or food or mental health as Erlinger or Florence or even some of the more rural areas. Um, for instance, I live in unincorporated Moo County, and I'm 10 minutes away from picking up fresh chicken eggs off of a lady's porch and leaving cash on my honor. It's a very different space. But we're facing the same issues. It's just how do we tackle them? How do we come together to address that? And that's why I'm really proud that Horizon has launched finally. I wish we would have done it 20 or 30 years ago. But to your point, there is a sense of energy that's happening right now. Um, I get really excited. I like seeing how it manifests uh further south of the river, too. That's something that I'm not particularly interested in. Where do you see opportunity for us in northern Kentucky? Is there an area I know at Riverfront is growing so quickly?

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. I mean, it goes back to the comment I made previously about capital moves fast in the culture. And growing up in independence, there was one street light, it was very rural. Um, and you look at that as an area where capital was moving faster than culture. There isn't a lot of independently owned private restaurants or bars or places that um that create some place. Where capital moves faster than culture, every place starts to look like any place. And taking the time to take a step back and like you know, Kenton County Courthouse and Independence, the old courthouse, that lower area, preserving that with culture and entrepreneurs that aren't just the tech, you know, startup business with the entrepreneurs, the mama shop restaurants. You do the same thing in Burlington, there's some great restaurants over there. Being able to preserve those what once were city centers and now are surrounded by you know capital moving fast. How do you preserve that and create cultural institutions and those of the areas and provide resources to those entrepreneurs who are willing to take a chance to create something that ultimately becomes a place that represents the culture of that neighborhood?

SPEAKER_01

So I'm hearing it's very place based in in terms of that experience where the culture is growing, right? So you're you're talking about storefronts and restaurants, maybe kind of a third place for communities to have. And I I guess do you see that being kind of the way that we seek that culture moving forward? I think people want to be together and not just on their phones or online, although it's very easy to do that. Um, do you see in the future we're still doing more of that gathering in person to create that culture?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, I think that with the rise of technology, the rise of AI, it's gonna make us all more efficient. Uh, it's gonna give us more time on our hands. That's why people are seeking out experiences. So people want to, you know, if you look at even Gross Baby on the microscale, they want to have something to talk about. They want to have something that the experience doesn't always present itself, you know, at the forefront. You have to peel it back a little bit and learn. And that's this the idea of exploration and storytelling. And I just I believe people are gonna continue to seek analog experiences through the rise and um implementation of technology around us. And we are gonna seek more human moments and experiences, and we should. Um that should be you know, it feels like you know, some communities probably over the year, and I wouldn't say here regionally, um, but there's definitely cities that I feel scotten away from from creating that um that institution. I think locally that's some of that might be happening across the river. Um there's just a different attitude right now.

SPEAKER_01

Sense of connection that we're looking for. What is there a project or one that's on the horizon? I I like to say that intentionally, um, that maybe you can share a little bit about or something that you're working on that's that's exciting to you right now. Um without playing your hand too much.

SPEAKER_00

There's there's always interest and intrigue to create something. Um you know, there's obviously blank. I just left a meeting that we're working on that and was actually plans of of what we're gonna be doing over here in Northern Happen.

SPEAKER_01

We we just were talking with Rachel Parker, yeah. So very interesting title.

SPEAKER_00

Excitement in that. Um, but you know, I've I have a lot of ideas. I've always had a lot of ideas, and then but there's a little bit of like I'd be obsessed with making the idea reality. Um and then when the idea is out in the world, it's gonna like let it be what it is. Um, so there isn't there's a few things that are kind of like maybe gaining a little momentum, but I haven't had that one thing that like okay, the the horse is out of the gate.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, the alignment of everything.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so there's there's a lot of, you know, if you look at Blake and our business is is growing from an experiential marketing and brand side. We have a couple conversations and hospitality menus that we're working on, but they're not, you know, and suddenly they steamroll and they form a life of its own. So we're in the pushing moment right now um to get some of our ideas out. And I'm sure there'll be something more excited about six months.

SPEAKER_01

Well, you did mention blink, and and I know we're gonna wrap off our time here in a in a moment, but I had no idea that it would be quite as as big as it has become. Um, when we had our podcast with Rachel, I shared that um Trey, my husband, is on Arts Wave board and was sharing when it first launched, and you you were one of the people that helped to really make it happen at the anagled stage. And I I couldn't wrap my hand around it. I mean, he was showing me videos and examples of things, and we had friends in town, and it just was this like kind of mind-blowing experience that I don't think even if I'd seen pictures of it ahead of time, I would have fully understood what it meant. And now to see that it's a more regular um experience and that it has grown so much, and thank goodness it's it's growing on northern Kentucky side, and that we're gonna potentially have some more leave behinds this time, so that we have longer standing art. You're smiling. You if you can't see him because you're listening, obviously he he's aware that there are some really great things that are that are in the path. But I mean, maybe you foresaw that this was going to be at the level that it was, but it it's really taken hold in in terms of who we are and our identity as a region.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and I I think we knew that the first time we created luminosity in Washington Park. Like if you were there that first weekend that we ever did luminosity, it was illuminate the city. And there was a feeling in that park that just radiated from that, that we knew what what the vision was then. And in the preceding years, due to liability and different visions of what it should be, we started putting fences up and supporting walls up versus unleashing the creativity of what it should have been and what everyone felt in that part. So we knew right away after year one, like there's something bigger here, we need to go work on that while executing this. And the vision was there from the beginning. It it just, you know, little things lead to big things, and you have to stay persistent. And like when you when you know you feel something and you have a vision for something, you have to just kind of keep knocking. And that's what we did with Blank when we started in 2017. Like when we did the parade, I'll always remember this as a as a as one of the creators of like we looked down Vine Street and we looked around, we're like, they got it. Like, there's no better feeling than that.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, it is full of joy, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And there was a mission we the you know, future city. Anyone can find their way into that, like Covington's a future city, independent's a future city, let's see. Cincinnati's a future city. It it's like it's like what do you imagine yourself being? And there's a statement of like, don't we kind of want the future to be here faster? Yes, like as humans, like we've I mean it feels like technology, we've been looking at this as a little tangent off, but like you know, back to the future, it's like the world isn't really what back to the future said it was gonna be right, and as I get a little older, I'm 47 now, grade 101, like I kind of want the future to be here a little faster.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, like old experience with the flying car, is that what you're trying to say about it and I think there's a natural human connection that people do too.

SPEAKER_00

And we put that future city umbrella out in the beginning, like people started to have this reality oh, our city can be anything. So, you know, then there's a story of 2024 that goes completely unmentioned is we had an artist participate in Blake in 2024 who was 11 years old at Blake in 2017. Oh so you know where it's touching generations, um, and that's to me like what the the pinnacle of what experience should do.

SPEAKER_01

It allows us to dream. And my last question to you is what gives you hope, especially for northern Kentucky right now.

SPEAKER_00

I think it's there's uh there's gotta be hope in humanity. I just think that's uh you know, there's so I mean, what we're living through um beyond just a political landscape, what a emerging of technology and um just the um interconnectedness of people, both in a digital and physical form, um there's a lot to be excited about. Um, but there's a very easy way to lose hope in humanity, I would think. So you know, in your mind is like we got to keep looking forward to the horizon. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

That's just catching on, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Just you know, just be better than we were yesterday. Um, and I think if you keep that mantra just to try to be better than I was yesterday, or is the community better than we are yesterday, then you have something to look forward to.

SPEAKER_01

So Josh, you're such a gift to our community. Thank you for all you do. Thank you for joining us. This is Common Good for the Commonwealth. We'll catch you next time.