Cris Burnam: Curiosity Maxing

Speaker A: The underwriters and the attorneys and the brokers were all ready to break out the champagne. We got on the airplane, I was leaving the airplane, I got a phone call, deals off, everything fell apart and we had bet everything on this. We're gonna go broke if this deal didn't close. We stopped off at a gas station and bought a 12 pack and drank it on the way home, strategizing about what. And that was a real deal. Now, it turned out that within three days we were able to piece everything back together and didn't make nearly as much money on the deal as we thought we would. But we survived.

Speaker B: You're now listening to a new episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times. Gratitude instills humility. Gratitude removes ego. Gratitude helps empower the best in others around you. Our goal is to guide individuals and companies to practice gratitude so you can live a longer, happier and more successful life. Get ahead of life with connection and purpose. This is Gratitude Through Hard Times with Chris Shimbra.

Speaker C: Well, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to another episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times. It's your host, Chris Schembra. And if I sound a little bit tired today, it's because I am.

Speaker A: Golly.

Speaker C: We were cheering on the New York knicks in Game 4 of the NBA Finals last night and New York City came alive in celebration. I think we had a fire truck and police cars outside of our window until about 3am but nonetheless, it's good to be here with you all today. To all our loyal listeners of this podcast, it's good to see you old friend. Your support through the years is what have allowed us to do our work. Some of my favorite moments throughout the week are when you email in your thoughts, questions, comments of today's episode guest. So keep them flowing folks. It's good to see you. Um, for all the new listeners of this podcast, I don't know how you stumbled upon our humble little corner of the Internet, but it's nice to meet you. You stumbled upon a podcast that's going to be talking about the human side of leadership, of legacy, of philosophy, of connection. If you're looking for a podcast about go to market strategy or new strategies to do xyz, this ain't it. Maybe you were sent this episode from a friend who sees something in you this episode as a reminder, you're doing the right work. You're on the path. Keep going. We invite you to click through our podcast episode archives and you'll see our many year commitment to bringing on great leaders like today's guest just to share their human story. We're going to invite you to join us along that journey by clicking that subscribe button by the end of this podcast. I think you're going to really love today's episode Guest and it's an honor to create this space for you all here today. Today we have Chris Burnham, President of Storage Mart, which is the world's largest privately owned uh and family owned self storage company in the world. And Chris and his family have spent over 40 years in this industry growing from a literal company of one facility to over 250 locations across the world, having done over $8 billion in real estate transactions for their self storage facilities. But what I'm most interested to talk about today is the how of which Chris and his family have built this empire. They've kept family business values driven local while scaling exponentially. They've brought multiple generations into the family business, but empowered people to learn the business the right way. They've built a culture where the people checking you into a storage unit genuinely cares about your satisfaction. Putting the customer first. Chris is a former Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year. We're gonna have a ton to talk about today. The full bio is in the show notes below. But without further ado, let's welcome Chris to a really human episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times. Chris Burnham, Good to see you.

Speaker A: Hey, good to see you Chris. How you doing?

Speaker C: I'm doing great. And by the way, shout out to Mr. Chris Perry, one of your old, you know, one of your partners from the the Hilton Head Island, South Carolina storage unit days. Chris Perry I grew up with his two sons, Jack and Ben, and is just a great father and a great local leader and just so honored that you know that the two of each other, it's pretty cool. Now Chris, we always like to start our podcast with gratitude before we get into more of the conversations about your journey. And it's a question of gratitude that we've been asking since July 15, 2015 to all our new listeners. Our story's simple. In one of my darkest hours, we invented a bowl of pasta sauce and decided to feed it to people to see if it's even good or not and hosted a dinner party on July 15, 2015. And we worked together to create the meal and we had a shared group experience. And at 7:47pm now the name of my company, we paused and asked a very simple question. And we've been asking this question every day ever since. So to kick us off for our podcast, I figured I'd bring This gratitude question to you as well, Chris. If you could give credit or thanks to one person in your life that you don't give enough credit or thanks to or that you've never thought to thank, who would that be?

Speaker A: One person.

Speaker C: One person. Preferably not your parents or your brother Mike or. I don't know. You know, you do so much with them.

Speaker A: Chris, that is almost an impossible question to answer without getting me in at least a little bit of trouble. But, uh, and. And not to sound like a, uh, you know, a cop out here, but my parents were just amazing people. They were just folks that had a story that was just incredibly unique. And it just, it molded myself and my siblings in ways that, you know, we're forever grateful for, you know. So is. Is that allowed? Is that kind of a cop out or.

Speaker C: It is. Anything goes, and it is phenomenally allowed. At what age do you think you and Mike realized that your parents had a unique story worth telling?

Speaker A: Probably in grade school at some point in time. And I can remember driving around with my folks and just looking. They would look at different businesses and ideas, and in the course of an afternoon, they would look at something and say, well, here's how we're going to do this. You know, we would do A and then B and then C, and because. And this is how we would re engineer it and make it better. And this could have been anything from a hardware store to, uh, an apartment complex to a travel agency. And I literally thought that they were always going into all of these different businesses. And, you know, then when you're with your friends, parents, and their moms and dads are just talking about how are the Cardinals doing? Or what's going on with the PTA or something like that. And with us, it was always about this creative mixture of, uh, looking at things and saying, gosh, can I take this and mold it and make it better. And, you know, my dad was basically a serial entrepreneur, and we counted up over 35 different businesses that he was in in his career and started now, he only made money in a couple of them.

Speaker C: I was waiting for that one, but

Speaker A: he was in a lot of them. And so I think that they gave us this sense of curiosity and a sense of, you got to jump in and do some work, you know, and that's just the kind of folks they were. And got to give a lot of credit to my mom, too. She was a realist. And, uh, you know, she grew up on a very poor cotton farm in northeast Arkansas. Uh, and she said that she could pick 100 pounds of cotton in a morning at their own fields. Before, before she was allowed to go over and pick for money in the neighbor's fields and those. And she said in those days a full grown man could hardly pick £100. So you know, that's a lot of work.

Speaker C: How does it feel to be sharing about your parents in this way right now?

Speaker A: It's a good thing. It's uh, something that uh, uh, was formative and I don't get to do enough of. Uh, uh. And it was, it's good, it's good. And I am, uh, grateful for that.

Speaker C: Why I thank you for giving gratitude to your parents. Gordon, uh, was your dad and your mom's name was Mickey. Mickey, yes. I love that you painted, you know, Gordon as that idea guy, the dreamer, curiosity and creativity. And your mom was the realist. You know, for all our listeners. I think that having a balance of that in our lives is really important because if you surround yourself, if you're watching this and you're the idea person, you are the dreamer, you are the doer, you're the curious one that can go in a thousand different directions. I think it's important that you don't just have yes. People around you, but you have realists around you that can check you and challenge ideas. You know, to make sure that you stay focused on execution. I think that's very important. I think we're going to get back to the challenging of ideas. Later in the conversation when we talk about creativity, we talk about what to focus in on. Especially in the age of AI in unlimited idea. Uh, world. So, so let's table that topic for a sec. But I love that you said There was about 35 businesses and only a couple made money. It sounds like your parents had a great tolerance for failure or not necessarily failure, very successful people. But you know, not all of them are winners. But they still kept trying. What do you think is a secret for that? Is the ability to keep throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks and learning from each, you know. Setback.

Speaker A: Yeah. You know, in today's business parlance you'd probably call it an AB test, right?

Speaker C: Mhm.

Speaker A: But with my dad and growing up, it was constantly a process of experimentation and throwing things against the wall and seeing what works and what doesn't and being fascinated by the process of doing that. You know, the, the eternal curiosity and the desire, you know, to do better. Not only to make money, but just for the satisfaction of doing better. Right. And dad, you know, always said, look in Business. You're either moving forward or you're going backward. There's no treading water. And I think that that's probably applicable to life as well. And, you know, you. You're presented with an obstacle, right? You can't just hang out in front of. You know, you got to climb the mountain. You got to figure out a way to navigate your way through it. You know, you can't just tread water.

Speaker C: There's a great quote by a man named Marcus Aurelius who was emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 AD folks were, yes, you heard that right. Two thousand years ago, this man that we're talking about, but he said the impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. Ryan Holiday even wrote a book called the Obstacle Is the Way. Now, Chris, in your life, you know, you learn from your parents. There's only going forward and going backwards. There's no treading in the water. At what point in your life, uh, at an early age, did you realize you were either treading water or going backwards and had the realization that you needed to do something about that? And what did it lead to?

Speaker A: Well, probably I can point to two events. Okay. I was a sophomore in college with a huge desire to go out and conquer the world in a large capacity for partying. Two things that don't always go to what, uh, go, go well together. And I woke up and I realized that I was not going to get to where I wanted to be if I didn't do something to distinguish myself. And it wasn't going to be through my GPI. And this was in 1982. And so I applied for a year in Japan studying Japanese business at a, uh, major university there. And I, by hook or crook, got selected. And in those days, Japan was going to conquer the world. Japan Inc. You know, was going to take over. There was all these books about it, et cetera. That was a great way to distinguish myself. Made a big difference in my life. I saw a lot more of the world, and I realized that I wanted to go to work for a big company. Okay? And I was particularly because, believe it or not, I was an agriculture student, of all things, studying agricultural economics. And I decided that I wanted to be a commodity trader. And I got a job with a big company called Cargill M. And I worked there for a couple of years, made some mistakes early on, but then after that, not to be too. I guess I should say, putting humility

Speaker C: aside, you're allowed to. You can do Whatever you want on this podcast.

Speaker A: Yeah, I was kicking ass.

Speaker C: Yeah, that's what's up. And.

Speaker A: And, um, um. But I felt like I wasn't, you know, I was caught in this kind of corporate treadmill and it was like, oh, Chris, they're talking about you at headquarters. You m. Know.

Speaker C: Mhm.

Speaker A: That kind of thing. And I was working in California and I was asked by someone back in headquarters to take this kid from Stanford out to dinner who they were trying to recruit. Okay. And so fine, I drove over and took this guy out to dinner and explained what the job was. And you know, they give us millions of dollars to play with. And it was a, you know, telephone in each ear, kind of cool thing to do. And the guy was like, God, you know, that sounds like a great job. I said, but I gotta tell you, these folks just don't pay much money. And I was like, well, what are they offering you? And he told me, and it was more than I was making at the time. And that was a wake up call. And that's kind of when I realized that I had to do things for myself and that maybe climbing the corporate ladder was not the career path for me. And at the time, my father was reorganizing our family business. In fact, he just sold a big storage portfolio, the largest transaction in the history of the industry at the time. And it was brokered by Chris Perry. Okay. Uh, your old friend from Hilpet.

Speaker C: Oh my God.

Speaker A: And I got a lot of stories about that, but dad, uh, said, why don't you come back here and work with us? And that's how I got started back in the storage business.

Speaker C: Holy guacamole. Well, um. Oh my gosh. So many great things there. First of all, when's the last time that you talked to that kid that you were interviewing? Does he now know, like, does he know what, you know, the conversation led to?

Speaker A: I have no earthly idea. I can't even remember his name. I just. I remember the number. I remember how much more money they were offering him than me. That's what I remember. And at the time it was $2,000 a year more, which was like real money. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker C: That was like a car back then. Oh my gosh, so many different questions that I have. I'm gonna, I'm gonna end up in. I'm gonna end up in the, uh, back in the storage business at the end of these questions. But, but I'm gonna go, um. I'm gonna go back to something really important about that chapter you talked about. Japan Inc. Going to Japan, working for this company, having these realizations. As a brief question, what about Japan Inc. Affirmed what you had always been learning from your dad? And is there a Japanese word, right. Kintsugi, ikigai, kaizen, jidoka, uh, anything. Do you have a word that affirmed, like a light bulb moment affirmed everything you had always been learning from your dad?

Speaker A: Wow, good question. Um, Kambate. Kambate Ne. That means like, like charge, right? Like ah, attack if you will. In Japan, if you're trying to get into university, you take a gap year and you become a ronin, which literally means bandit or outlaw. And you're studying, and you're studying for your test, everyone will tell you gambate M. Go get it.

Speaker C: Yeah, go get it. Do your best. Hang in there. Good luck. Let's go. Go for it. Come on. This is used to motivate your friends and peers during a sporting event, a big exam, or any moment that needs an extra boost of encouragement.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker C: If you had to tell yourself gambate of something right now, what would you say to yourself?

Speaker A: Well, that's a really interesting question as well. So, Having just turned 63 and having built a, uh, great company along with my brothers, I now have my two sons, a nephew and three nieces working for me. And how do we plan succession? What's the next chapter? Am I ever going to retire? If you ask me, one of my deepest fears are it's retirement.

Speaker C: Mhm.

Speaker A: Because I'm not sure I can handle that. What part about it and what is next? I mean I, you know, I, I, I feel like I still have like one more big deal in me. Right. You know, maybe that's not in the business world, maybe that's, maybe that's in the private world. Maybe it's doing something with my wife, maybe it's, I don't know,

Speaker C: something with

Speaker A: charitable or something, I don't know. But I think of it in terms of business, in a business lens. But so I think that, you know, I think that you come to these points in your life where you say, okay, now what's the next big thing?

Speaker C: Mhm. Okay, so let's zoom, zoom out. And by the way, I'll get back to you and your wife in a little bit later and related back to my parents and what they did together, but zooming out so you realize, and folks that are, you know, following along, I hope you see yourself, uh, that you've had a lot of these moments in your life that Chris has had in his. Maybe you've realized that climbing the corporate ladder, where you accidentally realize someone else is getting paid more money than you, who's actually lower than you, and you want to go off and do your thing. And maybe doing your thing means inventing something net new, or doing your thing means co creating something with others. But if you're on that path, I hope you realize that there's a coherence to your life that came before this moment, and all the pieces fit together that lead you to where you are now. Steve Jobs said he can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect the dots looking backwards. Chris is talking about how living in Japan and working here and doing this and learning that have all kind of led him to this gambatte moment that he has the choice to lean into. But let's zoom out for a sec. You join the family business, and when you join it, you take it to places where it's never gone before and, you know, to kind of bring it back to what I said in the bio. We're talking about $8 billion of real estate transactions, 250 locations around the world, three generations of Burnhams working within the company, or having worked within the company. This has become something quite large, quite great. What makes you want more?

Speaker A: I'm not ready to tread water.

Speaker C: Ooh, good callback. Great callback.

Speaker A: I'm just not ready.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: And more importantly, Chris, one of the things I feel most gratitude for in my life, and as I look at others and I perceive that they're missing it, I have great empathy for them, and I wish I could figure out a way to. To help them, but it's that feeling that you wake up in the morning and you can hardly wait to get to work. Wow. That is. That's m what keeps me going, man.

Speaker C: And is that something that you felt the minute you joined the family company, or is it something that had to develop over time?

Speaker A: Both.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: I think that when you work with your family or work anywhere, you're going to have setbacks. Okay. And you're going to say, oh, my God, this is a drudge, or this isn't for me, or how am I going to get through this? Those things are going to happen because they happen to everybody. Okay. It's, do you have the perseverance, you know, to get through it, uh, to solve it? You know, and in my experience, most things ultimately are solvable. It might seem insurmountable at any given time. And I've had those episodes throughout my career as well, you know, where, you know, distinctly remember my brothers and I Coming back from a trip in New York where we thought we had everything set, and we were going to take our company public, and the underwriters and the attorneys and the brokers were all ready to break out the champagne. We got on the airplane, flew back to St. Louis, and it's about an hour and a half car ride back to Columbia from St. Louis. As I was leaving the airplane, I got a phone call. Deals off, everything fell apart. And we had bet everything on this. I mean, we were going to go broke if this deal didn't close. And we stopped off at a gas station and bought a 12 pack and drank it on the way home, strategizing about what comes next. And, you know, that was a real deal. Now, it turned out that within three days, we were able to piece everything back together. And, you know, we didn't make nearly as much money on the deal as we thought we would. You know, we took a, uh, uh, an amazing or a huge haircut, as they say. But we survived, you know, and those are those gut check moments that come up in your life. You gotta be prepared for those, too.

Speaker C: I think it's very important that our listeners think about that car ride in their lives, right? So you've been looking forward to something, and you've. You've put all the stock into it, and you feel burnt out and overwhelmed, and all the cards are firing at once. Maybe you got three jobs right now, and all the stock is in that thing. And then the opposite happens. And when the opposite happens, it's very easy for us to turn and run and hide from the winds and to be alone. But you did the opposite. You stayed together and you strategized and you got through it together. And I think that's so important because in our world today, we live in a society that has accidentally become very divided, very isolated, very disconnected. And a lot of us feel or have convinced ourselves that we have to go through this alone. But what you're saying is that you got through something together. I think that's a very important thing for our listeners.

Speaker A: That's one of the special things about being in a family business, too. You know, I've got great wingmen, not only my brother Mike, my brother Tim as well, and I have a sister Kim, that have all been integral parts of the business as we built it together.

Speaker C: One of the cool things that y' all do, you know, you're talking about a ride up to New York. It reminds me of a fun little group that you own here in New York City called Manhattan Mini Storage. And for all of our listeners that are literally listening to this right now, look out your window. Are you looking New Yorkers? You see it? Yeah. That Manhattan Mini Storage, you see out your window right now in New York, that's part of the Burnham. That's part of Storage Mart. And if you remember, folks, if you're seeing. I don't know what advertisement you're seeing on it right now, but Manhattan Mini Storage, I believe, has some of the best advertising all of New York City. So much so that y' all just won a telly for this amazing campaign about people regretting leaving New York City and they move out to the suburbs and they realize that their neighbors are overweight and always naked and, you know, having a barbecue and just talking about, you know, plain old, plain Jane stuff. Very hilarious advertising. But I want to talk about the creative process of some of these advertisements. When we were on the kickoff call, you said I was complimenting these advertisements, and you kind of jokingly said, oh, yeah, it's just a few of us sitting in a room talking about, you know, creative stuff. Tell me about your creative process as, like, Chris the funny guy, Chris the writer. What is that like? Because all of New York City knows about these advertisements. They're amazing.

Speaker A: Well, first, I've got some really talented people that not only work for me, but also kind of keep. Keep me under control so I don't do anything too. Out too. So. So, uh, I absolutely caveat that.

Speaker C: Wait, before you answer this, by the way, for the listeners who aren't in Manhattan, let me read, and maybe Norsen will attach some images from Google Search. Let me just read some of these storage unit advertisements. Imagine you see a big skyscraper in Manhattan, and, you know, 10 stories of the building are filled with this great advertisement from Manhattan Mini Storage. Here's one of them. A storage unit has never ordered a scooped bagel. Scoop bagels. Um, the. The one campaign bad things happen when you leave the city. And it's a photo of your, you know, suburban, you know, neighbors kind of naked on the lounge chair. A, uh, storage unit has never made you drink homemade kombucha. Store old things here in the storage unit, not the White House. And it's a photo of Trump and Biden, you know, both being very old. Anyways, these things easier than sending the first DM Rent Mini Storage. Rent faster than your gym crush can post a selfie. Manhattan Mini Storage. Rent faster than your pathetic ex swipes. Right? Tell us about this creative process and what part of that brings you joy.

Speaker A: You Know, today I think that, uh, uh, laughter is one of the most essential parts of life. Okay. And I try to find humor in everything. I think humor is one of the most effective ways to communicate a message. I think that I have essentially one of the most boring products in the world to sell. And we realize that nobody is ever excited about renting a storage unit. Nobody ever really wants to rent a storage unit. They do it because they have to. So how do we make ourselves a little more memorable, a little more fun, you know? And listen, we also realize that, uh, what we do in Manhattan doesn't play well in Omaha. So we have to, you know, so, so we do have a very distinctive brand differentiation between Storage Mart and Manhattan Mini Storage. So beyond that, every time I read something, see a movie, I'm one of those guys that if you want me to like, quote you the entire script of Animal House, I probably could and have just always tried to find whatever, whatever I think is funny. I got some folks on my team. Uh, sir Little. A, uh, young lady named Lydia Pilch. Very creative, fun, interesting, plugged in much more Gen Z than I am. Kind of, kind of stuff. You know, some of the things they've brought me dragging and screaming. I mean, the kombocha thing, I was like, wtf? What are we. What?

Speaker C: Hey, that. Hey, that was good. That was a little millennial. Wtf. That was a little more millennial than Gen Z, but we'll take it.

Speaker A: Yeah. And you know, I tell you what, Chris, uh, to give you an idea, at another point in our life, during one of the downturns, I thought I was going to go broke again and we started a new family company called wtf.

Speaker C: Oh my gosh.

Speaker A: Uh, which meant Win the future.

Speaker C: Oh, yeah.

Speaker A: So, uh, that was just kind of a little gallows humor at the time. But so the Manhattan brand has just been fun to work with. And frankly, the folks that we bought it from, that had built this thing up, uh, you know, over a 20 year period of time, they had started the very kind of cheeky, in your face advertising and we took that legacy and continued it on.

Speaker C: Cheers to the cheekiness. Cheers to WTFing.

Speaker A: So, you know, you don't have to invent things. And you know, you go back and you talk about the Japan Inc. Okay. You know, the Japanese have not been particularly good at inventing things, but boy, they've been great at innovating things.

Speaker C: Mhm.

Speaker A: And so, you know, I constantly feel that I don't have to invent anything, I just have to innovate what's there.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker A: And make it the best it can be.

Speaker C: What do you think needs to be? Well, I'll give you context. Um, my first keynote speech I ever gave as a kid, I was in my mid-20s, it was at the United Nations. And I ended my, uh, speech by saying that innovation is just history repeating itself, looking different. And what I've observed over time is that a lot of new, innovative things are just repackaged old goods called something different. For instance, if you're a Gen Z watching this, or you're someone on Chris's team watching this, think of the term nona maxing. Nona maxing. You know how Gen Z puts maxing at the end of everything? I hope to see it in the Manhattan mini Storage add soon. Something about maxing. But Gen Z does sleep maxing. Soft maxing, looks maxing, friction maxing. We invented a term called givemaxing, but there's this one term called nona maxing, which means live a life in accordance to an Italian grandmother as much as possible. Which essentially means eat gluten, sit in a small room, sit around the dinner table, be slow, have a glass of wine, don't work out the next day, just live and gather love on your family kind of thing. And so they put a new spin on an old thing. My question to you is, Chris, if you had to innovate or invent some new term, maxing or not maxing, what would you want to bring back to our world? Uh, that people would call innovative? But it's really nothing new.

Speaker A: Interesting. Well, of course I immediately think of business. I'm thinking, well, we're obviously space maxing, you know, uh, you know, storage maxing, stuff maxing. You know, if you're stuff maxing, you need to space max. Uh, things like that would be interesting plays. But on a more if you're looking for something borderline profound to the extent that I can do that, uh, uh, curiosity maxing.

Speaker C: Oh, what does that look like for you? Um, what are the three pillars of curiosity maxing?

Speaker A: Yeah. Awareness, appropriate cynicism.

Speaker C: Oh, nice.

Speaker A: I don't know exactly how to say it, but I would call it in a sentence, critical thinking to reverse engineer.

Speaker C: Mhm.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker C: Uh-huh.

Speaker A: So you know, you, you, you see something and you're like, gosh, I want to know about it. How does it work? You know, what are the steps that it took to get this thing done? You know, or you know, what's the model, what's the business model, you know, that kind of thing. And I've done my fair share of speaking and things like that. And I, you know, and they're in, you know, and, or I was at a talking, at a business school thing not too long ago and one of the questions was, you know, what do you look for in someone you're interviewing? You know, and I always go back to curiosity, you know, because, uh, that, that tells me that it's somebody who knows how to learn, who wants to learn, you know.

Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, everything that you just shared, awareness, appropriate cynicism, critical thinking to reverse engineer learning, agility, adaptability.

Speaker A: Good point.

Speaker C: Right. These are all. This is great. And this is, this is not curiosity necessarily for like soft connection, treading water sake. It's like curiosity for proactive resilience needed to figure out the way through anything tomorrow. There's a lot of studies like Gallups, you know, human, the human Unlocking the Human Advantage in the Age of AI kind of thing. It's like proactive resilience, learning agility, critical thinking, adaptability, social influence and connection. These types of things are the skills needed tomorrow, you know, to get ah, ahead to lead and thrive in this new kind of world. So I think curiosity in a world where we probably lack curiosity, you know, most of us are starting to dress the same, most of us are starting to probably design our homes the same, and most of us are probably stopping from, you know, being curious about people. We just, we just, we just see the facade of a person and don't go deeper than it. And AI probably is atrophying the muscles needed for curiosity. Right. There are studies that show that people are talking to machines more than people these days.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: You know, uh, I mean, statistically speaking, this entire report, I won't bore you with it, but Workdays Human Connection Workplace Index literally has all the stats that humans go to AI because they fear judgment from other humans. Humans are giving more gratitude to AI than humans. Humans that get free time freed up because of AI are not using it to connect with other humans. They're just doing more of the same work. There's no room for curiosity and reverse engineering. Right. We've atrophied that mind. I mean, think about when's the last time you read a map to get somewhere rather than just using the gps? We, we know what the end result is, but we don't know how to reverse engineer how to get there.

Speaker A: No, that's exactly right, Chris.

Speaker C: Well, I want to start landing the ship. This has been pretty awesome. We have covered a lot of ground today. You are someone who find satisfaction in doing the thing, a job well done. You a b test a lot of kinds of things, and you have a tremendous commitment to customer experience, customer satisfaction. What does the role of listening play in all of this?

Speaker A: That is such a key factor? Because so often it's not what I think, right? It's what my customers think. It's what my employees think. Perception is reality, you know, and one of the things I do in my business plan is I wander around different cities, different markets, different storage facilities. I love going into my competitors and renting a unit and just seeing what the experience is like, you know, what can we learn? What can I steal? What can I innovate, you know, and also what do customers really care about, you know, and understanding those things? I think it's just, I think it's absolutely key in business and also I think in life. And listen. I can talk to a wrong number for a half an hour. I have to be careful sometimes to shut up and listen and to hear what the people around me are saying, Whether it's customers or friends or employees. Uh, all of those things I think are really important.

Speaker C: Talk to a wrong number for 30 minutes. I've heard that I could talk to a rock or I could talk to a wall for 30 minutes, but to a wrong number, that takes it one step further. I love that you use the word wander. And so, I mean, I believe that we have so many things that are tied to goals or an end destination or a fixed point. And the opposite of that is to wander aimlessly. So my question to you is harkening back to that. I have one big deal left in me, or maybe I want to do something with my wife or I don't know what comes next, but I want to win the future. What type of wandering do you, Chris, need to do outside of work to figure out what comes next?

Speaker A: Wow. Save the tough ones for the last time. Um, um, I need to make sure that I have wandered around and discovered the right balance in my life between, like, my wife, my grandkids, as well as my, uh, business and my career. So I think that's, that's an important thing. I think that if I stop wandering that I would have the ability to become so calcified so quickly that, you know, I'd be like, growing roots or, I don't know, like in the, uh, if you're a, a, uh, three, you know, the return of the King Hobbit. Lou, if you remember the, ah, the king that, that got frozen. He literally was almost frozen in because he'd been lulled asleep, you know, and then, then he realized there was a crisis and he finally woke up. That is who I do not want to be, you know? So, um, I've, I've, I've. I've been able to step up to more success than I ever dreamed of. And part of me says I got to keep going, right? I got to wander around and find that right balance. And I got to make sure I don't become calcified and that I can keep staying fresh in whatever it is that comes next.

Speaker C: Chris, if your parents were here in this call with us here today, what would you say to them?

Speaker A: I love them. You m. Know I love them. And one of the things that. And you know, going back to kind of this work, curiosity, creativity. One of the things I think, I don't think my parents started this, but we ended up there is something that my wife and I tried very deliberately to do with our kids. I have three sons. It was to raise what we call Renaissance men.

Speaker C: Mhm.

Speaker A: I wanted them to be able to fight a battle on the front line, come home and write a sonnet, paint a picture, or climb a mountain. And I've been blessed because I do have three really hard working, very intelligent sons. So

Speaker C: cheers to the Renaissance man. M. Any last words in closing, Chris?

Speaker A: You know, it's been a blast and I'm, um, gonna, I'm gonna tune into your podcast from now on. I appreciate you inviting me on.

Speaker C: Well, it was an honor to have you and I love the journey that we went on. Folks, I hope you truly listened to the words, the cool words that we used on this podcast. Renaissance men, curiosity. Maxing. Having 35 ideas, but only three worked. Japan, Inc. Ganbatte. M. WTF? These are words that I believe all of you have inside of you watching this but are afraid to bring to life. Maybe you're afraid that you won't look serious or people will judge you or it will be awkward or whatever the resistance is. I hope you can see from Chris's story that you can achieve some pretty tremendous things. And you can still be funny and goofy and quote Animal House and have the wackiest billboards and have satire and humor and curiosity. Renaissance. You can do all the above. And I don't know, I just think the world needs a lot more of that color tomorrow more than ever before. And I think you found that here today in today's podcast. Check out all the links in the comments below. Storage Mart, Manhattan, Mini Storage. Tons of Kris's story. It's out on the Internet. Go consume it. Let it be inspiration to go out and live a big life. I learned that from my parents. I learned that from my mentor, Tony Lo Bianco, who passed away on this day two years ago. And I live a big life in accordance to what I learned from all of those people. So thanks for tuning in folks. To all the LOL listeners, give me a dm. Give me an email. Any thoughts, questions, comments. Today's was special. To all the new listeners, I hope you found what you didn't even know you were coming to find. I hope you know that whoever sent you this podcast episode sees you, knows you, and knows that whatever you can bring to the world tomorrow is bigger and bolder and more creative and curious. And you're, um, meant to be doing this work. So keep on keeping on. Click that subscribe button and join us along for this journey. To all our folks, thanks for tuning in. I hope you've enjoyed this episode. I'm gonna go celebrate with the New York Knicks in the street. Uh, get ready for Game five. I hope you're having a phenomenal day on Earth, folks. Remember, it's your world. Go explore and we'll see you next. Episod.