Sean is sort-of a foodie. Sort-of. He shrugged as he pointed out that it’s all relative, “I’m not going to have a Bravo show anytime soon.”

We met at the Webster Groves Starbucks, where I pulled up a chair to the table Sean chose. He and his wife had given up caffeine as part of a diet they’re on, so he stuck to de-caf while I savored a peppermint hot chocolate.

Typically, Sean thinks fad diets are kind of silly. “I tend to find some of the uh, fad diet stuff off-putting. You know? I mean, I used to crack up when people would come into restaurants and say ‘I’m on the Atkins Diet, what can I have?’ I’m like, ‘I didn’t read that. I… I have no idea.’” But this one he likes because, as he describes it, it’s kind of like cross-fit for your metabolism. It involves abstaining from certain types of foods for periods of about 30 days so your body doesn’t get used to something and get lazy.

The diet has also been good for them because they can get into the kitchen together and make fun, flavorful recipes. This has led them to eat together more often and not in front of a screen.

Food is obviously a big part of Sean’s life, and that makes sense given his background. Up until several years ago, Sean had worked primarily in restaurants. He did everything from bussing tables at a Hibachi restaurant (where he had to wear a kimono and learn to sing in Japanese), to bartending, to managing.

But for the past nine years, Sean has sold real estate for Circa Stl, a “small but mighty” company with 21 agents. He initially got into the field because of his cousin, who was really enjoying it. The first two years he was working nights at Vin de Set and getting his feet off the ground with the real estate business. It paid off though, because during all of it he met his wife.

They had met a few times before through friends of friends, but with Sean trying to learn the real estate business and working until 2am at his night job, his lifestyle just wasn’t conducive to a relationship. But, they kept in touch and finally ended up dating. Five years later, they’re married!

Real estate has really agreed with Sean, because he doesn’t like sales. That sounded counter-intuitive to me, but he explained. In restaurants it was always about upselling guests, but this is more about listening. Also, the only thing he really has to sell is himself, and I’m sure that’s easy for him, because he is an incredibly nice guy.

“Cupcakes.” That was his answer when I asked about his hobbies. After a couple of seconds he added a few more including reading, basketball, and golf. Yeah, he likes sports, but it’s quite a conundrum for him. He is fascinated by excellence and the dedication of the players, its just the money and politics that go on behind the scenes that he finds “gross”.

When I asked Sean his favorite thing about St. Louis, he asked if he could start with his least favorite thing. Using an example, he explained why he doesn’t like the separation of the city and county. “So if we’re on an airplane and you’re from Chesterfield and I’m from Southampton, we’re both St. Louisans. But in St. Louis, I live in the city and you…” he shrugged.

What he does like, however, “I enjoy that St. Louis has that kind of headquarters… never leaves, feel.” He says we are a very loyal group, staying in touch with other St. Louisans even if they move away. There’s a potential to the city that he loves, and also the history. “People don’t realize that St. Louis was a big deal.”

Keep your eyes out for Sean. He’s currently working on a brewing history of the city and a blog to help us be better St. Louis citizens both civically and charitably.


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“I don’t know if you know what a vinyl sleeping bag sounds like on top of a metal van…” Nick chuckled as he told me about his adventures traveling the United States in a ska band in his younger days. The band was thrilled to be sleeping under the stars on a public beach, but when they arrived the scorpions kind of changed their plans. Nick didn’t give up that easily, so he and a bandmate just slept on the roof of the van. Not such a great idea if you toss and turn in the night. “I woke up in the middle of the night to that slipping sound and the other guy had fallen off the van,” he had to pause to laugh uncontrollably. “He just got back up and went to sleep!”

I recognized him instantly from his Facebook photo when we met early one morning at Bread Co. He sipped his coffee and I prepared my black tea english style, as he explained why he thinks real estate is “pretty cool”. Back in his early 20’s, Nick’s friends were paying $600 in rent, while he was paying $600 total for his house and bills. “I was living the high life, you know, because super cheap bills, I had a house you know? And all that kind of stuff.”

He got his license that year and decided to help other people buy and sell real estate. It was fun. He was good at it. It gave him freedom. He quickly progressed from managing a real estate office, to working at Remax, to becoming the designated broker for Equity Missouri. Now he manages 50 or 60 agents for the company.

You’ve heard of Paul McKee, right? He is a controversial figure in St. Louis, even among those who are unfamiliar with the ins-and-outs of real estate. In October of last year $390 million in tax increment financing was approved for his redevelopment project on the north side of the city. McKee has spoken at events hosted by Nick’s SouthSide Investment Club, a group Nick began in 2007 to share information, referrals, and advice (the group now boasts over 2,000 members). Speaking passionately, Nick defended McKee’s work. “We’re a free country, man! You can buy property! Seriously! And if you choose to turn it into The Arch, or turn it into McDonald’s, or turn it into nothing, it’s your call! It’s a free country, you know!  If you’re that worried about it, buy from him. Fix it up. You put the $100,000 into that building!”

If you want real estate numbers, Nick is your guy. In quick succession he rattled off incredible detail about the state of the local housing market. Here’s what he shared:

• Interest rates are low
  
  
• Supply of homes is dwindling
  
  
• Foreclosures are down 40%
  
  
• Short sales down to 4%, compared to 9% elsewhere
  
  
• Supply of homes for sale is down 40% over the past 3 years
  
  
• The number of units sold has increased by 30%
  
  

When he told me that we’re currently at a 70-day supply in the St. Louis region, I nodded as I took a sip and said that seemed low. Nick scoffed playfully. “TSCH! YEAH!”

Alright, so what are the economic indicators to look for before you purchase real estate? “We’ve stabilized and recovered without the return of jobs. If those jobs come back, we could have another bubble. If you start seeing 300,000 jobs being added… go out and buy.”

I’m fascinated by people who can look at an industry and see where the holes are. After meeting too many people who had spent thousands on real estate classes but were floundering or even failing, Nick saw the potential for a new type of program/mentorship. He calls it Coaching Circle and the initial class, which included newbies, senior sellers, and people who had already paid thousands for a different course, was very successful.

It’s not all real estate for Nick. There’s also the Oompapa band he’s played trumpet in since he was 15. They play German festivals quite a bit. But don’t get too excited, there are no lederhosen involved, just red vests. I told him I couldn’t write about it. The lack of German attire killed it for me.

When I asked if real estate was something most people get into after college or instead of college, Nick wasn’t sure. “I chose to go the route of being in a rock and roll band and I toured the country for 3 or 4 years. That’s kind of where I got my education.” It’s apparently an excellent education. “Valuable life lessons and economics on how to live on 20 dollars a day, living in your parents basement.”

Valuable lessons perhaps, but be careful because it’s dangerous. “We also almost died between LA and San Francisco on the five.” While driving their van, with trailer in tow, they blew a tire in six lanes of intensely packed traffic. As if that weren’t bad enough, the driver accidentally hit the gas. When they finally stopped, the band smelled smoke, jumped out of the van, and high-tailed it to the curb, managing not to get hit by 60 mph traffic. Although everyone ended up safe, what they didn’t remember at first was the blind drummer who was fumbling across the highway. Nick ran back and helped him to safety.

Clearing his throat, he contemplated his favorite thing about St. Louis. “There’s a lot of things. I like the people, I like the food, um… I like um… I like the familiarity. You know, I don’t really know what my favorite thing is. But I don’t think I could live anywhere else.”


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“Submarines were an exciting place in the mid to late 80’s at the height of the Cold War. We were doing fun stuff. We had a mission and being on a submarine, being out there, doing important work, was actually a lot of fun, having a mission, a real purpose makes almost anything tolerable.” Bill studied theatre in college. But, that was before he joined the Navy.

We met on an unseasonably warm day at the Webster Groves Starbucks. Bill greeted me with a warm smile as we sat down to a Venti Blonde Roast and a Green Tea Frappucino. I attempted to deal with chunks of ice blocking the suction of my straw, while he pretended to ignore my antics and told me about his work at Maritz.

Bill studies and coaches companies in persuasive design, which is exactly what you think it is, helping people get what they want in the context of your business. If you have ever worked for a large company, you know that they are typically inward focused. What do we do? How do we make people buy (or sell) our stuff? How do we make employees do what we want them to do? That’s all wrong. All companies, Bill says, should be outwardly focused. “That pushing people to do things you want them to do, works in the short run. But eventually people find somebody who’s easier to work with. But when you start with what people want, it becomes a lot easier. It’s kind of the Steve Jobs philosophy. Create something great and you can charge a lot for it. Don’t make crap and then trick people into buying it.” Who knew? Persuasive design is actually an entire industry and Bill has been studying and preaching it since 1997.

The path to his current career was a varied one. It started when he was studying theatre at Fontbonne. “Theatre I think is one of the best backgrounds a person can have. Theatre is an absolutely fantastic, uh, discipline to experience. It really prepares you for what life is really like.” While it taught Bill a lot about presenting to an audience, he left and joined the Navy after only two years.

It took a little longer for him to leave the Navy. Seven years, to be exact. When he was required to do shore duty for two years as a mental health break, he couldn’t take it. Couple that with the fact that he was now married with 4 kids, it was time to look into doing something else. So, Bill worked in computer programming, started a publishing company and went back to college for a degree in Business Administration.

Between spending time with his family (5 adult kids) and shoveling snow UP the steepest driveway in the St. Louis area, Bill writes three blogs. One, called Simple Strategies is about “the science of getting better” and another is about Persuasive Design. He’s been published, too. Up to now his publications have mostly been political in nature including Zen Conservatism in 2008 and a book on social media marketing for political groups in 2011. He toyed with his Starbucks mug as he thought aloud about what he would like to write next. “I… I still want to finish one of the 964 works of fiction, I’ve started working on…” He laughed contagiously.

Everyone hates their own voice. Bill is particularly frustrated by his speech because he swears that he purposefully developed a stammer in college, but now he can’t get rid of it. He laughed while he explained. “I did it to myself! And it drives me up the wall! I honestly remember getting laughs with well-timed stammers. Then it just became part of me. I think what it was, I really liked Bob Newhart, Jimmy Stewart, a bunch of these people who were successful actors. Both of them had really pronounced stammers, but they used it especially for humor.”

Bill’s favorite thing about St. Louis? “So, I got a new car a few weeks ago and the first thing I did… I had to get a new Blues sticker!” I laughed, “who needs a license plate?” He sat at the edge of his seat as he animatedly told me the story about TJ Oshie (a Blues player, for those of you who are like me) scoring 4 out of 6 penalty shots during the Winter Olympics.

Finally, Bill keeps busy by actively staying involved in St. Louis politics. In fact, he was one of the co-founders of the St. Louis Tea Party. “It’s weird. It’s a weird existence and it’s a lot of work. It leaves me very little spare time.”


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Michael was not afraid to discuss politics and religion when we met. In fact, he even told me how his family reacted when he told them he was atheist. He admitted,“I am disease-level open book. Probably to a fault sometimes. But I think it’s paid off for the most part. I think, uh… everybody could deal with a dose of radical honesty. Um… you know to really kind of… I just feel like it’s the best thing for people. Pour it out, let everything else get sorted out.” Let the pouring and sorting begin.

I sank into the cushions of a large couch at Foam (on Cherokee) with some type of delicious lemon drink, while Michael sat across from me with a coffee. I asked what he did for a living and he told me he is one of the original founders of The Able Few, a digital shop that builds web apps and web software. They began in 2001 doing only interactive design and now boast a social media monitoring software that they custom built for a hollywood studio to track and predict a movie’s success. According to him, the company’s focus is “building weird things”.

Working at an advertising agency built the foundation for The Able Few but, “that world kind of jaded me and turned me into a different person”. During his time at the ad agency, he began desperately seeking meaning in his work… to no avail.  “It’s an interesting industry. I mean you know, especially advertising, the nicest people you’ll ever meet, the hardest-working people you’ll ever meet, the most creative and smartest people you’ll ever meet and they’re all working towards a goal that they hate. You try to convince yourself and sell to yourself that things you’re doing are actually meaningful and that they help make people’s lives better. At the end of the day you realize you’re nothing more than you know, moving the bottom line.”

St. Louis is on the cusp of a Renaissance and Michael is excited. The best part is the energy and the feeling that everything that’s happening is not where it can be, yet. He told me that everywhere you point, whether it’s physical location or a sector, something awesome is right around the corner. But the hard part for him is when people are indifferent about this growth and positive change. That led me to ask, is this same entrepreneurial spirit, civic pride, and growth happening in other cities? Despite friends in numerous cities across the U.S. and extensive travels, Michael said he has not seen this combination anywhere else.

The Washington Post issued a retraction about St. Louis because of Michael. A recent interactive map ranked cities on a scale of 1-6 for how “world class” they are. When he found it on Facebook, Michael already knew what he would see. His suspicions were confirmed when he zoomed in on St. Louis and saw that the city was divided into two municipalities and ranked very low. What was even more frustrating to him, was that cities like Tulsa ranked relatively high. So, like any of us would (not) do, he called the author and after a 30 minute discussion, was told the map would be re-done showing St. Louis as one municipality with a higher “world class” ranking. Chalk one up for Michael and STL! “I walked away that day really proud. I felt like I had championed something really great for St. Louis. It’s a small drop in the bucket, but you know, just like anything, it’s...it’s… every avalanche starts with one snowflake.”

After discussing politics, we dove right into religion. I’ll be blunt like he was. He’s atheist. Well… agnostic, really, and his family did not take that well when they found out via Facebook. Michael had always had a “healthy skepticism”, but one day he heard or read something that made him stop disregarding that doubt. “If God wanted me to believe in him, he is the only person or only thing that would know exactly what it would take for me to believe in him, yet he holds it away. He doesn’t want me to see it.” So, despite the wedge this has created between some of his friends and family, Michael feels like they are closer now to his true self, so it’s a “net gain”.

Because he considers himself a serial networker, he said he was very happy to find my blog on Facebook. “I got excited because I absolutely love people. I’m addicted to people. I have to get new people in my life constantly. It’s actually become a bit of a challenge to go places where I don’t see people I know.”

This fascination with people can be traced back to the black girl he dated in middle school. He was reprimanded and told that there were biblical reasons that you shouldn’t mix black and white. That didn’t fly with Michael. He told me that spawned a love of PEOPLE and everything they have to offer.

Two documentaries, Baraka and Sansara, should be required videos for everyone in their formative years, according to Michael. His children watched them at a young age, because these films plant the seeds about us being one human family and not drawing lines about who we are and how we’re supposed to act. “I’m kind of quite the humanist.”

Michael had long since finished his coffee when I asked what he likes best about our city. Considering his love of people, it’s fitting that this was his answer. “The people. St. Louisans are the best mix of cultured and blue collared… its just got a unique blend. It doesn’t feel midwestern, it doesn’t feel like Kansas City. You have people who really do care about things and who are passionate about things and they’re not pretentious. Here people are very approachable, you can talk to strangers. It’s big enough to have, you know, lots of things going on, but also small enough that you don‘t feel lost. You know?” Ok, so REALLY, the people are his second favorite thing. His favorite is actually Imo’s.


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