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On Minnesota Now, we hear from many different people in Minnesota over the phone and in the studio. But we don’t often meet them in the community, where news and life happens. In our Out to Lunch series, MPR News host Nina Moini sits down for a meal with people from Minnesota news and culture.

Real estate CEO Kris Lindahl is best known for his billboard advertisements, where he's pictured with a cheeky smile and his arms spread out wide. His numerous billboards across Minnesota have generated countless memes and online conversation, some good and some bad. 

But even if you've seen his face, there's probably a lot you don't know about Lindahl. In his new memoir “Arms Out,” Lindahl shares about growing up in poverty and not always stable housing, his father's struggles with addiction and navigating high school after his father was murdered.   

The following has been edited for length and clarity. Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.

If someone mentions your name, some people will groan. Does the criticism bother you?

Obviously I'm very aware of that. There are a lot of people that absolutely love what we're doing and then there are some people that will give the “groan reaction” to it. The reality is, it works. When people have an opinion and you're noticed and there's attention, it's working. 

I think the number one thing that people think about me is because I put myself on all these billboards, that I'm an egotistical maniac. I’ll also tell you that people will listen to this, and some people might still say, “He's crazy, he's an egotistical maniac! You have to be if you do this.” 

But I’m a small-town kid from Fridley, Minnesota, that's just fighting to try to do whatever I can, to be the best that I can, and leave everything and everyone I come in contact with better than I found it. What I'm in love with is the results of the brand. It is weird looking at myself everywhere. It still catches my eye every single time. 

After having read your book and learned your story, it could have gone so many ways for you. What was the turning point for you?

When I was in high school, my dad was run over. He and his girlfriend got into a disagreement, they were at a bar, and she got in the car and got in the driver's seat. He walked in front of his work van and she hit the gas and ran him over and dragged him quite some ways. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Life could have gone a lot of different directions through a lot of the tragedies that I had in my life. Over time, those moments actually helped me define who I was. I was very intentional that I was not going to live that way any longer, and I also made a commitment to myself that my family wasn't going to grow up the same way that I did. 

I think a lot of people often judge a book by its cover. The cover is the billboards. You see them everywhere and you're like, “Oh, these are obnoxious.” We rush to this place as human beings a lot, but once we learn the story, we start backpedaling. It's turned a lot of people that were indifferent or didn't really know what the real story, was into real champions of not only mine, but also our brand as they've really understood what we've had to go through.

Do you ever think about the person you are today and where that comes from?

These different notches of trauma that we go through in life usually create a higher level of intuition. I've also found that a lot of people that grew up with an alcoholic in the family tend to have a higher level of intuition because they weren't sure what they were going to get with that person. 

One of the greatest gifts that I have is that intuition. When I walk into a room, I instantly know what's going on there without any words being said. And immediately when I meet someone that I can tell is very intuitive, I know there's a lot of trauma from childhood. Every single time. 

It probably took me 30 years to figure this out. A lot of the things that happened in my life, when it comes to trauma, was survival mode. It wasn't like, “Hey, I've got this gift of intuition and I can see ahead and I'm in a good spot.” It was like, “How do I get out of this terrible situation I'm in as fast as I possibly can?” 

But it takes you a while to realize that some of those things, that trauma, that happened in your life have actually set you up in a very good way.

The Last Bite: What are the ingredients to success?

You have to be committed to learning in order to have success. You also have to take extreme ownership for your life. If you want success, it starts and stops with you. 

You can't have a massive level of success, whatever that looks like for you, if you're not committed to being the best that you can be and taking responsibility for your life.

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In his new memoir, “Arms Out,” real estate CEO Kris Lindahl shares about growing up in poverty and not always stable housing, his father’s struggles with addiction, and navigating high school after his father was murdered.   

Real estate CEO Kris Lindahl is best known for his billboard advertisements, where he's pictured with a cheeky smile and his arms spread out wide. In his new memoir “Arms Out”, Lindahl shares about growing up in poverty and not always stable housing, his father's struggles with addiction and navigating high school after his father was murdered.   

Out to Lunch: The Kris Lindahl beyond the billboards

two people posing for a picture with their arms outstretched 

Nikhil Kumaran | MPR News

two people sit and talk to each other at a restaurant 

Out to Lunch: The Kris Lindahl beyond the billboards

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