FERGUSON, MISSOURI · 2017 → TODAY
From the basement to the brand.
Life Creative STL forms young creatives, leaders and entrepreneurs in their identity, purpose and direction, one life and soul at a time.
Music was always the platform. Formation was always the point.
OUR STORY IN FOUR ERAS
How we got here.
From the basement, to the block, to the boardroom, and now to the brand.
01
2017 – 2019
The Basement
The first formation room
It started in Brian Owens’ basement in Ferguson, with a group of high school kids making music. They came to make songs. What they got was a place to wrestle with who they were, why they were here and where they were going.
Brian was pastoring and discipling at the time, and he didn’t have a name for it yet. Looking back, that basement was the first formation room. Some nights the kids were still there at nine or ten o’clock, because they had found something they needed.
02
2020 – 2022
The Block
A community on one street
The work outgrew the basement and moved onto the street. Brian’s mom bought the house next door, and Darius moved in. Then we rented the house across the street, and the one next to that.
Every dollar we raised went into people. We built a community on one Ferguson block where young creatives could live close, support each other and chase what they were called to do, with mentors a few steps away.
03
2023 – 2025
The Boardroom
Partners at the table
The first boardroom door opened back in 2019. With support from M1 Bank, Brian met Lon Dolber, founder of American Portfolios, who invited Brian, Darius and Paco into their boardroom to tell their story. Then the pandemic hit, and the funding we walked in for had to wait.
The relationship didn’t. In 2020, the AP for LIFE Creative Residency, built by American Portfolios with Life Creative STL, won a Wealthies Award. Since 2024, the Osaic Foundation has partnered with us on Osaic for Life, a pathway that pairs college students with Osaic employees and advisors as mentors. Its LIFE Financial Literacy Pathway was a 2025 Wealthies finalist.
In 2025 and 2026, Brian and Paco taught at Maryville University, and the Saints Sunset Social brought about 150 people together on campus.
04
2026 – 2028
The Brand
Built to carry it forward
We couldn’t scale a basement, a block or a boardroom, because each one depended on Brian’s relationships. A brand can carry the work further. So today, the people we formed are building the brands that carry it forward.
weform is our greatest chapter yet. It launches officially at Maryville University on April 22, 2027.
THE PHILOSOPHY
Life and Soul.
Life and Soul is our formation method and IP: the philosophy, stories and tools behind everything we do. LIFE is what we form. SOUL is how we do it, from the inside out.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
What it became.
FORMATION PLATFORM
weform
A mentorship platform rooted in formation and connection, co-founded by Brian and Paco Lee, a mentor and a mentee. It connects students with mentors, called formers, through cohorts, real conversations and the formation profile.
Visit weform.life →STUDIO
Front Room Studio
Our podcast and content studio at the NCIC in North County, home of the Formation Fridays podcast.
Book the room →PODCAST
Formation Fridays
Conversations on identity, purpose and direction, recorded at Front Room Studio.
Listen →LEGACY
Our alumni now lead
Former students run the studio and weform, and Malena Smith is Artist-in-Residence at the World Chess Hall of Fame.
MILESTONES
Along the way.
- 2027weform launches at Maryville University (April 22)
- 2026weform × Saints beta pairs 15–20 Maryville students with mentors from Osaic and WWT
- 2025Osaic’s LIFE Financial Literacy Pathway named a Wealthies finalist
- 2025–26Brian and Paco teach at Maryville; Saints Sunset Social draws about 150
- 2024Osaic Foundation partnership begins: Osaic for Life
- 2020AP for LIFE Creative Residency wins a Wealthies Award
- 2019The boardroom pitch at American Portfolios, with support from M1 Bank
WHO WALKS WITH US
Our partners.
None of this happens alone. These partners walk with us today:
- Osaic Foundation
- Steward Family Foundation
- Dolber Family Foundation
- Maryville Solutions
- World Chess Hall of Fame
- Refuge and Restoration
With gratitude to the partners who helped build the foundation: Regional Arts Commission, Beyond Housing and M1 Bank.
“The goal of our work with Life Creative STL is to assist young entrepreneurs so that through good stewardship they, in turn, will foster talent within their communities and serve as role models for generations to come.”— LON DOLBER
Formed to form.
From the basement to the block to the boardroom to the brand, the mission hasn’t changed. We form people, and the people we form go on to form others.