Ron Kitchens's Blog

Throughout both my professional career and personal life, I’ve been guided by John Maxwell’s question: “Who do you know that I should know, and will you introduce me?”

It’s a simple question, but it’s one of the most powerful ways leaders can build relationships. And it’s something special to see it become a guiding value of an entire organization.

That’s what I’m seeing at Greater St. Louis, Inc.

Because we know that our region only wins when our partners have the connections they need to succeed. Our region only wins when we value collaboration over competition. Our region only wins when our communities thrive and all families have access to well-paying jobs.

Last week exemplified those values.

On Thursday, I had the opportunity to join over 250 leading agtech and plant science experts at 39 North’s second annual Plant Science Family Reunion. The energy in the room was palpable — and not just because we were at Energizer Park.

It was electric because of the connections forming in the room.

The St. Louis region is already a hub for agtech, bioscience, and plant science research, but we can’t just assume we’ll be great in the future because we’ve been great in the past. 39 North understands that, and by convening experts from across the Midwest to spark ideas and new connections, they are moving the needle to make St. Louis the agtech capital of the nation.

Last week, we also announced a new partnership with St. Louis County Library to launch their Business Author Series. Beginning Sept. 26 with world-famous restauranter and St. Louis native Danny Meyer, SLCL will bring business experts from across the nation to Clark Family Branch to share their expertise with our community. It’s another example of how we can use Maxwell’s question to facilitate greatness: by building relationships between SLCL and industry leaders, we’re investing in a stronger, bolder business community that has the tools and connections they need to succeed.

There’s perhaps no greater example of this idea than our work supporting our region’s small businesses. Thanks to the James S. McDonnell Foundation, we announced this week that GSL will incorporate the St. Louis Anchor Action Network into our existing SupplySTL program, simplifying the ecosystem to give us one stronger platform to connect local businesses with major corporate buyers.

That is exactly what strategic collaboration looks like. It’s a win for entrepreneurs, a win for our communities’ anchor institutions, and a win for our economy. All based on the idea that when we build connection, we succeed.

There has never been a moment in history where that kind of collaboration matters more than it does today. Not just among each other or among those doing the same work and the same research as us, it’s collaboration across sectors that will define our ability to succeed.

Know that at Greater St. Louis, Inc. we will continue to convene, connect, and follow through to ensure greatness.

Because that is how we win.

Always Forward.
Ron Kitchens

An amazing thing happened to me last week. After reserving our tickets months ago, my wife Lyn and I took our seats at Meet Me In St. Louis at The Muny.

On its own, The Muny is the perfect example of how our region is already winning. The nation’s oldest and largest outdoor musical theatre, its legendary performances draw up to 11,000 guests made up of locals and visitors traveling from across the country.

That hot summer night was no different. Lyn and I were surrounded by all kinds of different people – a motor biker from Iowa covered in tattoos who was, despite the heat, dressed in full leathers; a father and his two high school aged daughters; and a couple on their first date. After exchanging hellos, Lyn began to note the multiple actors and actresses with Broadway resumes in our program. It was the kind of talent to rival any other theatre in the world.

It was already a beautiful St. Louis evening, and then the national anthem began. Lyn and I stood and looked around at the crowd. Everyone – and I mean everyone – was standing and singing together.

It was America. It was St. Louis. And it was testament that there is always more that unites us than divides us. It was also a reminder that by working together and by focusing on what already makes us great, we will accelerate our forward momentum.

Our region is already home to remarkable neighborhoods, cultural institutions like The Muny that cities twice our size would envy, affordable living, and a quality of life that makes us one of the best places to live, work, and raise a family. We have world-class research institutions, globally significant companies, outstanding universities, and authentic strengths in aviation, aerospace, national defense, advanced manufacturing, agtech, bioscience, financial services, and logistics. We’re home to 14 Fortune 500 equivalent companies, a concentration greater than Indianapolis, Nashville, and Kansas City.

The truth is: We’re already winning. We have the assets. We have the opportunity. And by harnessing both, we can become a more confident, ambitious, and prosperous version of St. Louis. That’s our goal at Greater St. Louis, Inc.

Together, we are building what comes next.

Always Forward,

Ron Kitchens

A few months ago, I found myself sitting at a table with people representing more than a dozen very different organizations.

Business leaders. Civic organizations. Philanthropists. Downtown advocates. People responsible for some of our region’s most important institutions. Each had a different mission, different responsibilities, and a board to answer to. Each could have arrived with a list of what they wanted.

But something remarkable happened.

The conversation wasn’t about whose idea would win.

It was about Downtown.

How do we take a once-in-a-generation opportunity like the Rams settlement and make every dollar work harder? How do we combine public investment, private capital, and philanthropy? How do we make one investment unlock the next?

At some point, I looked around that table and thought:

This is how St. Louis wins.

Not because everyone suddenly agrees on everything. That would be suspicious, and frankly, very un-St. Louis.

We win when people with different resources, expertise, and responsibilities decide to row in the same direction.

And that is exactly what is beginning to happen Downtown.

There is a growing alignment: Downtown matters to all of us, and that alignment is changing Downtown’s trajectory.

And I could not be more optimistic.

Downtown belongs to the entrepreneur opening a restaurant, the family making it home, the developer bringing an old building back to life, the employer investing in the urban core, and the visitor coming for a Cardinals game, a CITY SC match, a concert, or a convention.

Each brings something different.

Together, they create momentum.

That is also the role Greater St. Louis, Inc. was created to serve. We bring people together around a shared vision, align resources, remove barriers, and help turn good ideas into results, into growth.

And we do it alongside extraordinary partners: the City of St. Louis, St. Louis Development Corporation, the Downtown CIDs, Explore St. Louis, the St. Louis Sports Commission, Gateway Arch Park Foundation, our professional sports teams, developers, employers, property owners, neighborhood leaders, universities, philanthropy, and many others.

No one organization owns this work, but everyone has a piece of it.

Changing the Fundamentals

Downtowns across America have changed.

People work differently. Office markets have changed. Retail has changed. Housing preferences have changed. Cities are competing harder than ever for people, employers, visitors, and investment.

Our response cannot simply be more of what worked 20 years ago. We have to build the Downtown the next 20 years will demand. That begins by changing the economics of redevelopment.

It is why Greater St. Louis, Inc. spent nearly three years helping advance Missouri’s office conversion legislation. Now that it is law, developers have powerful new tools to turn obsolete office buildings into housing, hotels, and productive new uses.

There was no crane in the sky while that work was happening. Just years of meetings, negotiations, problem solving, and persistence.

But that is often how transformation begins.

The Rams settlement funds offer another opportunity to change the fundamentals.

Success will not be measured by how quickly we spend the money. It will be measured by how much investment those dollars unlock.

By aligning Gateway Arch Park Foundation, the Arch to Park Equity Fund, the St. Louis Sports Commission, Greater St. Louis, Inc., businesses, philanthropy, public partners, and others, we have the chance to turn those dollars into something far larger.

One investment strengthens another.

One project unlocks the next.

One success gives someone else the confidence to make the next bet.

Building the Future

Across Downtown, we can see that the bets are already on the table.

The Millennium Hotel site.

Mansion House.

The Edison Brothers Building.

Rollick in Downtown West.

New housing. New restaurants. New investment.

Each project has its own complicated story of capital, risk, persistence, and partnership.

Taken together, they say something much more important: People believe in Downtown St. Louis, and increasingly, they are acting on that belief. Our opportunity now is much bigger than filling vacant buildings.

We can create a truly mixed-use Downtown where thousands more people live, restaurants and retailers thrive, historic buildings find new purpose, employers choose to grow, streets stay active beyond the workday, and young people decide this is where they want to build a career and a life.

That future is already taking shape. Some days progress looks like a crane on the skyline or a ribbon cutting. Other days it looks like a financing gap closing. Legislation passing. An employer expanding. Disparate organizations solving a problem together.

Those moments do not always make the evening news, but they are how cities change. Wins become momentum, momentum becomes confidence, and confidence is contagious.

The next chapter of Downtown St. Louis will not be written by a single organization. It will be written by a community that decided to row in the same direction and by organizations that understand the measure of success is not who gets the credit. Nor by those who stand on the sidelines and opine.

It is whether St. Louis moves forward.

At Greater St. Louis, Inc., we are proud to be one of those partners.

There is real work ahead of us. But there is also real progress beneath our feet, real investment on the way, and a growing coalition of people who believe the future of Downtown is worth building.

Together, we are building what comes next.

Always Forward.

Ron Kitchens

America is entering a new infrastructure race. In the 19th century, railroads determined which cities prospered. In the 20th century, airports and interstate highways reshaped the economic map of the country. Now, in the age of artificial intelligence, the defining infrastructure of the 21st century is digital. Data centers are critical to this transformation.

Across the country, communities are deciding whether to compete for the industries powering the future economy. While some cities such as Minneapolis and states like New York are pumping the brakes to allow time for officials to develop regulations and processes for managing fast-moving projects, the St. Louis region has decided to compete now.

Read my full editorial in Fortune.

When I was in high school, I worked for a dairy farmer who needed to transition one of his fields from row crops to grass. All winter, we plowed to clear the remnants of the previous crop, what had been good for a season but was no longer what the land needed for the future. We tilled the soil, planted alfalfa seed, fertilized (and if you have ever been on a dairy farm, you know there is plenty of fertilizer), sprayed herbicide to protect against weeds, and prayed for rain, because there is only so much a person can do.

Our efforts paid off. The field came to life, lush and green, ready to be cut and baled. Back then, we worked with fifty-pound square bales. One day, just before harvest, we stood admiring the crop, proud of what we had done. My boss turned to me and said, “Now the hard work begins.”

That surprised me. The months of plowing, planting, and praying had felt like hard work to me. But he explained that harvest requires perfect timing, the right moment in the growing cycle, and weather dry enough to allow the hay to cure properly. If it was baled too wet, it could mold or even combust in the barn. He reminded me that while two people could plant a field, it took a team to harvest it, to cut, bale, haul, and stack. The harvest, he said, was where the real work began. And if everything went right, we could hope for a second or even third harvest from that first investment of labor.

That story has stayed with me all these years because it mirrors what leadership really is. Leaders spend seasons plowing and planting, casting vision, cultivating people, removing what no longer serves, and preparing the ground for what comes next. Those are important, exhausting, and even noble tasks. But the true test of leadership comes in the harvest.

Harvest is when timing, courage, and teamwork are everything. It is when leaders must bring others into the field, trust them to work the plan, and guide them through unpredictable weather, both literal and figurative. It is when decisions must be made with precision and humility.

Leadership, like farming, is never once and done. You cannot assume that what produced results before will continue to do so without care and attention. Great leaders are stewards of growth, they adapt, tend, and innovate. They find ways to do more with the same ground, to waste less, and to invest more wisely.

So wherever you lead, whether an organization, a team, or a family, remember that the harvest is the hard part. But it is also where the joy lives.

Always Forward.
Ron Kitchens

America feels raw right now. The assassination of a man because of his words. Another school shooting, on the very same day. These moments remind us of how fragile our lives, our civility, and our communities truly are. We’re weary. We’re anxious. And whether we admit it or not, we all need a break.

That’s why kindness matters more than ever. Not as a platitude, but as a practice. In a world that rewards shouting, kindness whispers and still changes the room. It’s the reminder that every single person we meet is carrying a story that may be heavier than we can imagine.

Bob Goff says love is never stationary, it moves, it acts, it interrupts. Kindness is love with its sleeves rolled up. It looks like offering your place in line, writing a note that costs nothing but means everything, or pausing to really listen when your instinct is to argue. Small gestures, inconvenient moments, unseen acts, they ripple outward further than we think.

A minister friend once told me that the local church is the hope of the world. I’d add that kindness is the hope of every human exchange. It turns transactions into friendships, conflict into connection, and meetings into ministry. It reminds us that even when we disagree deeply, people are still worth more than positions.

In business, in community, in family life, kindness is not weakness. It’s the very thing that builds trust faster than any contract and repairs bridges stronger than any program. Spreadsheets and strategies will fade, but how we made people feel, that lingers.

So, in these hard days, I want to issue a challenge. Be extravagantly kind this week. Not polite. Not surface-level nice. But the kind of kindness that surprises, disarms, and heals. The kind that interrupts cynicism and writes a better headline than violence or division.

We can’t control the chaos of the world. But we can choose kindness in our corner of it. And if enough of us do, it just might be the break America needs.

Always Forward.
Ron Kitchens

“…We wept and prayed” is a line from It’s a Wonderful Life that describes the collective reaction of a community in a moment of loss. That phrase has always struck me. Tears and prayers are not just private acts, they are a holy reminder of what happens when people come together, shoulder to shoulder, and seek guidance and healing.

The truth is, most of us share more in common than we sometimes realize. Of the world’s 7.3 billion people, 77 percent — about 5.6 billion — follow one of the six major religions. And when you line them up, the central teaching is strikingly the same:

Christianity: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” — Jesus, Matthew 7:12 (NIV)Islam: “None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.” — The Prophet Muhammad, Hadith an-Nawawi 13Judaism: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor: that is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary.” — Hillel, Talmud, Shabbat 31aHinduism: “This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others what would cause you pain if done to you.” — Mahabharata 5:1517Buddhism: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” — Udanavarga 5:18Baha’i: “Lay not on any soul a load that you would not wish to be laid upon you, and desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for yourself.” — Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah

That looks like consensus to me. Different voices, different traditions, yet the same song: treat people the way you want to be treated.

And if we add in the 3.5 billion people who use Google each day — a company whose guiding principle for years was “Don’t be evil” — the case becomes even stronger. Billions of us already agree on the core values of goodness, respect, and care for others.

So why do we so often act as if we are hopelessly divided?

The future belongs to communities that choose to live out this shared belief. Places where neighbors practice listening, respect, and empathy. Places where we begin with the simple rule: Reject evil, love everyone always.

It does not mean we will all agree on policy, politics, or priorities. But it does mean that the foundation of how we treat one another is strong. And from strong foundations, thriving communities are built

When people tell you the world is falling apart, remember this: most of us are already aligned on the most important things. The question is not whether we share the same values — it is whether we are willing to live them out, together.

If we can, our future is not only secure, it is bright.

Always Forward.

I never set out to be a fan of Walt Whitman, but somewhere along the way, he captured me, and not just because he was the first poet I ever read who wrote about baseball. What drew me in was his persistence. For years, Whitman struggled to find anyone who cared about his poetry.

Then came a letter.

“Dear Sir, I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of Leaves of Grass. I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed. I greet you at the beginning of a great career.”

It was signed, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Think about it, what would the world have lost if Emerson had not taken the time to write that letter? A few sentences changed the trajectory of Whitman’s life and, in turn, American literature. That is what legacy leadership looks like, a simple act of encouragement that transcends time and place.

If I asked you to name a legacy leader, you might think of a president, a philanthropist, or a celebrity with a cause. But you probably would not say Maggie Terry.

Maggie was my mother-in-law. When she passed away a few years ago, we gathered in St. Louis to celebrate her life. I had known Maggie for nearly 25 years. I admired her devotion to her family, especially her grandchildren. What I did not know, until her funeral, was how deeply she had shaped the lives of people far beyond her family.

That day, under the St. Louis sunshine, a woman we had never met approached us. She had flown in from Denver just to say goodbye. Through tears, she told us how Maggie had mentored her for more than a decade, pushing her to set higher goals than she set for herself. That woman is now the provost of a major university.

Then came another story. A man who once taught high school history admitted he had been so unhappy that he planned to quit teaching. But Maggie convinced him to apply to graduate school, at Harvard, no less. Today, he serves as dean of the English department at a prestigious East Coast university. His words still echo, “She believed in me when I did not believe in myself.”

That is legacy leadership. It is not about headlines, titles, or balance sheets. It is about lifting others higher than they could climb on their own.

So here is my challenge to you, take the time today to encourage someone. Write a kind note to an unknown author. Send a message to your child’s teacher. Call your mother-in-law and tell her you love her.

Even if you change no one else’s life, you will change your own.

Always Forward.

Ron

I never set out to be a fan of Walt Whitman, but somewhere along the way, he captured me, and not just because he was the first poet I ever read who wrote about baseball. What drew me in was his persistence. For years, Whitman struggled to find anyone who cared about his poetry.

Then came a letter.

“Dear Sir, I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of Leaves of Grass. I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom America has yet contributed. I greet you at the beginning of a great career.”

It was signed, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Think about it, what would the world have lost if Emerson had not taken the time to write that letter? A few sentences changed the trajectory of Whitman’s life and, in turn, American literature. That is what legacy leadership looks like, a simple act of encouragement that transcends time and place.

If I asked you to name a legacy leader, you might think of a president, a philanthropist, or a celebrity with a cause. But you probably would not say Maggie Terry.

Maggie was my mother-in-law. When she passed away a few years ago, we gathered in St. Louis to celebrate her life. I had known Maggie for nearly 25 years. I admired her devotion to her family, especially her grandchildren. What I did not know, until her funeral, was how deeply she had shaped the lives of people far beyond her family.

That day, under the St. Louis sunshine, a woman we had never met approached us. She had flown in from Denver just to say goodbye. Through tears, she told us how Maggie had mentored her for more than a decade, pushing her to set higher goals than she set for herself. That woman is now the provost of a major university.

Then came another story. A man who once taught high school history admitted he had been so unhappy that he planned to quit teaching. But Maggie convinced him to apply to graduate school, at Harvard, no less. Today, he serves as dean of the English department at a prestigious East Coast university. His words still echo, “She believed in me when I did not believe in myself.”

That is legacy leadership. It is not about headlines, titles, or balance sheets. It is about lifting others higher than they could climb on their own.

So here is my challenge to you, take the time today to encourage someone. Write a kind note to an unknown author. Send a message to your child’s teacher. Call your mother-in-law and tell her you love her.

Even if you change no one else’s life, you will change your own.

Always Forward.

Ron

John Maxwell’s question — “Who do you know that I should know, and will you introduce me?”, is one of the most powerful tools a leader can use. On the surface, it sounds simple. But in practice, it’s a game-changer for communities that want to grow, businesses that want to thrive, and leaders who want to make a real impact.

The truth is, progress never happens in a vacuum. Every breakthrough, every bold idea, and every opportunity comes through relationships. Our biggest wins rarely come from cold calls or chance encounters. They come through trusted connections — the introductions that someone takes the time to make.

When a respected voice says, “You need to meet this person,” doors open. Trust is accelerated. Decisions move faster. Real momentum begins. That’s the power of intentional introductions.

This is why leaders must not only seek out connections but also create them for others. Who do you know that could benefit from meeting someone in your network? Who do you know who could help your community grow? And most importantly — are you willing to make that introduction?

Great communities aren’t built by isolated leaders. They are built by people who freely share their networks, who see introductions not as transactions but as seeds of future growth. Every introduction plants the possibility of a new business, a new collaboration, a new idea that could shape the future.

So here’s my challenge: the next time you’re in a conversation with someone who has vision and drive, don’t just nod in agreement. Ask Maxwell’s question, “Who do you know that I should know?” And then take the extra step: make the call.

Because the right introductions don’t just change conversations. They change futures.

Always Forward.