Exploring the Valley

You can tell a lot about someone by what they remember first. For Matthew Daughtry-Grubbs, it is the taste of fresh mango and papaya, hot bread carried home in Bulgaria, and a childhood shaped by missionary life that moved him across the Philippines, the Black Sea coast, and back to Eastern North Carolina. Those memories are more than stories, they are clues to why he now builds spaces where people can breathe again. We talk with Matthew about coming full circle as the executive direct...

Two emaciated geckos in a pet store triggered a question that still drives everything Joe Richichi does as a veterinarian: what happens when an animal’s life gets weighed against a price tag? Joe walks us from his early years as a working artist in upstate New York to veterinary school in the Caribbean, intense clinical training at Purdue, and finally the leap into building a private animal hospital in Black Mountain, North Carolina. Along the way, we get a clear look at what “practice owners...

He asked to be the one who got laid off, then turned that moment into a 25-plus-year business story. We’re sitting down with Rob Atema, a lifelong builder of teams and systems who went from diesel technology and heavy equipment work to founding Rivertop Contracting, a commercial landscape management and landscape construction company serving large properties across the Asheville area. If you’ve ever wondered what it really takes to grow a local company from scratch, Rob’s path is equal parts ...

He went from a business career and a steady paycheck to $400 a month and an extra bedroom, all because he couldn’t shake the pull toward ministry. We’re talking with Josh Grant, pastor at Brookstone Church’s East Asheville campus, about what that kind of leap costs, what it gives back, and how a calling gets tested in real life. We also get practical about what it looks like to build community in Black Mountain and Swannanoa when you’re raising little kids. Josh shares how their family uses ...

You can feel it when someone is truly from a place, not just living there, but carrying its stories, its people, and its rhythms. We’re joined by Courtney King, a Swannanoa native with a career path that proves you don’t need a perfect plan to build a meaningful life. We talk about growing up in Swannanoa, graduating from Owen, and how a mountain town stays stitched together through family, familiar faces, and the moments where you realize everyone is connected. Courtney walks us throu...