PROFILES
ALUMNI
Charlie Christiansen ’08 Business Entrepreneur
THE CORNER OF MAIN AND DIX in Jefferson City is a perfect location for Te Christiansen Agency, the place where Charlie Christiansen has established Shelter Insurance and West Main Pizza. A native of Jefferson City and a graduate of Jefferson City High School, Christiansen is a high energy business entrepreneur, a family man and an alumnus (’08) of Lincoln University with a degree in marketing.
GETTING TO LINCOLN
Christiansen transferred to Lincoln aſter two years at Maryville University. He wanted to be close to his family, and he wanted to play football. Lincoln was the right fit. Christiansen was the kicker/punter for the Blue Tigers when Lemar Parrish was the coach. “I was the leading point scorer both years,” he says proudly. Te number of coaches did not include someone to work with the kicker. He was given a bag of deflated footballs and told to kick the ball up the hill and when it came down to kick it again. He says “one of the things I really liked about Coach P was that he wanted everyone to graduate and be successful.” Academically, Christiansen counts Jim Logan as one of the best professors he ever had. He says Logan was a memorable teacher and mentor who related well to students and “gave us a lot of real life business and marketing information.” Aſter graduation, and with hopes of a career in professional
football, Christiansen spent a year working to make connections with an NFL team. “Ten,” he says “I met my wife Jessica. We decided to move home, settle down and focus on our careers here.” Jessica is an attorney with Mary J. Browning LLC. Charlie began a career with Shelter Insurance in 2010. Now the parents of Lincoln Cyr, age one, the couple makes parenting a priority, but they also have a busy lifestyle. Te Christiansens are real estate entrepreneurs and feel a genuine commitment to improve the city through their efforts.
GETTING THE BUSINESS OFF THE GROUND
Te first major step in growing his insurance business was the purchase of a vacant building at 1931 W. Main. Te space was originally slated to become a liquor store, but the idea was not well- received in the area. Te Christiansens submitted plans for office space and a restaurant and began an ambitious rehab project. “Tere are plenty of places to get pizza in Jefferson City,” says Christiansen. “I talked with a few local restaurateurs. None wanted to work in this area. I thought, “how hard could a pizza joint be?’ I like the glass up front. I wanted people to see pizza being thrown in the air. So, I convinced my dad to go into the restaurant with me.”
Christiansen and his family worked to create a restaurant that
was different from all the other places in town. “We opened in November 2014. My mom and wife came up with the original crust recipe. My wife has a great eye for design. My dad is good at construction,” he says. “All of our ingredients are fresh. We don’t have a freezer. We have family relationships and stories that go with everything on our menu. We also encourage our customers to select their own ingredients for the pizzas and salads.”
MARKETING LINCOLN LOCALLY
“I can see that Lincoln is building meaningful relationships in the community and is reaching out to grow its academic and athletic programs,” says Christiansen. Like university leadership, Christiansen believes that the university and its athletic program need people and revenue to thrive. His marketing plan for student- athlete recruitment would focus on local recruiting. “I was one of two Jefferson City kids in the football program,” he says. “I believe that if we recruited locally, we could fill the stands with enthusiastic families and neighbors. Tere is so much talent in Mid-Missouri. Lincoln’s support will grow when we have winning teams,” he says.
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
Christiansen says he and his family manage to keep his business growing by hiring the right people and letting them do their jobs. “Te employees set the atmosphere,” he says. Christiansen isn’t one to rest on success. “Our next big project is West Main Pizza CoMo,” says Christiansen. “We’ve signed a lease on a spot in Columbia (923 East Broadway). It will open at the end of the year.” “I plan to be the best insurance agent I can be and to get
my name out there. I’m still learning from the pizza restaurant business,” he says. Christiansen may also be spending time in the next year with Lincoln students sharing his insights as an entrepreneur. Professor Jim Logan is looking forward to bringing one of his star students back to campus.
Winter 2016
er 2016
LINCOLNU.EDU/ALUMNI 23 MNI
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