I could not agree. I know that I could do nothing right by myself, Michael. I know we talked about this in the beginning where Warren Buffett said how did he say, stay in your lane?

Stay in your lane.

Stay in your lane. Right? I've got my lane. I know the things that God has gifted me, strengths.

Right. Right.

But, there's a lot of things I am not that good at, and you need to have the humility to say, hey. That's not my thing, and, you know, I'm gonna empower you to do that because that's your thing. Right?

The other thing I learned about that is what, someone else told me. He says, you know, a man that can't change his mind well, not a not a man. A person. Let's let's back that up. A person that can't change their mind has no mind. So when people come in, I'm always willing to listen, But don't, you know, throw something out and not have a solution. Mhmm. That's really one one of the my biggest pet peeves is you come in and, well, that doesn't look good. Well, okay. What what do you suggest that we do differently to make it look good?

That's good. That's good. That's that's good wisdom there too. Well, let me ask you this. So in let's kind of fast forward a little bit. Nineteen ninety one

Sure.

Cofounded THF. Go there all the time. THF Realty, THF Boulevard, with Stan Kroenke.

Right.

What was the vision behind that partnership? And then I would love for you to tell our listeners if they don't know what did t what does THF stand for and how did that play out in some...

That's, THF stood for to have fun. So I was working for Leo Eisenberg and, unfortunately, you know, the organization was fizzling out for a variety of reasons and, you know, it was sad. So I met Stan Kroenke in nineteen eighty two, eighty three because of a, a contact called, McDonald's, little McDonald's. So I got their business in nineteen seventy eight. I met Sam Walton because of it. I had called the gentleman named h Webb Leslie, just like Robin Williams. He looked like Robin Williams. He acted like Robin Williams. And, I was in Kansas City, and I called him up. And, he was in Saint Louis, and he said, I said, you know, I'd like to do your deals. And I said, great. I'd love to do your deals too. And, he says, so let me ask you one question. And this goes back to what I say. If you don't know something, you don't you don't you tell the whole story. He says, how many restaurant deals have you ever done? I said, none. And he says, well, come on down. St. Louis, let's have lunch. So I went down, met him, and we're talking. Of course, we went to McDonald's. It was at two seventy in Manchester, safety federal building at that point. And, he and I told him I was from Omaha, and he says, well, I got an opportunity for you. Red Oak, Iowa, which is about an hour from Omaha. I went over there and found a site and became the exclusive broker for McDonald's, which is crazy. So I went down to Clinton, Missouri, and Stan and his partner at the time, Raul, had a shopping center. And, I tried to put a McDonald's on one of their paths. And, unfortunately, he said to me, well, we're not interested in selling. And I said, well, McDonald's is only interested in buying. And I said, there's, you know, four homes across the street. And he says, well, you'll never get those rezoned. I went down there, got them rezoned, took took a picture, drove the picture because I have the saying, you can't put a pencil through the phone, drove it to Columbia, and I said, what's the next challenge, Stan? So fast and so fast forward, it's nineteen eighty eight, eighty nine, and, you know, Eisenberg's imploding, and, you know, I'm just I don't know what to do. So I went I called him up, and I said, you know, I drove down. I said, you know, I'd love to be your partner. I'm, you know, looking for someone who can do some stuff with me. And he looked at me and said, well, you can come work for me. And I said, no. Thanks. So about a about six weeks later, he calls and says, I'm gonna be in Saint Louis, and I'll never forget that I met him at, Plaza Front not Plaza, not Plaza, Frontenac Hilton, had breakfast, and he says, okay. I'm a try a deal with you. Great. And it was a deal with, Wetterall in in Catanning, Pennsylvania. And, I the good news was that, I needed to come up with some money and Stan says, you know, I'll put it in and, you know, we we we agreed on a partnership. And, about a week later, Weddell called and said, guess what? We'll put all the money up. So I called Stan. I said, you know, I went down there. I said, Stan, I got good news and better news. The good news is I don't need your money, but the better news is I respect that you're there. Let's keep the partnership the same way. And that's that started a relationship for until two thousand twelve. And, he had a change in how he thought about things, and, you know, things don't work forever. And as I tell people, if I saw him, I'd say, hey, Stan. Thank you. I wouldn't know who I am. I I learned a lot. I hope he learned a lot and no hard feelings. Mhmm. No hard feelings. And, you know, people say, well, how could they how do you feel? I said, you know, I don't think he treated St. Louis the best moving the Rams, but that's his you know, he owned the team.

Right.

I didn't have anything to do with the team.

Right.

So, you know, And so I don't think I would have done it that way, but, you know, I mean, that's just how I thought about it. So that's how I met Stan, and I was in business with him for twenty three, twenty four years. And, you know, sometimes things don't end the the way you want. But I have all the respect for him, and I only wish him well.

Yeah. And I know he's got the respect for you too. There's so much baked in to what you just told me. The first thing that I think about, Michael, when you got that initial call, if you had not said yes to coming in meeting you know, maybe that whole domino thing would not have happened. So you gotta protect your yes, but but taking risk. Right? No risk, no reward. There's cautious problems.

I've had this happen. I've had this happen time and time again, and you know what? You know, sometimes it hasn't worked out. Most of the time it has, but as I said, I'm willing to fail to succeed. And, you know, you know, I if I hadn't met Webb Blesley, who knows where I'd be today?

Right.

You know? Who if I hadn't met, Norman Leese, who knows where I'd be? Or Willie Thiesen or the Pearl Vision people or the Payless Shoe people. I mean, I was always out there hustling. Because, you know, everybody was you know, I have the saying, I work every day that ends in y. And so yeah. I do. And, you know, I I like it. I really do. And, you know Right. This isn't just, oh, I I'm there from, eight thirty to five thirty on Monday through Friday. Well, you never know what might happen. You know? Yesterday, I did something and, you know, might might show, be something I'm proud of in a little bit. So

Absolutely. Take those take those risks. Take those to take those meetings when they come your way, and you just never know. Well, we do need to take a quick break, and we'll be right back with Michael Staenberg on the Something Extra podcast.

In business, the tendency is to seek out partners who are bigger, faster, stronger. When it comes to IT, you should be looking for smarter, faster, better. That's just what you'll find with the talented technologists at Technology Partners. Our experts develop custom solutions to tackle your most complex challenges, all to simplify your processes in the smartest, most efficient way possible. The time to be swift and nimble starts now. Go to technology partners dot net slash solutions and see what's possible.

Welcome back, everyone, to the Something Extra podcast with mister Michael Staenberg. We've been having so much fun so much fun. So, Michael, I know that you and Carol in twenty twelve formed the Staenberg Group. What is TSG's philosophy, and what does it mean in practice?

You know, our philosophy is to be, good partners. You know, live locally, give locally, be part of the community where you are. I always had that, feeling. You know, it's important because, you know, it's nice to make money. I like making money, but I also think it's important something bigger than just making money, what you do with the money and how you can enhance the community you live in. And, I could live anywhere in the United States. I choose to live in Saint Louis and, you know, it's a region in, twenty I guess, twenty years ago, twenty five years ago. Somehow, someone asked me to join the regional business council, Kathy Osborne. Yes. And she changed my life again. You know? Another opportunity to to be part of the region. Mhmm. Really, I like that, and that's what TSG is about. You know, it's great to have these shopping centers, and, yes, I have two million square feet in, you know, Chesterfield, and I built a factory. But how do we, you know, help people? You know, like a little unknown fact is that we give away a hundred thousand dollars a year to, nonprofits. I call them the orphan nonprofits from the factory. Every concert we, you know, have people, we donate money, you know, so we can make a difference. I don't have to do that. I don't know any concert venue in America that does this. At all.

So The Factory gives away a hundred thousand a year? I did not realize that. Yeah. The Factory for those of you because we have people all over the world that listen, Michael. For those of you who do not live in Saint Louis, the Factory is such a cool concert venue. Beautiful, beautiful in Chesterfield. I love that venue.

I do too. And, you know, I'm proud of it. Again, you know, as I said, I can't write, but I can certainly figure things out. And I, you know, I feel like I'm an artist. I can be the artist and the framer. I like being the artist. But, you know, I built this from scratch and then people, you know, looked at me like I was absolutely crazy when I did this. And, you know, I think it's important to give back. I think it's important to enhance people's lives. You know, I was watching Jimmy Valvino's, speech the other day. You know, it's, you know, it's, I think, the twentieth anniversary. Maybe it's even the fortieth when he passed away. And, you know, he said he wakes up and does three things in the morning. You know? Those aren't the three things I would do, but you know what? Pick three things that make a difference. But you know what? That's really what I try to do, and that's one of the things about TSG. How do how do we make it a better place? How do we enhance you know, if it's Firestone, Colorado, we give money up there. How do we do things? You know? I mean, I don't wanna hear that moda or that, CDOT doesn't maintain something. We'll just go out and clean it up. Mhmm. Someone to do that and put art and, you know, art invokes emotion, things like that.

That is so good. That is so good. And I'm my brain is going nonstop here because I'm I'm thinking about and and let me just let me just skip to this because, you know, let's talk about giving giving because you guys do. I mean, you guys have donated over a hundred million dollars. I know the factory's given a hundred thousand away a year, but you and Carol and your foundation has given away a lot of money, Michael. You've got a book called The Gift of Giving, which lays out your philosophy. Right? And I think, truly, I think your dad instilled that in you at a very young age. Right? That you're not there for yourself. You're there to make a difference in the world. What do you hope readers take away from your book?

One well, first of all, not to correct you, we've given away a couple hundred million now.

Wow.

But more importantly, you know, the savings, when I do you know, I'm good at development. So a lot of these nonprofits, I'll go in and do the development, and I've saved these nonprofits three or four hundred million dollars. You know? They would have to go raise. And then I've raised, you know, three hundred million because if I step up and they see my name on it, they say, well, we should give. You know, there was a, a mentor of mine by the name of Tommy Green, and he said one day, well, stop giving anonymously. Put your name on it so people can see. And that's really what's important to me, and that's what I'm trying to get people to you know, I call it the converging ripple theory. Mhmm. I'm in art, so I built this piece of art that's forty foot by forty foot in Omaha on a blank wall, and it moves in the wind. It's, road signs that, Boris Bailey did, and he said to me, well, what do you think we should call it? I said, converging ripples. And he looked at me, said, what do you mean? I said, well, it's like a still pond. You know, you you can take a little pebble and throw it in, it creates a ripple. Get a boulder and throw it in, it creates a ripple. It doesn't matter how big the ripple is. It's the fact that you do a ripple and you and you make a difference. And that's all I ask. So that's what I'm I'm trying to encourage people to make a difference and help people's lives. You know, giving a million dollars, I've given many times, but it's the five thousand dollar donation that makes a difference in someone's life or organization's life. I remember starting It's Our Region with the Regional Business Council, and we give away a hundred thousand dollars a year, but no donation can be bigger than five thousand. And we pick I don't call them orphan, charities, but there was a food pantry in, North Saint Louis. We gave them five thousand dollars to buy a cooler. It added an extra thousand people a year. Think about that. Amazing. People that were benefited because of a five thousand dollar donation, and it's not one year. So and I think the people who are part of that saw that, and I think it enhanced what they wanted to do. So it's not always you gotta give you know, you read about this guy giving a hundred million or two hundred. You know, there's a lot of people. But I really believe when I give money, I wanna make a difference, not just giving it. I give my time Yes. And my talent to make a difference. Mhmm. And I also am proud that, you know, there's been, you know, probably two or three thousand pieces of art I've given away to nonprofits to make them feel better. Instead, you know, it's paint, art, lights, you know, things that people can't explain why they wanna do it, and I hope that enhances what they wanna do and feel like they wanna do it.

Mhmm. Brings people joy. You know, that when you were talking about the pond, I was gonna ask you this, because I know that, Arizona State University made you the alumnus of the year, and I can't remember which year this was, but you said everyone in this room, you had a speech, an acceptance speech, Michael. You said everyone in this room is part of a pond. That pond always needs to be moving. Everyone can make a ripple. And, I started thinking about that, and I love that metaphorically, Michael. Because what what happens when a pawn does not move?

It's still and nothing happens and

It becomes stagnant. Right?

Right. It it's lifeless. You know? You want you want moving. You want things moving and, you

know,

and, you know, I mean, it's important. And, you know, I think about these things, and I try to think about how you can continue to do that. I come up, you know, with sayings all the time and thoughts all the time and, you know, I just I think it's important. You know? I just think there's certain things that encourages people. You know? I mean, the other day, this is kind of a crazy story. I'm sitting at Starbucks, and the guy is yelling at the barista because his coffee's cold. So I walked up into him and said, sir, you must be having a bad day. I'm here to buy you a fresh cup of coffee, and in the counter there, buy anything you want. You wanna you want one of each things? Go ahead. And he didn't know what to say. I said, yes. Seriously. Go ahead. You know? But be thoughtful of people. Try to be thoughtful. And, you know, and and I think he walked away a little, and I see him at Starbucks once in a while because I go to the one downtown Clayton, and he always says, thank you for making a difference in my life. Yes. And those are the things that didn't cost me much. I mean, I bought him a a croissant and a cup of coffee. Okay. Mhmm. But I'm happy with that.

Every day, we can do that. You know, you were talking about the gentleman who was saying he started his day with three things. I've got a friend that's in real estate in Denver, Jonathan or Phoenix. Jonathan Keiser is his name. Keiser Development, I think, is the name of his company. And he told me one time, Michael, he said, I every morning, I think about three people that I can make a difference in their life. It's the power of the three. Right? And he said, it may not be be given them a lot, but okay. I think of three people. I was like, okay. I'm gonna send that person encouraging text or give that person a phone you know, phone call, or maybe it is helping them with their rent that month or whatever the case may be. But I thought, wow. That is just that's a really it's a it's a system.

Right.

That, something that we can all do. And I just I wanna reiterate to our listeners, and you've heard Michael say this, it does not have to be a hundred million dollars. It's our time. We've all been given time, talent, and treasure. And any one of those combination or any one of those or a combination of all three, we can all make a difference. And so I love that metaphor of the pond.

I do too.

That'll be something that I will remember. So goodness gracious. There's so much to you. I want you to talk about downtown Chesterfield. What's downtown Chesterfield going to look like? We've had this Chesterfield mall here for as long as we've been in Saint Louis. You know, we're from Paducah, but moved here forty one years ago with McDonnell Douglas. And it's been here. But, Michael, I have to tell you a really funny story. This is a funny story. So I loved that mall so much when we moved here because you know Paducah, Kentucky. I mean, beautiful town. I love Little Rivertown. It was an awesome place to go. But we didn't have huge malls like that. Right? And I love Chesterfield Mall. And I remember being there on a weekend, and some with my husband, Greg, and somebody came up to me and said, hey. Do you have today off? They thought I worked there. Uh-huh. Because I went to that and Greg's like, how often are you here, by the way? But, tell us about what's going on in downtown Chesterfield.

Well, downtown is a culmination of started in nineteen ninety three when I started Chesterfield Commons in the flood. And, we built a center that's two miles long and about one point eight million square feet excluding the out parcels. And it's interesting because the mall never thought it would affect it. You know, the arrogance of the mall people, you know, we're the mall. And, in fact, Tim Lowe, who's worked for me, with me for sixteen, seventeen years used to work at the mall and redeveloped it. Oh, they're not gonna bother us. They're not gonna bother us. And so, you know, eventually, it started to, you know, hurt them all.

Yes.

And then I then I got involved with the Taubmans because of a, I honored my word on something, bought that, and figured, okay. I built an entertainment long before entertainment districts were there. That's why I called it the district. Entertainment, I you know, that limited, but it's called the district. And And so, you know, I and then I said to myself about seven, eight years ago, I heard the mall was gonna be foreclosed on. So I said, Tim, if you own one of the department stores, you have a seat at the table and they can't do anything. I'd rather compete with myself. So I bought the Sears store, and then I had and then I bought the mall, then I bought Macy's, but I didn't wanna build a mixed use. I did not wanna have a typical where you take the parking lot, you throw some apartments on, you put some retail, And I wanted you know, Chesterfield doesn't have a downtown.

Right.

And I said, so, you know, I live in Clayton. I like living in Clayton. You know, people don't like this, but I'm not moving to Chesterfield. I'm okay. But but Chesterfield's become the third the third leg of the stool here. Mhmm. Downtown Clayton and Chesterfield's booming. You know, you have good restaurants, Andy Gun's. You know? There's a lot of things. They have, you know, over four hundred baseball teams come, two hundred soccer teams. It's become a regional, and it's good for St. Louis. You you know, one of the people say, well, you're hurting downtown in Clayton. No. I'm enhancing it. I want people to wanna come to St. Louis, bring their businesses, be part of the community because people want nice things. Forget, you know, saying downtown has safety issues. No. It's not about safety. It's about bringing people to the region. Mhmm. That's really what I'm trying to do. So it's truly gonna be a downtown. And, you know, right in the middle of it, I put a three and a half acre park. Nobody does that. Nobody thinks about that stuff. And, again, it's not about the money, but it is about serving the customer. And, when I built when I built the factory, I thought about who the customer is. And everybody's gonna say the ticket buyers. No. That's not the customer. The customer is the artist. That's who the customer is because if they wanna play there, the other the the people will, you know, come. So we're fortunate because we have I get this every every concert. We love this place. We wanna come back here. Even if they're not pay you know, even though it might not be five thousand seats

Sure.

It's a little smaller. They don't make as much money, but they like the experience. And they want the experience of downtown to be different.

Yeah. It's definitely yeah.

And so, you know, within twenty two minutes of drive time, there's a million people that can get to the to the downtown. And, you know, we want people to come, hang out, enjoy it. There's gonna be, you know, bike pass. There's a y. There's a JCC. There's a library. There's an amphitheater. There's a water park. There's two lakes that you can walk around. So we're really trying to make it different than just, quote, a mixed use.

Yeah. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be great, as you said, for our whole region because the more people that wanna come, that's good for everybody. It really is, Michael. Well, we can't wait. I, and I'm probably gonna butcher this, so please give me grace. But, you know, there's a couple of Jewish teachings that I would love for you to explain to our listeners. And it's Zedekan. Is that right? Zedekan and Tikum Alam?

Tikum Alam. Yes.

Is that right?

Right. Yes. Okay. Well, basically, to repair the world. To repair the world. To repair the world and to make, you know, you know you know, and we're here to enhance people. It's not always about ourselves. Sure. We have to take care of ourselves, but it's about how to make, you know, the world a better place. You know, save one life, you save you save the whole, everybody's lives. You know? You know? And everybody counts and, you know, we're not, you know, today and to to this world, everybody hits a button and says, oh, we talked to ten thousand people or, oh, we did this. Do one thing at a time. You know, be kind. Be be thoughtful. Try to you know? And and the biggest thing I tell everybody is, you know, and we don't do it enough, is just say thank you. I don't need anything. Just say thank you.

That's so good. That is so good. Well, I tell you, if our listeners don't take anything else away, which I know they're gonna take tons of wisdom away, but repair the world. We can all do something to repair the world. It's not it's not about us. And what a what a, just kind of an empty life too. Right, Michael? If you get to the end of your life and you really didn't give back at all and try to repair the world and make the world a better place for other people, I think. So, let me ask you this question. We got two more questions for you, and then I wanna talk about something extra. What are your nonnegotiables in your daily life? Because you told me before there was a gentleman that starts his day with three things. Are there habits and practices that keep Michael Staenberg grounded?

Yeah. Well, you know, I like to get up early. That's number one.

What's early? What's early?

Oh, I used to get up at four twenty. You know? Now I get up at, five.

Okay.

You know? And I like to, you know, I like to wake up, and I like to think about what I'm gonna accomplish. Second, I do some exercise. And third, I have a list to try to, organize my day so I can be efficient. That's really what I think about now. And then I also started several years ago breathing. I like to have ten minutes of just breathing.

Do breath work? That's awesome.

You know, I really like that. And the days I don't breathe, I'm in a hurry, I have I'm disappointed. And I work out six days a week. I everybody needs one day off. Mhmm. And, you know, but I I do that. And that way, I can be more present for things and try to, you know, really and and I say to myself, what am I gonna do today that's gonna make a difference? What do and not you know, I'm you know, it's easy to be negative. Let's try to have a little positivity in there.

Amen to that. Yeah. If you want to be negative, you can find things to be negative about, but it's a choice. It's a daily choice, Michael. It is a daily choice to be positive. Yeah. I know you're a big cyclist. We won't talk about that, but but I know that you've, raised a lot of money through your cycling and that sort of thing. But what what excites you the most right now about the Staenberg Group and what what your is on the horizon besides downtown Chesterfield and, you know, who you're gonna meet today. You guys something like that. I get

up every morning thinking how we can do better as a team, how we and us can, you know, make a difference. And, you know, just just, you know, I don't have to we don't have to slay the dragons. You know, this isn't about you know, we we develop things to be partners with cities and things like that. How do we become better better with what we do? And, you know, I, at one time at THF, I had a couple hundred people that work for me. I didn't like myself. Today, there's thirty three people. I know their names. I know their kids. I know their birthdays. I know their, wives, girlfriends, or whatever. And, you know, it's just it's nice. It's just nice to be able to walk in and walk around and sit down and, you know, say hello. You know?

It's a family.

It is.

It's a family. We call yes. We call our technology it's our technology partners family, and we feel the same way. So, Michael, this is called something extra.

Okay.

What do you believe is the something extra that every leader needs?

I think the something extra for every leader is to be able to put yourself in someone else's shoes and understand where they're coming from. If they're having a bad day, say, okay. Do this. But, you know, nobody's perfect. And, you know, if you wanna be a good leader, you just have to say, what can I do to make their day better? And you have to you know, nobody can walk in your shoes. You can't walk in someone else's, but how do you really think about the other person and making sure you empower the person to be in the right seat? Just because you're good at leasing doesn't mean you're a good developer. And, well, really, I mean that. Or if you're good at property management, you should become the the head of property management. You have to understand how to put people in positions to succeed. That's really what I I'm thinking about. And, you know, I wear my emotions on my sleeve. I tell people do not take this personally. I'm very direct and I think most leaders can't be direct. In today's world, I mean, people look you look at people wrong and they, you know, they oh, that's wrong. Okay. Well, I didn't look at I've you know, it's just who I am. Mhmm. And everybody's worried about words or this or that and just be thoughtful. Just I mean, come on. This isn't unless someone does something egregious, I mean, I mean, everybody's so sensitive. Let's let's become less sensitive.

Yeah. That's so good. Well, Michael, thank you so much. I just know that people our listeners are gonna love hearing your story and learning from you. I love all your metaphors. I love all of your sayings. I know that they're all gonna stick with me. I I remember the red jacket. I'm gonna remember that story, and I'm gonna remember the pond. And, yeah, I hope our listeners do as well. But thank you again. I know you're super busy, so I appreciate you making the time to be able to do today.

Always glad to do it. And, you know, I'm, as I tell everybody, I'm not perfect. I'm really not. But, hopefully, somebody will take one thing away that will make a difference. Mhmm. I've had a lot of great mentors that have said to me things that I've taken away.

Absolutely. And you got

and you gotta you gotta wanna listen. You know, a lot of people say they wanna listen, but you have to want to.

Mhmm. Could not agree more. Well, thank you so much, and have a great rest of the day, my friend.

Thank you. Talk to you soon.

Thank you for listening to today's show. Something Extra with Lisa Nichols is a Technology Partners production. Copyright Technology Partners Inc, two thousand and nineteen. For show notes or to reach Lisa, visit tpi dot co slash podcast. Don't forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or wherever you listen.