This week on The Mobile Alabama Business Podcast, we sit down with Christienne Gibson with Mobile United. Listen in as we discuss their her, career journey, and how she got into the world of leadership and business!

Produced by Blue Fish.

Transcript:

Christienne:

I am Chris Gibson. I am the executive director of Mobile United.

Marcus:

Yay.

Christienne:

Woo woo.

Marcus:

How long have we known each other?

Christienne:

I think our boys played soccer together when they were five.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

And they're now 19, so 15 years.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

14 years almost...

Marcus:

It's been a while.

Christienne:

Yeah.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

I think this would be year 15 right here.

Marcus:

Yeah. I mean, and it's just funny because both of us are very involved in the business world and chamber and all that other stuff, and it's just like, I don't feel like I've had these questions answered so I'm glad that you're here.

Christienne:

Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited.

Marcus:

Absolutely. And I know that Mobile United does a lot of really good things in the Mobile area. And so I did want to highlight what you all bring-

Christienne:

Yeah.

Marcus:

...to the community so.

Christienne:

So we're actually celebrating 50 years this year.

Marcus:

Yay.

Christienne:

We're a nonprofit organization started obviously in 1972. July 11, to be exact.

Marcus:

Nice.

Christienne:

And it was really a concerted effort from concerned citizens who wanted to not be Birmingham or Montgomery in the post-civil rights era, right? Not go through some of the strife that they went through. And it really had to do with obviously racial issues and really unequal employment opportunities. And so about 60 concerned citizens met at the Civic Center and said, "We all need to sit around one big table and solve our community issues together."

Marcus:

Wow.

Christienne:

And so that's the same method that we used since then. We've taken on... We started Leadership Mobile about two years after that. It was every other year until, I think, '84. And then it's a every year program.

Marcus:

Well, pause there first.

Christienne:

Yes.

Marcus:

Well, actually I want to give back into that, but before we get into that-

Christienne:

Sure.

Marcus:

...why don't you tell us a little bit about Chris? Where are you from? Where'd you go to high school? Did you go to college? Are you married? Some of that. We know you have kids now because our kids played soccer together.

Christienne:

Right.

Marcus:

So, but give us some of the back story and then I do want to go down that path and remember that we need to define Leadership Mobile for people because I don't think everybody knows what that is and it's important. So we'll come back to it.

Christienne:

I agree. Okay, cool. So I grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Marcus:

Okay.

Christienne:

So I'm a Yankee.

Marcus:

Yay.

Christienne:

A damn Yankee because I am never going back. It is entirely too cold.

Marcus:

Shared a similar...

Christienne:

Entirely too cold.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

I'll never go back there.

Marcus:

It's too cold in Mobile for me now.

Christienne:

It's very cold.

Marcus:

I'm thinking I need to move souther.

Christienne:

Good luck with that.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

Good luck with that.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

But so I grew up there, went to Saint Basil Academy, which was a all-girls Catholic high school. Everybody up there in that part of Philadelphia was Catholic. Everybody. You're either Italian or Irish.

Marcus:

Okay.

Christienne:

And you are... Everybody was Catholic.

Marcus:

Are you Italian or Irish?

Christienne:

I'm neither, which is weird. I was the odd person out. I was the only biracial person in literally my whole entire school.

Marcus:

Wow.

Christienne:

Until I got to high school and then we had some sort of one or two other biracial, which was lovely.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

But still very, very rare.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

Anyway, so went to college at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, met my husband who... Well, my now ex-husband LOL that you knew from soccer.

Marcus:

Yep.

Christienne:

And he was from Peru and his sister did the same exchange program that he did. She met a doctor who got a job at Mobile Infirmary so they moved here.

Marcus:

Fun.

Christienne:

Then the rest of his family moved up from Peru and then he followed a year after and I came a year after him. So that's how we kind of all-

Marcus:

Met.

Christienne:

...congregated here in Mobile.

Marcus:

What pulled you to Mobile?

Christienne:

He did.

Marcus:

Okay.

Christienne:

So when he moved down, we were still in college. We were dating.

Marcus:

You guys knew each other. It wasn't like you met here. Okay.

Christienne:

Right. No, no. We met there. We met in Pennsylvania.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

So it just happened. If I went to another college, I would never be in Mobile.

Marcus:

So you know what's funny is I went to James Madison.

Christienne:

Okay.

Marcus:

And Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Chesapeake.

Christienne:

Yeah.

Marcus:

Are the three areas outside of the Washington DC area that pull massive amounts of people for attending James Madison University or at least at the time they did.

Christienne:

Oh, okay.

Marcus:

And it was because the in-state tuition for Pennsylvania and New Jersey was similar to the out-of-state. And also there were some benefits for people going to James Madison over some of the other options that they had just as far as what was offered and stuff like that.

Christienne:

Yeah.

Marcus:

Anyway, just I always... I was kind of waiting to hear, "Well, where'd you go?" Because I know a lot of folks from Pennsylvania that went not just to James Madison, but to a lot of schools in Virginia so.

Christienne:

Yeah. I stayed in Pennsylvania and I was really happy because I ended up an art history major. Started psych, moved to art history just because I said I-

Marcus:

So useful, both of those degrees.

Christienne:

...honestly, I mean, art history, not... Well, actually in a weird way, yes. But psychology for sure.

Marcus:

Right.

Christienne:

Just because it's really what I do now.

Marcus:

Yeah. For sure.

Christienne:

But art history, not quite as much.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

For a little bit in my time here in Mobile, it definitely put me on the path to where I am now for sure. Because after I moved here, finished school at South. I worked in retail for a little bit, but everybody's like, "What do you want to do?" I was like, "I want to work for the community."

Christienne:

I had no idea what that meant. I had no clue. I was in my twenties. I didn't know any of the people. I didn't go to a high school or a college here. I didn't know. I wasn't in the in-crowd.

Marcus:

None of those connections that you-

Christienne:

I didn't have any of them. I just had his family and then a few friends that I made along the way. Anyway, so I ended up working, which was a great job, at Ashland Gallery, which is a little cool little hip gallery on Old Shell Road, which used to be an old gas station they converted. It's the coolest, hippest spot in town.

Christienne:

I met some of the greatest creatives while I worked there and I'll never forget this. This was a very defining moment in my life, but I would drive, because I live on the Eastern shore, and I would drive down Dauphin to go home. And I was at Claiborne and Dauphin driving home one night and they had just decorated Cathedral Square for Christmas. And it was just beautiful. These gorgeous Moravian stars just dripping from the trees and it was just beautiful. And I remember the moment I had my... It was beautiful. It was December.

Christienne:

The windows were down. My hand was out the window and I said, "Dear God, I want to work downtown. I want to be in the epicenter where all the action is. I want to be where there's actual sidewalks, where there's people, where decisions are being made, where there's culture. I want to be here."

Christienne:

So fast forward to, I guess it was a year later, I was looking for a job at the art museum because of my art history background. And I found this other job working for Mainstream Mobile, which was the downtown revitalization department of the city, doing events and public relations. So I ended up in this job and I guess it was a year, maybe two years later and I was gluing the same exact Moravian stars together to hang in the trees.

Marcus:

Oh that's too funny.

Christienne:

And I had that flashback moment from when I was sitting at the light and I went, "Oh my gosh." Literally, God answered my prayer because I'm not just working downtown.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

I'm working for downtown and I'm helping to redevelop and do really cool fun things.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

It was a very great moment.

Marcus:

It's a surreal moment.

Christienne:

It was so great. I just remember that. And it was awful because these stars were so hard to put together and I remember being so frustrated and I was like, "Oh, these stars." I was cussing them-

Marcus:

But at the same time.

Christienne:

...but then literally it reminded me of that moment when they were hanging and because I was thinking they looked so good though. And then I was like, "Oh my gosh." It was just a total flashback moment. And I was like, "Thank you, God." I really appreciate it.

Marcus:

It was so cool. Yeah.

Christienne:

It was a really great moment.

Marcus:

Yeah. That is really cool. So yeah. So go back and let's talk about Mobile United.

Christienne:

Sure.

Marcus:

So you mentioned Leadership Mobile. Why don't you tell the listeners what that is and why that's important to the community?

Christienne:

So the concept that I was talking about with Mobile United, how we bring people from all different corners of the community. Diversity, equity, inclusion was the root of where we started.

Marcus:

Before those were buzzwords everybody was talking about.

Christienne:

Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, literally since the seventies.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

And so it's sort of that same concept, but it's a year-long program where we very intentionally reach out to the for-profit, the nonprofit and the governmental communities and say, "Bring us your best and brightest. We're going to work on some community leadership classes with them."

Christienne:

So we basically take them. So Kim Garrett is the dean of this year's class. She's a graduate of 2014. She is the dean of this year's class. She chooses the theme.

Marcus:

Nice.

Christienne:

She has chosen Brene Brown's Dare to Lead this year. So that's sort of the framework for the days. But what we do is take them on seven months of education. So we do an opening retreat for two days and then each month we focus on a topic. So economic development, education, health and human services, public safety, all that kind of stuff.

Christienne:

And then at the end of the seven months, we break the group of about 35 to 40 into small groups and they each, in those same areas, they'll pick their favorite topic and then they produce a project for the betterment of the community, but in the context of that.

Marcus:

Very cool.

Christienne:

Of that area. Yeah.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

And so it's fantastic. I know because I went through it. That was my introduction into Mobile United. I went through the class of 2009 and I was like, "I love what this is and what it represents and the impact that you can have as an individual."

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

That was really awe-inspiring to me. And so I just volunteered and then I ended up joining the board and then four years after that, I came on staff and I've been there for eight years and I just, I really love what we do. I'm very blessed to say that I'm very... I feel very fortunate to be doing something I love.

Marcus:

Yeah. Everybody that I talk to that has gone through that program has only said good things about it because I think so many of us live here, but... And we think we have an idea of how things kind of work.

Christienne:

Right.

Marcus:

But Leadership Mobile tells you, shows you and gets you in there so that you actually can kind of see how those things happen and how things work.

Christienne:

And then gives you an opportunity to do something about-

Marcus:

To help.

Christienne:

...the thing that needs changing. Right?

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

So we can talk about all the things that need to be done, but we need to know and we do focus on here are all the great things that have happened, but there's here's the gap, here's what's missing in health and human services or in public education, right?

Marcus:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Christienne:

Every area still has room for improvement. And so the idea is that's where their leadership can fit in. They can do something about it. And some projects are still alive today. Some are one-off, some are plans for other organizations, some are a one-time event. It just really runs the gamut.

Marcus:

Do you have an example that you could pull out of a hat real quick that people may recognize that was an effort that came out of Mobile United?

Christienne:

Sure. Actually, when I came on staff eight years ago, I said, "We really need to produce a program." Because we have Leadership Mobile, which is our flagship program. And then the class of 1995 started a youth program. So we have a high schoolers on lockdown for 20-plus years. We were missing the gap on young professionals. And I was like, "We can't accommodate them in our classes because we're limited

Christienne:

We can't accommodate them in our classes because we're limited space. And a 20 something cannot compete with a 40 something professionally, right?

Marcus:

Yep.

Christienne:

They can't get past the interview stage because they just have so much more experience than a younger person. So we created this young professionals program to cater to that group only because statistics show that people that are invested in their community are two to three times more likely to stay somewhere where they feel like they can make a difference. Right?

Marcus:

Hey guess what Mobile? We have a brain dream. Let's get these people here.

Christienne:

Exactly. So if we can really do something and engage them and get them involved in something that they care about and they can see the fruits of their labors do something impactful and great for the community that we know needs so much, it's awesome. So class of 2017 Connect Mobile Project was... Actually its class 2016. I'm sorry. Anyway, so it was great. One of the women and you might know her, Moshae Donald. She's a lawyer in the area. Her son, Corey is autistic.

Marcus:

She's actually been on the podcast.

Christienne:

Okay, great.

Marcus:

And she was on promoting her CBD business that she started which... I don't know. Anyway, It's ringing a bell.

Christienne:

She's fantastic. She was in the class that year. And what we do is we offer to the class three potential projects. Someone pitches to them and then they side through consensus which project they want to pick. And then they work on it for three months. Same concept as the other programs but it's large. It's 15 to 20 people working on one project as opposed to 5 or 6. Anyway, she said, "Here's the issue, my son is autistic. It took me three different doctors, two different cities to get him the proper diagnosis. I knew something wasn't right. I took him to two doctors here. They just said, 'Oh no, he's just a boy, he's just going to take longer to speak.'" Like she just got that run around and she's like, "Something is not right." And so as we all know with autistic children, the sooner you get them an intervention, the higher their chances are of integration and just a better lifestyle as they grow.

Christienne:

So her project idea that she pitched the class which they accepted was to do an autism awareness event. And so she said, "I want to do like a family friendly event." They did it at Tricentennial Park only because she said that's such a great meeting point of the black-whites areas. And really autism affects the African-American community on such a higher level, whether it's just not being able to get diagnosed early or whatever the circumstances are. So they specifically chose that location and worked with USA and got the psychology students to come out. And so they designed this whole event around... Come to this family friendly event where they had a DJ and train rides and a petting zoo and free food and all this great stuff. But before you can go do all that and get your face painted and do all the things, you have to come get screened by these students and professionals at South Alabama who are going to tell you the milestones. This is what to look for.

Christienne:

And so they actually put a lot more work in. They had three months to put this thing together. They opted to extend six more months to wait till Autism Awareness Month. And everybody was like, "Oh, maybe we'll get a couple hundred people." They had a thousand people come to this event. It blew my mind. Got great coverage, they started a Facebook page, they started a website, they did crowdfunding, they got donations. They knocked it out of the park. And so they were able to serve all these family and able to hopefully raise awareness and maybe get some kids screened where they might not have been previously.

Marcus:

That is so cool.

Christienne:

So it's stuff like that, it's really impactful. And it was funny because she posted on Facebook, either this morning or yesterday and said, "Thinking about reviving Paint the Town Blue, anybody interested?" and so many people were like, "Yes, yes, yes. It's needed. That's needed. I'll help. I'll volunteer." And so that's basically what it is.

Marcus:

That is absolutely amazing.

Christienne:

All the time.

Marcus:

Yeah. No, I think oftentimes people just... I think you hinted at this earlier, people just don't think that they can have that kind of impact. But I can't imagine the feeling that they had when they look up because sometimes you're just head down in the weeds looking for a name tag or whatever got... And then you look up and you're like, "Whoa, there's a lot of people here." And then to find out like a thousand people showed up for this event that they just did because they were in some group.

Christienne:

Right. Because they had to and then some of them gave the idea and thought this is a real need. We're meeting a need in the community. So what you're talking about, that moment when you realize you can do something about-

Marcus:

It's powerful.

Christienne:

... whatever you want. To me, that's the hook. That's what got me into Leadership Mobile and into Mobile United and it's what keeps me coming back every year. It's awesome.

Marcus:

Wow. That is so cool.

Christienne:

It is very cool.

Marcus:

So, I'm just blown away. That is so cool. I wasn't expecting you to say that. That is really cool. Now go back to your first job, flipping burgers, sweeping whatever. Were there any lessons that you still remember from that and what was that job by the way?

Christienne:

So I worked at a family owned... A friend of the family owned a pizza shop that was like two blocks from my house. And I was 12. I was a single and only child staying at home in the summers. And so they're like, "Let's just see if they'll give you a job." And I was no joke. I was the phone girl. I answered the phones at a pizza store and took orders when I was 12. I made $2 an hour and I thought I was the bomb. I was like, "This is amazing." Saved all my money that summer, re-did my bedroom. I mean everything, painted, carpet, new furniture. I did it all and I'm like, "This is the life, I love this stuff."

Marcus:

I'm already coming up with some of the things that you learned from that, but was there anything that you took out of that experience that you think still carries with you today?

Christienne:

I will say this because I was telling one of my kids about it not too long ago. So I remember looking... So there were these older teenagers who were like the front girl. They ran the cash register and they pulled pizzas, pecan pies. And they were like 15, 16, 17, something like that. And I just remember being in awe and I'm like, "Oh my God. Just look at them, that's so great." And so here's the thing, when you're Catholic and you live in Northeast Philadelphia, during Lent, cheese pieces are the bomb. So you are so busy, like crazy busy. And this was a delivery and pickup only place. It wasn't even a sit down restaurant.

Marcus:

Which back in the day, not every restaurant delivered.

Christienne:

Well, no, but this place did.

Marcus:

But what I'm saying is like, that's unique because back in the day we didn't have DoorDash, Uber and all that other stuff.

Christienne:

Yeah. So it was the thing. So when you get to that point, when you become the cash register girl when you're 16 or whatever, you're moving up because you're getting the delivery drivers, you're routing them so you know which parts of the city they're delivering to. You're cashing them out, doing all their orders, you're pulling pies. Then you have the walkup customers. And I think once I turned 16 or something, I was up there and I was like, "This is it." Like seeing that goal, I wanted to be there. I was like, "I just love that." I think I just like multitasking and I'm good with directions and it really goes in my element. And I was like, "This is so great. I've I've became the cash girl" which is ridiculous, but honestly it was like a moment for me.

Marcus:

No, it's not. Actually, I think it is so sweet because oftentimes we forget what that experience is like. For somebody that's never had a job... So right now I have a 15 year old, Ethan and he's already been offered a job.

Christienne:

Yeah. That's good.

Marcus:

And he hasn't even applied. Now, mind you he's been offered a job by the same place that gave my oldest son a job and they're giving him the job because of the work ethic of Miles, my oldest son. But I can already see like what's going to happen when he goes and starts working. Now granted every teenager kind of belly aches and complains a little bit, but there's going to be a sense of accomplishment that goes along with that.

Marcus:

And so I see in your story that sense of accomplishment, like you achieved something that none of your friends did and getting a job you're really enjoyed and then paying for all the stuff that you needed to redo your room and all that stuff. And just being internally motivated by that. Those are just lessons that people need to learn and a lot of people aren't nowadays. And so-

Christienne:

Yeah. I agree. Especially young people.

Marcus:

Yeah, workforce development is just really hard right now. So you kind of told us, but going in and being the executive director of a nonprofit especially one that does as much as you all do, that's not an easy step especially for somebody that really hadn't run a nonprofit before, right? So what was that like?

Christienne:

Before Mobile United, I spent the bulk of my time at the city. So that job that I got, I was there for eight years and then I worked a little bit for some for-profits here and there, but it's mostly governmental. So it has a same kind of feel as nonprofit management and I was program coordinating there which is how I originally got into Mobile United. So same kind of concept, but it's different because you're switching a little. So through the programs I'm working on leadership development. So I'm trying to get people to feel that hook, to get that empowerment moment where I feel like I can do something. Someone gave me a challenge, I did it, I conquered it. Like, "Wow, I can affect some change."

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

And then you're switching to... Administratively, we've got to raise grants, we've got to get sponsorships. It's just a totally different skillset which is fine. So it's been different because I've been in the role for a year and a half maybe and then I was doing that work for maybe another year prior to that before actually getting the title. So it's fun again, sort of the challenge of like, me seeing a 16 year old me being up there doing this thing, "Oh, I'm going to talk to this person. I would love for their company to sponsor this because I feel like it matches the mission of what they want to do or their corporate social responsibility or their funding priorities and it matches what we're doing as far as impacting the community." So I try and marry those two as much as possible. So it's kind of fun and learning what specific businesses are about. Because I really feel that business responsibility is to...

Christienne:

Business responsibility is to give back to the community.

Marcus:

By all means.

Christienne:

Yeah.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

And there's a great talk by Dan Pallotta and it's one of his old books that I love. But I love Ted talks, I'm obsessed with them. But he does this whole talk about how the nonprofit community, we can't operate on the same roles as the for-profit community, but imagine if we could, we could scale so much bigger and be so much more and make so much greater impact if we play by some of the same roles. And I usually give that, I make my connect Mobile people watch that before we focus on our nonprofit day, because I want them to think differently about-

Marcus:

I want you to send that to me or after we get finished. Tell me which one specifically, because I think a lot of times nonprofits view themselves as different and operate differently than for-profits.

Christienne:

They have to.

Marcus:

They have to, to a certain extent because of the legal ramifications, but there are a lot of principles that they should follow.

Christienne:

Yeah. You would love this Ted talk [inaudible 00:23:11].

Marcus:

And they don't do that-

Christienne:

That's exactly what he's talking about.

Marcus:

Yeah. And I also just wanted to point out something struck me as I find it interesting that, you're trying to get people hooked on mobile in the same way that you got hooked on the first job that you had. You want them to have that same aha, like this is cool experience and stick around. So, I just thought that was interesting. So, now do you remember the first... Maybe it was the first program that you were a part of and maybe you weren't even at or maybe you were at Mobile United, but you weren't the executive director or whatever, but do you remember that first one where you thought, man, there might be something to this? This is something that I can really see myself dedicating my time to.

Christienne:

Well, definitely when I went through leadership mobile, I was like, this is amazing. But I think before I worked at the city, when we moved here and we'd come Downtown in our 20s and be on Dolphin Street.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

We used to go to Bumpers, which is now Soul Kitchen. Right?

Marcus:

Right.

Christienne:

And what I loved about bumpers was, we would go there and you could play pool. It was extremely diverse. There'd be Asian people and black people and Latinas, and whites and everybody mixed together, there's a juke box. You could hear different types of music. We don't have those types of places anymore. And then we would go out and do our thing. But I often found myself looking in the windows of what is now the Urban Emporium.

Marcus:

Okay.

Christienne:

It was Cathedral Square Gallery at the time. And I remember sitting in a little alcove and being like, "God, I wish this place were open right now. I just want to come down town and do something more than drink. That's what I want. I want to be able to come see a movie or go to a bookstore or go to a nice restaurant. I want to do more than just come down and party."

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

And so fast forward to when I worked at the city. And my very first day of work at the city actually was opening the farmer's market. I'm serious.

Marcus:

Welcome to the job ...

Christienne:

Literally. Six o'clock in the morning, I reported for my very first day at the city. 6:00, we opened, we were there till 12:00, I got a two hour break. And then we came back and we did Arts Alive, which is this big arts festival that we did twice a year. And I think I was at work till 10:00, 11:00 o'clock a night. And I was just exhausted. But I remember getting home, I'd hopped in the shower. I went laid on the sofa because I was just totally wiped. And I was sitting there and I was like, "Man, that was like the best day ever." Because there was just community, it was just people coming together and supporting the arts and fresh food culture. And I was like, "This is amazing." It was so great. Anyway so, I guess a couple of years after that, we decided the energy of Arts Alive was just so fantastic.

Christienne:

And for weeks we would get these emails like, "Oh my gosh, my kid love being on the pottery wheel or..." We'd hired the Symphony to come and do a live performance. And one year we had a wedding that was conflicting at the cathedral. So, we actually talked to them and said, "Will you please play a Wedding March because we need to..." They were so upset that we were blocking the streets. And so, I talked to the wedding coordinator, I said, "Well, how about if I get the Symphony to play the Wedding March when they come out of the church? You text me, blah, blah, blah." And she goes, "Oh my gosh, that would be great." And so, we did and it was fantastic. It was amazing. And 1200 people in the square turnaround and applauded for these people.

Marcus:

That was so cool.

Christienne:

We always had these really cool moments every time we did it. And the whole point of Arts Alive in the market and all these events that we were doing Downtown Beer Fest, was to really showcase what a vibrant Downtown could look like.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

And so, after I think two years of doing Arts Alive twice a year, we said, let's just do this monthly. Let's just start art walk and start doing it. And so, we took the temperature of the galleries, there were very few at the time and some of the businesses that wanted to support and they were about it. And I think we had 250 people, which is a very big deal, which-

Marcus:

Well, I think about the last art walk that I was at and it was just thousands of people. You can't get as seat at a restaurant. Everybody's in the galleries. And then it goes into the evening with people sticking around, they maybe go to the bar and have a drink or still eating dinner or just walking around. It was just amazing.

Christienne:

The movie, go the sanger, go wherever

Marcus:

Talk about economic development.

Christienne:

Exactly.

Marcus:

You're getting people Downtown and-

Christienne:

That was the whole point.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

But we had 250 people at our first one and that was amazing in July, and literally the hottest month of the year, I was elated. All the businesses were so happy and we were like, we think we're onto something.

Marcus:

You're onto something.

Christienne:

Yeah. I think we're going to keep doing this. And that was again, that moment that quotes are my stock and trade for what we do.

Marcus:

Sure. Yeah.

Christienne:

And I found one a couple of years later and I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is it." And I always wondered why somebody didn't do something about that. And then I realized I was somebody.

Marcus:

Yeah. I've heard that before.

Christienne:

And to me that's like, "Yeah, that's what I want everybody to realize." And going through that at the city before I started at Mobile United, the same concept, it's carried through like being able to thinking about that moment, looking in Cathedral Square Gallery, saying, "I wish this place were open on a Friday night, so I could do something different than just drink, but also drink if I want to." But I'd like to have other things to do as well. Something cultural and something interesting. And so, that was a very cool defining moment in my personal and professional life, is being given the opportunity by the people above me who said, "Yes, do that, try it."

Christienne:

That's very, very important to me, is being able to... I was very blessed because the person that hired me there at the city left and she started the Downtown Mobile Alliance, but she was always about sending me to other cities, learning best practices, like finding out what's good out there so we can help make it happen here. And that to me is invaluable. If you can be that for other people, that's probably the biggest lesson I would say to anybody is helping ...

Marcus:

Yeah. You hire smart people that have an aptitude and a willingness to move in a certain direction.

Christienne:

Correct.

Marcus:

And then you have to give them enough leeway to take ownership of that and make whatever needs to happen, happen.

Christienne:

Trust them.

Marcus:

Yeah, [trust them].

Christienne:

If they've got a good idea and you work on the plan together and say, okay, go execute.

Marcus:

Yeah. And can we imagine a mobile without an art walk? That's just part of like-

Christienne:

We could. It was boring 20 years ago.

Marcus:

Yeah. No, I just think about all the businesses that thrive. How does that help the local restaurateur who maybe doesn't see a night like that except for maybe a few times a year.

Christienne:

Yeah.

Marcus:

You know what I mean? Now he's got 12 additional ones because there's an art walk every month, if I remember correctly. But I'm also one of the reasons why I moved Downtown too, was some of the same things that you mentioned.

Christienne:

Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Marcus:

And I think oftentimes people forget, Downtown is really only about 10 miles from most places that you would... If you're listening to this, you're probably within 10 miles of Downtown Mobile.

Christienne:

Right.

Marcus:

And people oftentimes forget just how much Downtown Mobile has to offer.

Christienne:

So much.

Marcus:

And that prior to COVID was heading in a direction that I was so excited about. And I'm starting to see that come back.

Christienne:

Yeah.

Marcus:

Right. Because people are starting to venture out and stuff like that. I think this weekend we're probably going to come down and have dinner and enjoy Downtown a bit. But it's amazing to me. People are like, "They're so far away." It's like, "Dude, you are 15 minutes from some of the best food on the planet."

Christienne:

And Downtown is 98% locally owned. So, you're not going to get it anywhere else. You can't go find it in Fairhope, you can't find it in Pensacola.

Marcus:

It's so cool. It's Noja, it's Roosters, it's Chucks, and FIVE, and L Poppy, and Moe's.

Christienne:

And they're great.

Marcus:

There's so many to front restaurants Downtown right now that are all privately owned and they're amazing.

Christienne:

It's fantastic.

Marcus:

And so, if you want some good food and some good music and to be able to walk around and see maybe an art gallery or like... The one thing I think is lacking is there's still not a whole lot of shopping. Right?

Christienne:

Right.

Marcus:

There's no boutiques Downtown. There's none of that. And I've actually identified a couple of other businesses that I'm keeping for myself that when money loosens up a little bit I want to start some other ventures.

Christienne:

Cool.

Marcus:

And I think there are some things that are missing from Downtown that I see in other markets that would do really well. And so, come Downtown, it's amazing.

Christienne:

It is amazing.

Marcus:

And it's not all the bad stuff that people would want you to believe. It is actually a lot of fun.

Christienne:

I hear so much about it, I'm like, "Oh my gosh, you're Downtown." I'm like, "Yeah, I've been here for 15, 16 years. You're not worried." I'm like...

Marcus:

Worried about what?

Christienne:

Literally never worried. I've never worried once.

Marcus:

When have I ever been in a position where I've never?

Christienne:

Never once.

Marcus:

Never.

Christienne:

It's the funniest thing.

Marcus:

Not even at two o'clock in the morning.

Christienne:

Right.

Marcus:

And there have been a couple of those. So, no comment. All right. You alluded to it, but I want to highlight it. I am going to ask you the question, and you just, in your last answer, you mentioned something, but it's, if you were talking to someone that wanted to get started in running their own business, what's the one bit of wisdom that you would impart to them? And I apologize. I can't remember because we were talking about something else, but you just said something like, if there was one thing that I would want people to know when they go start their own business, it was this and...

Christienne:

Well, really when leading other people is like what you talked about, hire for talent-

Marcus:

That's it. I remember.

Christienne:

You can teach them all the skills that you want to, but trust them, help them develop their plan, but then...

Christienne:

Them all the skills that you want to, but trust them. Help them develop their plan, but then let them go and let them do their thing because they've got to learn, they've got to make their mistakes. They've got to learn, and you being able to... People that micromanage are the worst.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

So, please don't micromanage. That'd be probably my biggest piece of advice. Trust your people and let them do it. They're going to love the fact that you had that trust in them and let them ...

Marcus:

That's empowering.

Christienne:

Yeah, and they're going to produce more for you.

Marcus:

Because you're empowering them because you believe in them.

Christienne:

Exactly.

Marcus:

People oftentimes rise to the expectation that you have of them.

Christienne:

I agree.

Marcus:

That includes kids, by the way. If you were to look to the business world, is there one person that motivates you?

Christienne:

Oh gosh, I will say, I'm a huge fan of Simon Sinek. I listen to him, I follow him on Instagram. I listen to his stuff all the time.

Marcus:

Who?

Christienne:

Simon.

Marcus:

I'm joking. He just released a video about finding your why, but go ahead.

Christienne:

Yeah.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

So actually I went to grad school at Spring Hill a couple of years ago and in my psych of personality class, I really did a deep dive into him in particular, and I just love him. He has the best advice because he's talking about the meet. Right?

Marcus:

Right.

Christienne:

The why. The getting down to actual why you're doing this and they're not. They're not buying your product, they're buying why you do it and they're buying the... He's just so real, and he explains things so beautifully. I highly recommend him to everyone.

Marcus:

Yeah. It's very good and if you haven't heard of Simon Sinek before, he wrote a book Start With Why, if I remember correctly was the title of the book. There are probably some ...

Christienne:

The Infinite Game, is I think the latest one.

Marcus:

There's probably some TED Talks out there that he did about the finding your why and all that stuff.

Christienne:

Yeah. He talks about the golden circle., it's a good one. It's really old. I think it's from like 2000 something, the early 2000s, or something like that.

Marcus:

Yeah, because he's been around for a while, but highly recommend it because if you do kind of zero in on what it is that you need to be doing...

Christienne:

Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Marcus:

I would even go back to what you just said about you being super tired, you didn't get home until 10 o'clock, took a shower, laid down on the bed, but it was the best day ever.

Christienne:

Exactly.

Marcus:

That's your why.

Christienne:

Yeah.

Marcus:

You were having an impact on a city that you love, bringing people together and building community.

Christienne:

Literally.

Marcus:

If you were to distill it down, that's your why. My why is I want to make an impact on Mobile and I also want to create a cool environment for employees, as well as my boys, to work.

Christienne:

Very cool.

Marcus:

If that's my why and I have that at my forefront, then nobody can dissuade me. I'm going to win deals, lose deals, win employees, lose employees. I'm going to make money, I'm going to lose money. But as long as I keep my why focused, then... And these podcasts are part of that, the impact that we want to have on Mobile. So, go back and look him up.

Marcus:

Any books, podcasts, people, or organizations that have been helpful in moving you forward?

Christienne:

I don't listen to... But I sign up for a lot of webinars from IDEO U and they're fantastic, they're really helpful in all different aspects. They're based out of Silicon Valley, a lot of them are like Stanford grads and they're in all these...

Marcus:

Smart people.

Christienne:

They are very smart people and they do like a lot of like product stuff, but they've been getting more into the design-

Marcus:

Design thinking.

Christienne:

Yeah, it's fantastic and I sign up for all their stuff.

Marcus:

Yeah, they're a really good organization to pay attention to for sure.

Christienne:

Then one more, I'm sorry, I know just one, but Global Leadership Summit. I started going to at city hope, but now I've been doing it at home because it's been online. It's a two day...it's some big megachurch out Chicago, maybe?

Marcus:

Willow Creek.

Christienne:

Chicago maybe. Yeah. Is that it?

Marcus:

Yeah, Willow Creek. Hybels. Shoot, what was his first name? John Hybels?

Christienne:

That's...

Marcus:

Something like that.

Christienne:

That might be it.

Marcus:

Anyway, they had a senior pastor there a decade or so ago. I think his name was John Hybels. Hybels was definitely his last name. He wrote Courageous Leadership, which was a book that changed my life. They started this thing where... She says "mega-church", I mean we're talking tens of 1000s of people that go to this, actually, they may have had over 100 000 members at one point in time.

Christienne:

That's massive.

Marcus:

But anyway, when you have that many members, you have the ability to pull in people and you also have people in your membership that allow you to put on a really amazing conference. So, he pulls in authors, thinkers, and doers, and all these people and they throw a conference every year and a lot of the churches in the area...

Christienne:

I don't miss it. I haven't missed it and the only reason I went the first year was because Bryan Stevenson was speaking.

Marcus:

Which he's an amazing...

Christienne:

Human being...

Marcus:

Powerful human being.

Christienne:

Exactly. That's the first year that I went and I think I cried four times just in his little 40 minute talk.

Marcus:

That was the first year that I went to if I remember correctly.

Christienne:

It just impacted me so greatly because it's two days, 50/50 religious leaders and business leaders.

Christienne:

I learned so much from both for nonprofit management. It gets me every year. I don't miss it. It's...

Marcus:

Highly don't recommend it, same...

Marcus:

What is the most important thing that you've learned about running a business?

Christienne:

Oh, I guess maintaining relationships and growing them, I think it's really important, especially for what we do, we're always looking for up-and-coming leaders. We want to get people into the door and connected to issues because I, at the end of the day, want to see people giving back to the community.

Marcus:

For sure.

Christienne:

People might not know or might not have an avenue to be able to do that. If we can be that conduit for them...

Marcus:

That's amazing. Okay, hardest question of the day. How do you like to unwind?

Christienne:

Oh, that's a good one. I love to go on walks. I'm a big nature person, so I've got to connect. I can feel myself getting like a little grumpy, I'm like "I need to go on a walk", and I'll do a five-mile.

Marcus:

Yeah.

Christienne:

You know, under the interstate, up into Daphne.

Marcus:

Just to clear your head.

Christienne:

Yeah, I also like to roller blade. I like to watch movies, and I love to drink bubbles.

Marcus:

You like to drink bubbles?

Christienne:

Bubbles.

Marcus:

Yeah, champagne.

Christienne:

Correct.

Marcus:

So at ArtWalk, when they do the roller skating thing, do you bring your blades?

Christienne:

I didn't this time.

Marcus:

Come on.

Christienne:

I know, well I...

Marcus:

This time? They've been doing it for six months.

Christienne:

I used to roller blade. When we went to Christ the King, when my kids were little, I would drop them and I would roller blade all town, Olde Towne Daphne, and it was great. Then we ended up switching to City Hope and that's how I got introduced to that. Well, my sister-in-law took me one week and I was like, what is this place? Such a stark difference between...

Marcus:

Really?

Christienne:

Yeah, such a stark difference.

Marcus:

That is an understatement.

Christienne:

It was huge. I was like, "where am I right now?" I think the first time I went, when my sister-in-law said, "just come with me, you'll love it." They were talking, some of the founders were interviewed and they had lost their daughter through some very unfortunate set of events. I'm bawling in church, and I turned and looked at her like, "Am I going to cry every week? Because I don't know if I can handle this."

Marcus:

I can't handle this emotional-

Christienne:

This rollercoaster is entirely too much for me, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this, but...

Marcus:

Fortunately it's not.

Christienne:

It was a great experience. No, I pick and choose...

Marcus:

Well, I expect the next art walk to see you in roller blades down at- [crosstalk 00:41:15].

Christienne:

Keep looking.

Marcus:

Bienville Square.

Christienne:

Yeah, keep looking. Well, if I go then you have to go.

Marcus:

Oh, you know what? I'll get on Amazon and order some skates. I love when the kids have... My fiance, Chrissy has two younger kids and when they get invited to a birthday party inside a roller skating ring...I've got skates on and I-

Christienne:

Oh, a hundred percent.

Marcus:

I will only kill one or two children while on the-

Christienne:

In the process.

Marcus:

Oh my gosh, last time went, I'm going in the direction that you're supposed to be going in, and some kid just came out of nowhere. I probably don't need to be on roller skates at my age because knees and stuff like that don't heal as well as they used to, but this kid came out of nowhere and I was very proud of myself, I did not hit him and I did not fall. I think I did some sort of weird gymnastics, jump flip, whatever, and just kept going.

Christienne:

That's a strong core, that's what that is.

Marcus:

Tell you what, man, I got skills. Anyway, I want to thank you again for coming on the podcast. To wrap up any final thoughts or comments you'd like to share? Events that we need to know about?

Christienne:

Yeah, we're celebrating 50 years this year so we're doing some really cool projects starting February and going through July. Every month, we'll be doing some unique celebrations. So follow us on Facebook, Mobile United.

Marcus:

Actually, I was just getting ready to ask, where can people find you? So, Facebook Mobile United.

Christienne:

We have a website, but we're in the middle of redoing it right now. So, just come to Facebook because we update that so much easier and so much faster. It's just...

Marcus:

More current.

Christienne:

it's in my pocket so I can update it while I'll be sleeping if I want to. So, highly recommend getting connected, or on Instagram as well. We have really great stuff coming up.

Marcus:

Awesome. Well, Chris, I appreciate your willingness to sit with me and share your journey as a business owner. Well, not a business owner, but a leader in the business community, it's been great talking with you.

Christienne:

Thank you so much, I really enjoyed it.