Morgan Casey

In this episode of The Rundown with Rene Knott, Rene sits down with Morgan Casey, one of the most influential event curators in St. Louis, for a conversation about risk, authenticity, and building something from nothing.

What started as a hobby while working full-time quickly turned into a thriving career creating some of the most unique and talked-about events in the city. Morgan shares how she took the leap of faith to bet on herself, the challenges that came with it, and why staying true to who you are is the key to long-term success.

The conversation also dives into her upbringing, the influence of her mother, her faith, and the mindset that allows her to keep pushing forward—even when things get difficult.

It’s a story about creativity, courage, and the power of building a life that aligns with who you truly are.

The Rundown with Rene Knott is powered by I Got Dan and Midwest BankCentre.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

I I think your influence is one that when you speak, people listen. What would be the advice you'd give to someone who's sitting there thinking about taking that chance, taking that risk, and really falling in love with their true self?

SPEAKER_01 0:15

I would say I I'll give a few tips. Um things I wish someone probably would have said to me is that really plan out, map out what your goal is. Create a short-term, long term, and then even like a 10 year from now. And it doesn't mean that you have to like stick to it 102%, but it's like a guide. And I think that it keeps you organized. Um have a mentor. Have three, I would find like three mentors that you can call and actually get real advice from people that have been through certain things.

SPEAKER_05 1:07

If you are into entertainment, if you're into partying, if you're into the scene, you are going to love this episode because joining us is the one, the only Morgan Casey, and she has her hands in everything when it comes to STL happenings at night. Morgan, first of all, thank you for being here. Great to see you. Thank you so much for having me. I had to reach out to you on the Instagram and everything else because you're so busy all over the place.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Yeah, well, you're like when I saw your name, I'm like, oh, I gotta check this right now. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_05 1:36

I'm glad I'm not moving up in the world. Um, we're kind of joking about your height. Yeah. And you're not the tallest person in the world, but you have really gained huge stature throughout the St. Louis area and really beyond all of that. When you started this, was the dream to be the biggest of the big, or I'd a little bit here and there?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

No, it honestly started as just having fun, just a hobby. I was a full-time activity director at a senior living community. Really? Yeah. That was that was my full-time job. Um, I was there almost 10 years. And my job was literally to like do entertainment for seniors.

SPEAKER_03 2:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

And so a lot of times you'll see some of the things I used to do with them, I've turned into events for St. Louis.

SPEAKER_05 2:16

What was the wildest things you had the seniors doing?

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Um, I would say probably the wildest thing. I took um I used to do a thing called senior bucket list. Okay. And I would take seniors to do things they've always wanted to do. And I took a 97-year-old woman on her first helicopter ride. Wow. So that was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 2:32

Okay. She didn't parachute though.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

No, I did I have before. You have parachuted.

SPEAKER_05 2:36

Where did your sense of adventure come from?

SPEAKER_01 2:38

You know, probably like growing up with a mom who um is in the entertainment business. I was always hanging around like her and celebrities and just doing like really cool things that most kids my age weren't doing, like going on tour and all that. So probably my mom.

SPEAKER_05 2:54

The last time you and I talked, I brought up your mom and you got a little uh emotional about that. What does your mom mean to you as far as your guiding light, your your role model, your example as to how I do things the right way?

SPEAKER_01 3:07

Yeah, she's I mean, she's honestly the reason I am able to do what I do and able to handle a lot of the situations that come my way. Because I I I feel like, you know, some people they go to school and they learn things um from their teachers and in the books, but I feel like I had a firsthand experience by being able to just like absorb these learning experiences that I watched my mom go through as a kid. I was very quiet when I was younger, but it's really because I was listening. I was paying attention to every little thing. And I still I don't think my mom really understands how much I learned from her and how much I took away.

SPEAKER_05 3:39

Was she one that would say things to you, or did you just watch and absorb it and get your lessons that way?

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Watch and absorb absorb.

SPEAKER_05 3:46

Yeah. For sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

She would tell me, you know, I would she would have conversations with me about some things, but she always kept me around. So I remember like being a kid and she's performing at the Fox Theater, and I'm hanging out backstage, and don't tell anyone. But you know how you got the the signatures on the wall?

SPEAKER_03 4:02

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

My name's back there a few times, yeah. How many times? A few times.

SPEAKER_05 4:06

A few times. Now everybody's gonna go back searching out. There it is. There it is, there it is. Wow. So you've had this sense of adventure. You've had a mom that has nurtured your abilities to go out and do it. Yet you had to take a leap and a risk. Yeah. How big of a leap and a risk was it for you?

SPEAKER_01 4:23

Uh, it was pretty big. I would say probably the the biggest leap, like the first time I really think I stepped out on faith was leaving my full-time job. Um, that was so scary for me because I have a son, I have a 13-year-old son, and so it's not, I'm not just living for myself, I'm living for him as well. So it's like, okay, if if I didn't have a child and I took a risk and I failed it might not hit as hard, but when you're responsible for another human being, it's so much, you know, that comes with that. So um, but when I say that was the best thing I could have ever done, and I have not looked back.

SPEAKER_05 4:59

Wow. Right. So you trudge forward, but obviously it wasn't a smooth road all the way through.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Correct, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:05

So how did you get through the the downtimes, the pitfalls, the the failures, I guess you would say?

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Yeah, um, my support system and God, like those, those are, those gotta be the two things that I say, if you don't have those two things, you gotta find it. Um being able to, like when I'm going through hard times, especially with my career, and being able to call my friends and lean on them the in the way that I'm able to, it's unbelievable. Like I'm, I'm like, eventually, I'm like, eventually they're probably gonna get tired of me. But for right now, they, I mean, they really keep me lifted. Um, I have an aunt who really makes sure that I'm no matter what I'm doing, she's reminded me of like everything that I'm doing is because of God. And it's just like he almost gave me like a superpower with like curating um different experiences, and I try to lean into that.

SPEAKER_05 5:54

Pray a lot? Yes. Daily, hourly?

SPEAKER_01 5:57

I would say at least every other day. Should be more. I should be, if there's one thing that I feel that I I want to challenge myself on is really to get in the Bible more. I pray. I have these, I have very like natural conversations with God, like like He's a friend. Um, but I really do want to get back into the Bible and really.

SPEAKER_05 6:16

Do you think that that gives you more of a whole being that you can be spiritual as well as be this body out here making things happen?

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Yeah, it's a balance that I'm not gonna say I don't see it often, but I do know that I I'm very vocal about my relationship with God, and you don't see that as much in the entertainment world, and I think that it's important for me to show because at the end of the day, I just made a post about um I was I had an event, my first um self-produced event in Mississippi, and I looked around in the bowling alley, it's an RB bowling event, so they're there to hear RB music, and I looked around, I'm like, wow, I'm in a whole different city that I've never stepped foot in, in a sold-out crowd, and these people are having so much fun. And I texted DJ, I was like, hey, can you can you put on some Kirk Franklin? Because I I personally just was like, I want to give God some praise, like and thank, like, just show my appreciation. And the whole place just lit up and everybody singing and praising God at one time.

SPEAKER_05 7:18

What was the song?

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Uh it was rained down. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 7:21

Okay. I was gonna say did you go with stomp?

SPEAKER_01 7:24

We do that at a gospel day party event, and we do play that there, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:29

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SPEAKER_05 7:58

So God has blessed you with the ability to come up with some wild ideas when it comes to putting on parties. What is the wildest one you've ever done?

SPEAKER_01 8:06

The wildest one, probably the no phones. No phones. That's one of them, yeah. Where you had to turn your phone phone in. We wanted to like bring it back to like the 90s when when everybody didn't have their phones out and recording everything. Um, and so we everybody turned their phones in before they went into the actual venue. And it was so fun because you couldn't do anything but dance and talk to people. Oh have like it was back when I was a kid.

SPEAKER_04 8:31

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

So yeah, that was that was a fun one for me. Um, I've done a lot though. RB ice skating. Um, I see a lot of things in other cities, and so for a while, I would see things in other cities and say, St. Louis deserves to have something like that. Right. And I would do that here. So like there is a 9 a.m. Um, they call it 9 a.m. banger, and it's a party that starts at 9 in the morning. So I was like, okay, I want to do one here. So I call it the 9 a.m. day party. But now what I've been doing is instead of me trying to recreate something that already exists somewhere else, I've been teaming up with these companies and bringing them here to St. Louis and being able to connect them with the venues that I already have contracts with. So it's been pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 9:13

The last party you just had, I thought would have been your wildest party. So I want you to explain to people how you could have an after ski party that wasn't on a mountain and did not involve snow.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Yeah, so there's an event, um, I think it's called, it might be called snow or something like that in Chicago. Yeah. Where it's an Aper ski party on a rooftop. So there's no mountains, none like that, but everybody's dressed in ski gear and everything. So me and Lowe's were talking, live by Lowe's, uh, one of my partners, we were talking about doing one. But then I contacted House of Pleasure, which is an amazing um duo here in St. Louis that they produce events as well. And I've been telling, I'm like, I want to work with you all. They end up sending me the same thing, and they're like, hey, what about this? I'm like, it's it's perfect because we were already wanting to do it. And I mean, it was incredible. We had fake snow coming from the sky. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_05 10:06

I'm just imagining people walking by and seeing folks dressed up to go skiing at Lowe's next to Bush Stadium.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

On the hottest day of the winter so far. That's what was really wild. And it worked, worked perfectly.

SPEAKER_05 10:18

That's a beautiful thing. Because everybody goes, this was the dumbest idea they had. It was too hot. I'm never coming back. But you you pulled over it up, yeah. Um, how many doors have you been able to open for yourself? Because you have gone well beyond St. Louis.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Yeah. I I'm saying this in the most humble way, but I think that every door that I've attempted to open, I've been able to because of God. Um, it's like I set these goals, and next thing I know, it's it's happening. And sometimes I'm like, you know how you like you want something, and you almost you don't even remember the journey of what it took to get there, and next thing you're like, how did I get here?

SPEAKER_03 10:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

That happens to me a lot. Um and yeah, I it's it's been incredible. Like I've been able to travel around the country doing doing events now. I've been able to work with like some of the biggest artists and things like that. Um just being able to continue to create in St. Louis and bring things that are what some people might say is weird or or different, being able to like build a career off of that is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 11:26

So we began by talking about you and your mom and watching your mom and what you absorb from her. When your son watches you, what do you want him to absorb from his mother?

SPEAKER_01 11:39

That he can be whoever he wants to be, like he can be that person. I think that if there's anything that I wish I figured out earlier on in life, is like it's okay to be me. Like whoever Morgan is inside, it is okay to be her. Um, it took me a while. I was pretending to be, you know, if I was in one room, I'm pretending to be this, and then the next room. And I had to really understand that like it's okay to like be authentic. Yeah. Um, and that's actually gonna get you further than pretending to be something else. So yeah, that that's that's my biggest thing. I just had to talk with him the other day, and I'm like, like I'm I'm telling him, like, you can talk to me. And if you don't feel comfortable talking to me about something, call your grandmother, call your aunts, whoever. But I never want him to feel like he has to hide anything or be scared.

SPEAKER_05 12:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

To just be who he is.

SPEAKER_05 12:31

To be who he is, be himself. Now, of course, he's watching you. I'm watching you on Instagram. Folks are watching you in in person. Do you ever stop and think about the influence that you're having on generations to come?

SPEAKER_04 12:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 12:45

Because there's so many people who are seeing you find success and think, well, maybe I should take the leap.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Yeah. Two things to that. One, I try to be extremely honest on my Facebook page. Okay. With social media, like there, you have different platforms for different things. I know. Right? Yes. So Facebook is where I feel like I can really be Morgan and tell people what's really going on. And I never want to paint the picture that everything is easy, that my life is perfect, or any of that, just because you see me doing this, you know, or or that. I try to be very transparent with people, even down to speaking about my mental health. Um, so yeah, influence is very, when you have influence, it's important to understand the power behind that and that you use it the right way. So that's why even when I was doing a lot of marketing and promoting things to do in St. Louis and all of that, I never would really speak about the the downside of a space. That wasn't my mission, and I'm not wanting to knock anyone that does that, but that wasn't my mission. I want to focus on the things that they were doing that were great and why people should support them.

SPEAKER_05 13:49

Keep uplifting.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 13:50

So when you speak of uplifting, just how uplifted is St. Louis when it comes to parties, when it comes to entertainment, is this one of those places where you go, oh, St. Louis is happening and people need to come visit and take part?

SPEAKER_01 14:03

We're getting there.

SPEAKER_05 14:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

We are getting there. And it's funny you asked me that, because the second part to what I was gonna mention of that last one is that with my influence, I've been reaching out to the newer generation that are curating events. We have several DJs right now, Trey Hits, DJ Neighborhood, uh, DJ PB and Jeffy. They are like your new curators who are really tapped into understanding the power that they have of being able to be the DJ, but also be the event curator. And I've been reaching out to them of just like, hey, how can I how can I help you all? Do you need help with the venue? Do you need help with ticketing or anything like that? Because I think it's the more we have here going on, the more tourism we'll get in our city and the better we can all be.

SPEAKER_05 14:49

Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. And and I I think also when people enjoy themselves and have a good time coming together peacefully, that it takes care of some of the other problems in our world, if you know what I'm talking about. I think it allows us just to really understand that we can get along.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:07

And it's funny how a party can do that for people.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

Yeah. That's one thing I think if you ask anyone that does attend my events, they would say they don't feel like they have to be a certain way in order to attend. You have some places where you'll go and you feel like, okay, I have to look rich, or I have to dance this way, or whatever. It you can come to my event and just be you.

SPEAKER_05 15:28

Okay, so I can chill. I don't have to dance.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

You can't, you for sure. As to sharps, you come to this.

SPEAKER_05 15:32

Okay. Well, I don't want to pull a hamstring if I'm done. Why is he trying to crip walk going, Dag on well? He's a 61-year-old man. He should not be doing that. Um, so what's next? You've done so much to this point. You're still very young. Have you thought about what's next?

SPEAKER_01 15:48

Um, I want to be a miniature version of like Live Nation, but for local events. Wow. Yeah. So what I mean by that is that Live Nation, they will produce their own tours, but they will also buy into other tours. And so I've been dabbling in that a little bit and it's been working, but I definitely want to become like a household um brand. So not name as in Morgan Casey, but my brand.

SPEAKER_05 16:10

Yeah, like Prince. With just Prince.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:15

I'll finish with this one. Because I think your influence is one that when you speak, people listen. What would be the advice you'd give to someone who's sitting there thinking about taking that chance, taking that risk, and really falling in love with their true self?

SPEAKER_01 16:33

I would say I'll give a few tips. Um things I wish someone probably would have said to me is that really plan out, map out what your goal is. Create a short-term, long-term, and then even like a 10 year from now. And it doesn't mean that you have to like stick to it 102%, but it's like a guide. Yeah. And I think that it keeps you organized. Um, have a mentor. Have create, I would find like three mentors that you can call and actually get real advice from people that have been through certain things that can really help you a lot. And um really just stay in tune with who you are. Do not give up on like putting you first and taking care of yourself. Because if you're not taking care of yourself, you can't you can't do all the other stuff.

SPEAKER_05 17:20

So like the staple singer saying, if you don't respect yourself, how you expect anybody to respect you and also for you to respect others. So thank you so much. For sure. That was fun. I gotta come back. This was great. Oh, anytime.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

Anytime.

SPEAKER_05 17:33

So the next one we do, mom's gonna be with us. All right, how about that?

SPEAKER_01 17:37

We I'm with it. I'm with it. People have been trying to get that to happen.

SPEAKER_05 17:42

Yeah, it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. I've said it, I've spoken it to existence now. It'll happen. Awesome. Thank you, sir. I would love that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 17:50

Thank you.