Banking on KC – Lisa Peña of Urban Hikes KC: Discovering Kansas City's Hidden Treasures
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Kelly Scanlon:
Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Lisa Pena, the founder of Urban Hikes KC. Welcome, Lisa.
Lisa Peña:
Thank you so much, Kelly. I'm so happy to be here.
Kelly Scanlon:
Well, it's so interesting what you do. You combine your love of hiking and your love of some of the, maybe not so well-known urban areas of Kansas City, and you've created this unique experience for Kansas Citians, for tourists, visitors, all kinds of people. What inspired you to combine those two passions into a business?
Lisa Peña:
When I think about what inspired me, it's something that's really simple. I was actually listening to a podcast. The podcast is called Side Hustle Nation, and it's about all different side hustles. And I heard an interview with somebody in California who has an urban hiking business. And when I heard her interview, her name is Alex Kenin, a light bulb just went off in my brain. And I thought, "Wow, I can have an urban hiking business here in Kansas City. I'm from Kansas City, I grew up here, I've seen it change. We have an incredible history. We have art all over and we have hills."
Kelly Scanlon:
Yes, so you can actually get some fitness work in too.
Lisa Peña:
Exactly. And that's one thing that I really like about our urban hikes is that they aren't just short walking tours, that we actually go up some hills, your heart rate goes up and we walk usually three to four miles, maybe a little bit longer on an urban hike. So you actually get around 10,000 steps in when you come on an urban hike with us.
Kelly Scanlon:
And how long of a period do you do that in? Is that over a couple hour period or?
Lisa Peña:
It is over about a couple of hours. Normally our urban hikes last about three hours long.
Kelly Scanlon:
Well, you probably stop and explain a few things along the way too.
Lisa Peña:
Exactly. We stop a lot actually. We stop and we talk about what we're seeing. We talk about the hidden details that we often miss if we're driving, so there's plenty of stopping as we're walking.
Kelly Scanlon:
Let's talk about that. Your hikes have various themes depending on where you're at, what part of the city you're going to be walking through. So how do you research and then select the different historical and the cultural elements that you incorporate into each of those themed hikes and also so that they resonate not just with locals who might find them interesting because after all, this is where I live, but also with visitors, with tourists.
Lisa Peña:
When I think about the way that we research, it really is multifaceted. First of all, when I first started my business, I started running the areas. I love to run and I would run with a friend or my sister and just scope out the areas. I would say, "What's down this alleyway? What is up these steps? What is down these steps? What is on the other side of this park?" And it was just curiosity and it was exploring at first. And then I found a really good route. My first route was the Crossroads West side route, so it goes through the Crossroads Art District in the West Side neighborhood. And then from there I started to find what I call anchor points. An anchor points is a term that I actually learned from Alex Kenin in California.
And those are the big things that we want to talk about while we're on the route because we aren't talking the entire time. And from there we start researching those. So when I say big thing, what I mean is a historic building or a park or maybe a sculpture or an outdoor piece of art that we want to highlight. So when we actually start researching it, we research it in many different ways. For example, there are a lot of historic documents that local organizations have written. For example, there's that 25 page document that the River Market wrote about the history of the River Market. Also, if you go to the webpages of many businesses that are currently in historic buildings, they usually have an about page that talks about the history.
We go into the buildings, we talk to the people there that know about the history. We also have spent a lot of time in the Missouri Valley Room.
Kelly Scanlon:
Wonderful resource.
Lisa Peña:
Exactly. It is the best resource, I would say, to find out about Kansas City history and dig really deep.
Kelly Scanlon:
You use documents, books, you go and you talk with people who know the history and you go walk it yourself and experience it firsthand and put it all together. One of the things that you do I know, capturing the cultural atmosphere is very important to you. And so one of the things you offer is hikes in both English and Spanish. Now, when you're interested in a hike that is delivered in Spanish, do you present it in English and Spanish or are there separate special Spanish hikes?
Lisa Peña:
Like you said, we offer hikes in English and Spanish. I'm bilingual. We also have another guide named Gary who leads our Quindaro Ruins hikes. He as well is bilingual. And when we think about culture sensitivity, I really think that it's a much broader topic than just a language barrier. It really is something that we work hard to weave throughout all of our urban hikes, whether they're in English or in Spanish, for example. We really try to highlight the stories of immigrant groups, people of color, stories that have not been told throughout history. If we look back in our history, it's been told at a certain way and we try to highlight those other stories.
So one example of that is we work hard to highlight the stories of the Wyandot people. And when I say Wyandot, I'm talking about the Wyandotte Native American people that were forced to come to the Kansas City, Kansas area in 1843. We go to the Wyandot burial ground. However, there's a large sign that says Huron Cemetery. But what I've learned from cultural presentations from the Wyandot people is that the word Huron actually wasn't a complimentary term to them. So we use the language Wyandot people opposed to the Huron people. That's just one way that we try to be more culturally sensitive.
Kelly Scanlon:
We've talked a little bit about how your hikes are themed, so tell us about some of those themes. Give us some examples.
Lisa Peña:
We have a lot of different themes on our urban hikes. We have a coffee urban hike that is one of our most popular ones, where we stop at three different local coffee shops. We have awesome collaborations where the coffee shops will provide samples for us and then also usually talk with our groups. We have a themed urban hike where we end with wine and cheese.
Kelly Scanlon:
Fun.
Lisa Peña:
And that one is really fun. We also have themed urban hikes according to the history of the neighborhood. For example, we have a Quindaro Urban Hike, and the Quindaro Urban Hike is one where we talk about the Underground Railroad. And the Quindaro Townsite was the first place that enslaved people stepped foot on free ground when they escaped from Missouri into Kansas.
Kelly Scanlon:
And I bet there's a lot of people who do not know that.
Lisa Peña:
Exactly. And it's our Kansas City history. And so that's the theme according to the location. Most of our hikes have themes according to the neighborhoods and the history of those specific neighborhoods. For example, we have a historic Northeast urban hike, where we go through Kessler Park, which was the first plant park in addition to Pendleton Heights neighborhood and Scarritt Renaissance neighborhood, and talk about the history all there. So we have a mixture of themes being around coffee or wine and cheese, but also the historic aspects.
Kelly Scanlon:
Given that you go into areas that many Kansas Citians have probably never visited, a hidden and lesser known hidden gems, little facts that you find people are very amazed about.
Lisa Peña:
One of my favorite places to go that Kansas Citians mainly haven't visited is Observation Park. Observation Park is one of the highest points in the west side. It is a large park that has a large grassy area, and it used to be a reservoir that provided water for the stockyards. So if you think about why it's so high up and the stockyards are below it in the West Bottoms, and there's a beautiful view of the Kansas City skyline from there. When we go up there with Kansas Citians, unless the Kansas Citian live in downtown or the west side, they most of the time have never visited Observation Park. Another one of my favorite areas that wows Kansas Citians is Kaw Point Park.
Kaw Point Park is right at the confluence of the Kansas and the Missouri River, and it's surrounded by the industrial Fairfax district with highways overhead. But it's this nature sanctuary where you can literally see the seam of the Kaw River and the Missouri River. And it is this special place and there's another exceptional view of the Kansas City skyline from there. Other places that really awe Kansas Citians are the alleyways that we go through. We wind through the alleyways in the Crossroads Art District. We highlight a lot of the murals that are painted during the SpraySeeMO Mural Festival. And many Kansas Citians don't realize that those murals are hidden in those alleyways behind businesses and coffee shops that they regularly go to.
Kelly Scanlon:
They drive past them every day, but they're hidden. So these tours that you take, how many people can go on a tour and typically, are they people that don't know each other, they sign up individually or maybe in couples? Or is it usually a group that is going out for some sort of a team building exercise or just a bunch of friends got together? How does that work?
Lisa Peña:
We really have both. On the weekends, we offer urban hikes that are open to the public, and we usually cap it at 12 to 15 people. They're mostly people who don't know each other. Often people that will come with their friend, their partner, or someone in their family. So we often have groups of two to three people that forms a larger group of 12 to 13 people. However, we always have people that come by themselves too, and we encourage everybody meeting each other at the beginning because it's also an experience to connect with others.
During the week, we offer a lot of corporate staff outings. There are many companies that ask us to do staff outings, and it's such a fun alternative to the regular happy hour. You're actually getting out and you're getting the fresh air, and from that you can even cultivate creative ideas.
Kelly Scanlon:
Sure. It's inspirational in many ways. You talked about being inspired by a podcaster in California, you thought you could do that here, and you started out, it was a side project, it is now full-time. What convinced you to take that leap to full-time and how did you manage the process of scaling up?
Lisa Peña:
When I think about what I managed to scale up and how I actually changed from this being a side hustle to a full-time, first of all, it took courage. I had never had a full-time business. I have worked in the non-profit world before I started my business and before the non-profit world, I was in Peace Corps. Having my own business full-time was never a part of my story. And in 2019 when I started my business, I realized that it was just me. I worked a full-time job.
I loved my full-time job. I was at Girl Scouts. I loved it, but I didn't have very much time to give tours. Imagine if you work in a full-time job. And I also wanted to do some things on the weekends, but most of my weekends were dedicated to urban hikes, and my business didn't grow at all. At the end of 2019, I decided, "2020 is going to be the year."
Kelly Scanlon:
But you know what? It's outdoors. It actually was the year.
Lisa Peña:
Exactly. And I told Girl Scouts that I was going to stop working at Girl Scouts by the end of February, and I was going to give my all to Urban Hikes Kansas City. Little did I know what happened in spring of 2020, started focusing all my time on my business, and I did it so that I could actually grow. And that's when I got other guides to come on. And despite the pandemic, as you mentioned, I mean people were looking for outdoor activities to do. And by May of 2020, I was able to give urban hikes again and focus my full time.
You asked about scaling up and scaling up really has been influenced by the other guides that I've had come along because when it was just me by myself, I didn't grow at all. It just was too much. But once I had other guides come on, then they could give an urban hike on a Saturday morning in Kansas when I was on the Missouri side. And word of mouth in Kansas City really spread, and that's helped my business tremendously.
Kelly Scanlon:
You've got some very unique practical challenges to deal with As a business person. You're outside, so you've got the weather, you're going in somewhat odd places at times, and so you have safety issues, probably. How do you handle the kinds of surprises that those sorts of elements can throw at you each day?
Lisa Peña:
You mentioned how we have a lot of different external challenges like the weather, or for example, if it's rainy, we will still hold the urban hike if it's just light drizzle. But if it's going to be pouring down all morning, we normally will cancel and reschedule and give refunds as well if someone isn't able to reschedule. We also have our urban hikers sign a waiver because when we're walking four and a half miles in the city with a mixture of some parks, city sidewalks with uprooted things, I mean, we never really know what could happen. You could easily turn an ankle.
Kelly Scanlon:
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start a business? It's based on their passions, much like you did, but they're not really sure whether or not it could be a business. They might want to spend their time doing it, but they don't really know if they could earn a living or employ people.
Lisa Peña:
I would tell that person to give it a try. Just give it a try. You don't lose anything by giving it a try. I mean, what you lose is you lose time, but it's not really a loss if you're actually getting data from that which you are if somebody is trying something. Because they at least will find out if it will work, they'll find out what other collaborators they may have. So I would say give it a try. One thing that I have found in Kansas City is that there are lots of resources for entrepreneurs and also somebody won't ever know if something is going to work, if the idea just stays in their head.
And even if it doesn't work how they thought it might work, just from trying, they're going to learn if they need to pivot, if they come up with a new idea. And I really believe, or I've experienced myself, that when something is in motion, then other things keep happening. But if something is not in motion, it just stays like that.
Kelly Scanlon:
How do you think that Urban Hikes has impacted the Kansas City community? How has it impacted community engagement and even social change perhaps?
Lisa Peña:
Well, that's such a cool question because when I started my business, I didn't think about the social change that it could have. But we see over 2000 people a year, 80% of the people that we see are actual Kansas Citians, and we bring Kansas Citians to areas that they might not have explored on their own. We bring them into local businesses and often our urban hikers talk about eating lunch in the neighborhoods where we have just hiked. Or they'll start out with coffee because we'll start out at a coffee shop. A local coffee shop where we are. And that is helping Kansas Citians to just be able to support these local businesses that are in the areas that we highlight.
Another aspect is that we share history that hasn't been shared. I mean, not that all of our history hasn't been shared, but we really try to highlight those untold stories. And in turn, it just feeds pride to be a Kansas Citian. And our hikers usually will research more then, and that's what we want. We want our hikers to come back to the areas to walk them, to explore them, to show them to their families. I mean, the social changes is Kansas Citians, I believe, are even starting to have more pride about Kansas City after they've gone on our urban hikes.
Kelly Scanlon:
It's a much richer, cultural city than some people realize when they just don't really go much beyond their own neighborhoods.
Lisa Peña:
Exactly.
Kelly Scanlon:
So looking forward, are there any new themes or are there any new areas of Kansas City that you plan to explore?
Lisa Peña:
I have a lot of ideas for areas. There are so many neighborhoods that could have urban hikes in them that we currently aren't in right now. We have about 10 different urban hikes in 10 different neighborhoods. However, we just rolled out Rosedale Urban Hike. That was in September, and that was in collaboration with the hundred-year anniversary of the Rosedale Arch, which is a World War I memorial right behind Rosedale Middle School, which is where I went to middle school. And that is our most recent hike. And we've also unrolled other hikes this year. However, we always do customizations of hikes, so I wouldn't be surprised if we have some customizations of our hikes really out here in the spring.
Kelly Scanlon:
So you give these year round?
Lisa Peña:
We do give them year round.
Kelly Scanlon:
So even when it's cold out, they're hiking.
Lisa Peña:
Yes, exactly. We have less urban hikes during the winter, but in December we are going strong with our Plaza and Crestwood Urban Hikes, which is a really special experience because we start at 3 P.M., and by the time we return at 6 P.M. the Plaza lights are on. We offer that in December, and then January and February we offer our Artful KC Streetcar Urban Hike where we go into art galleries. So we are also walking outside. You still get about four miles of walking, but we aren't outside long enough to get really cold because then we go into an art gallery. And that was created in collaboration with the Kansas City Streetcar. We also still run our coffee Urban Hike in the wintertime.
Kelly Scanlon:
Again, so you can get in and get warmed up before you go back out in the cold again. So all of these hikes and what they cover, what they include is on your website?
Lisa Peña:
Correct.
Kelly Scanlon:
And tell us about the website and how you can find more information and register if you'd like to.
Lisa Peña:
Our website is urbanhikeskc.com. That's urbanhikeskc.com. We have a button that says book today, and that is the calendar of all of our upcoming hikes that we offer to the public. If someone would like to do a staff outing, which we do a lot, just contact me and my information is on my website. It's adventurer@urbanhikeskc.com. That's my email. And we will accommodate, we'll figure out the day and the time that works for you with the neighborhood, and we'll create that urban hike for your staff group.
Kelly Scanlon:
Sounds like a lot of fun. Thank you so much, Lisa, for coming and talking with us about your organization, and we really appreciate you coming and sharing this with us.
Lisa Peña:
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Joe Close:
This is Joe Close, president of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Lisa Pena, founder of Urban Hikes KC for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. Urban Hikes KC brings Kansas Citians and visitors together to explore the city's lesser-known neighborhoods, rich history and diverse culture, all while providing participants with a healthy dose of exercise. Her hikes not only highlight Kansas City's hidden gems, but also promote community engagement and local business support.
At Country Club Bank, we're proud to showcase local entrepreneurs like Lisa, who make Kansas City a more vibrant and connected place. By creating unique experiences, driving community pride and supporting small businesses, Urban Hikes KC fosters connections that lead to stronger communities. Thanks for tuning in this week. We're banking on you Kansas City, Country Club Bank member FDIC.