Restaurateur and developer Omar Shaikh joined Marquette president Michael Lovell and BizTimes Media managing editor Arthur Thomas for a live recording of Leadership Lens at BizExpo in early May. Shaikh, a partner in Carnevor and 3rd Street Market Hall and a member of various boards, discussed how he decides what to get involved in, becoming an increasingly vocal community leader, leading his businesses and more.
Shaikh has been an increasingly active business leader in recent years, helping to champion the expansion of the downtown convention center, attracting the 2024 Republican National Convention and now pushing for funding for American Family Field updates to keep the Brewers in Milwaukee.
In the podcast, he discussed his path to greater involvement in the community beyond his own businesses.
“I built my business one customer at a time and for me, it’s not about the business, it’s not about the money, it’s about the relationships. So for me, building one relationship at a time, fostering that, growing that, over time you build a lot of trust amongst a lot of people, you build equity amongst a lot of people,” Shaikh said.
“I did it through boards, getting strategic and sitting on boards. Now you have all those people who sit on boards and they do absolutely nothing. Everyone knows who those people on boards are, right? Just put their names on a board. But if you actually get on these boards and you work really hard and you do great things for that organization, people pay attention, and then start doing that through multiple sectors, multiple boards, and you start developing relationships at high levels from all angles, and then you’re able to use those relationships to be able to get some great things done for your city or your community.”
Of course, building relationships when working on controversial topics can be tricky, especially when you’re trying to work with people on both sides of the political aisle.
“I think certain people are better at it than others,” Shaikh said of managing relationships. “My approach was never a hammer, my approach was always a lot more finesse. I’ve been working deals and working both sides of the aisle where I was highly offended, but you can’t show that, right? You have to go back to the table and constantly present new solutions, right? So working and navigating through both sides, you just have to constantly find ways to satisfy both until you can get to the end goal.”
Shaikh’s career has taken him from being a mixed martial arts fighter to running a high-end steakhouse and working on some of the most important issues facing the Milwaukee area. He said his advice to a younger version of himself would be to always have a mindset of giving back.
“I think when people have that mindset, but truly have that mindset, I think great things are going to happen for them,” he said. “Early on in my career, I was hungry and I wanted to do all these restaurants and make a lot of money, but over time I realized the money really didn’t matter that much.”
For more, including Shaikh’s approach to hiring at Carnevor, the people he turns to when working on tough problems and how he thinks about using social media, listen to the full episode in the player above or on the podcast app of your choice.
