Best of KC 2023: Godfrey Riddle had, like, five years in one
Godfrey Riddle. // Photo by Brooke Tramel
This month, we published The Pitch’s annual Best of Kansas City issue. You can browse the results of the readers’ poll here. The issue also included a list, compiled and written by our editorial staff, of some of our current favorite things about Kansas City in 2023. We’ll be publishing these items online throughout November.
Kansas City philanthropist and entrepreneur Godfrey Riddle has been up to a lot this year.
Back in April, the first season of the home/life/spiritual improvement series The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning was released on Peacock, featuring Riddle in its fifth episode. The premise of the show is based on a bestselling book by Margareta Magnusson, which teaches how to declutter items so loved ones won’t carry that burden after you’re gone. This allows participants to recognize what the essentials are in their lives and involves breaking attachments with sentimental items. The show entails life coaches coming into KC to help local people with overwhelming messes.
In Riddle’s episode, “What Lies Beneath,” the hosts of the show help him declutter his basement, where he has stored inherited items from his parents, who passed away unexpectedly. The episode details his emotional journey in finding other ways to celebrate his parents and to turn his basement into a livable space that evokes positive memories rather than grief.
THE GENTLE ART OF SWEDISH DEATH CLEANING — “What Lies Beneath” Episode 105 — Pictured: (l-r) Ella Engström, Katarina Blöm, Johan Svenson, Godfrey Riddle — (Photo by: Peacock)
During an interview with The Pitch Riddle says the process changed his relationship with his grief in a positive way. In fact, the lessons Riddle learned while participating in the show were the starting point for his next endeavor, as he also learned to reduce his ecological footprint.
Riddle began Civic Saint as a clothing brand previously and is now turning his brand into a business that seeks to bring eco-friendly, affordable housing to historically redlined communities and narrow the racial wealth gap. To create tiny, creatively designed homes, he’s chosen compressed earthen blocks (CEBs), which are essentially bricks that are composed of 90% soil and 10% water and cement. His business pitch won both the Inaugural Communities of Color Initiative (CoCi) Biz Pitch and the overall Biz Pitch competitions from the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce at their 2023 International Business & Leadership Conference.
Most recently, an investor reached out to Riddle to fully fund his prototype, so he’s hoping to deliver his first demo build and start taking public orders in the new year.
