 Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys varsity tennis team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, and it's about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the highly successful owner of Miley's Thai Bistro. She is Miley Sengora, and today we are going beyond restaurants. Hey Miley, welcome to the Beyond the Lines. Hi Rusty, thank you for having me, I'm so excited. Now Miley, you were my third guest on the show just over three years ago, so we're nearing my 170th episode, and so many people absolutely love your insights and really getting to know you, and when you and I talk, I know that your mom is a backbone of your family. What is it about your mom that you admire so much? You know, Rusty, my mom came here, we're refugees from Laos, and we came here, and she spoke that one word of English, and you know, she put herself through, she got her GED number one, and then she went on to community college in Leeward, LCC, and then she managed to transfer to the University of Hawaii, you know, U-Age, and then where she got her master's degree in social work. So for her to go through all of that, and raise two young children, it was her not giving up, and that's what she taught me, to never ever give up, no matter how many times you fall, to never give up, and that's what I've learned, that's why I'm here today, because I never gave up, and I have to tell you, I had many battles in my lifetime with the restaurants personally as well, you know, but just looking at her as an example, I never gave up, and so that's why I have what I have today. Well, I know that you're definitely proud of you. Yeah, well, we're at the restaurant, so it's kind of noisy, rusty, so I'm gonna apologize. Miley, no worries, but you know when you first opened up your Miley's Thai bistro in Hawaii Kai, why did you open that restaurant up? You know, I came from a entrepreneurial family background, and I have always worked in restaurants since I was, you know, at a very young age, even in Maui, I would go to Maui every summer to work, because I was quite rebellious in my teenager years, and so my mom shipped me off, and unwillingly, so you know, I have to tell you as the restaurant was not my passion, that was not my passion, and when you're forced to do something that you, you know, you don't want, you kind of, you know, you feel a different way about it, but as I grew up and I'm working, I learned to love what I did, and I have this thing where, you know, the creativity came out of me, and I thought, wow, I can take these traditional Lao entire recipes and kind of make it my own, make it kind of like a local style, but with, you know, traditional taste, and so I worked with assages, assages and paisanos is my family's restaurant as well, so I grew up in that restaurant as well, and I worked, I started off as a hostess, and then, you know, I became a waitress, and then management, and then, and then later I became a park owner when Hawaii Kai location opened, and working there, you know, through the years, I learned a lot from my family. It was sort of prepping me, I didn't know this, but it was sort of prepping me to eventually open up my own restaurant, and why I chose Thai is because I'm more comfortable with Thai food, I mean, that my traditional Thai food, they know I could cook it, I grew up cooking it with my mom, and with the Italian side, I ran the restaurant, but they didn't cook the food, and so I feel like as a business owner, a good business owner, especially restaurant, you have to be able to do everything, and that's cooking as well, and so in case that someone leaves you, or is ill, or you know, you can just jump back in there, which oftentimes happens, so that's why I said, you know, if I'm gonna open my own, I have to open something that I can just run it, no matter what happens, any hurdles that come, I can just jump in there, and I can do it all, and so, because I've lived in Hawaii Kai for a very long time, I've already established all these friendships, and you know, the community families come in, and so when I opened my own, a lot of them didn't eat Thai food, or didn't really, were not familiar with Thai food, so it was my mission to educate them, you know, about Thai food, and at first they were kind of reluctant because the biggest misconception is, Thai food is either very spicy, or a lot of coconut-y, coconut milk, coconut flavors, and I had to prove to them that that is not, so not all Thai food are a lot of food spicy, and not a lot has coconut, and so slowly I began to earn their trust, you know, little by little, but also I think my restaurant is different from other Thai restaurants, is because I've incorporated local flares into it, and sort of my own flavors, what I like to eat, and how I like to eat it, and so every time people would come in, they'll, you know, because I would be working at assages, but I would get like Thai food, and then I would kind of make it my own, and they're like, well, what is she eating? You know, well, we want to eat what Mai is eating, and so that's how it all started, so when I would get my own people come in, they're like, you know, Miley, we love you, we want to come in, support you, we want to come and visit with you, but we don't like Thai food, and my question was, well, have you had Thai food before they go? No, we haven't. I said, well, how do you, no, you don't like it if you haven't had it, and so I would start them off with like Thai chicken, some stuff that's safe, and then it just caught on and caught on, and now we've been there for 13 years. Well, Miley, I'm so happy you opened up because I have my Miley's Thai cravings at least once a week, sometimes twice a week, and your food is absolutely amazing. The dishes are so consistent that I have my favorites, but I want to try all these other ones, but I don't want to feel like I'm going to miss out on some of the ones that I need, right? Yeah, you're right. I do, Rusty, and it's so funny because we have these regular customers and they do not change. That's like, it's a creature of habit. They come and they get their ABCD, and that's it. I'm like, come on, you got to try this. We have this special, or this was, and not always, but there might be times when they do go outside of the box, and then they're really, they're pleasantly surprised. Let's see, just thought of, there's so many things on the menu that people haven't tried, and we've been trying to do more specials and trying to keep up to date. Everyone's cooking with this COVID, everybody's doing their own recipes and cooking, but you're right. I mean, as a chef, as a cook, and I think all chefs, all restaurant owners will agree with me. Consistency is the number one thing that we try to do, but it's the hardest thing to do. We try, we do everything to be consistent, because that's what keeps you from coming back, you know? Oh, I'm there. I love when I have my business lunch meetings or dinner meetings there, and Miley, you know, I have great respect and courage that, I mean, I respect the courage that you had in terms of opening up Bellini when you did, and why did that restaurant not work out? Well, you know, first of all, people say, why did you open the leaves? There were many factors, and I was given this opportunity to open my own restaurant, and so when I had that opportunity to give it to someone else, you know, I thought, okay, let's do something that would fit, and that person actually cooked for us as well at Sages, and because I worked for at Sages for, you know, over 15 years, I knew that in and out of the operation, I knew the recipes, I just didn't physically cook, so when I opened, when I decided to open Bellini's, I decided to open it with someone that was a cook for me at Sages, and we thought, okay, Sages and Paisanos is so successful, let's take this idea, let's take this concept, and let's kind of make it our own, and so when I did that, again, I go back to, if you wanna be successful, you kind of gotta know how to jump in there and cook yourself, and so when things didn't work out, there was many variables, you know, when things didn't work out, we parted ways, and I can't cook, I mean, I can cook Italian, but not on that level, right? So we parted ways, and I decided, look, I'm not gonna give up, my mom's, you know, she just kicked in, and I could never give up, and so instead of just posing the Paisanos, I just turned it into a Mali's Thai war, and in hindsight, I wish that I had done it sooner, but I tried so hard to keep it, to keep Bellini's going. Some people, until today, say, what happened, we really liked the food, and some people put, gosh, my, thank God, you got rid of that, you know, that was not your style, and so I think that lesson that I've learned from that is just because you have a successful business, say like assages, doesn't mean that you can go and open something like it and be successful too. So, and it's just like people say, location, location, location, yes, location, location, location, but that's not all it is, you know, having a restaurant is a series of things, right? It's location, it's the furniture, it's the light fixture, it's just, it's the ambience, it's everything all in one. And so, when I changed it to my immediately, we just saw, you know, success. I mean, I was still struggling, of course, because of Bellini's and I was trying to recover, and you know, you learn a lot of lessons in your lifetime, Rusty, but that one was a big one, and there are many times that I had to prove to myself, like, look, you can do this, Miley, don't give, because it was very, I was struggling a lot during that time. I felt like a failure. But again, you know, you don't succeed without failures. And I have to tell you, I felt so many times, I fell down so many times, but you know, my mom's words in the back of my head is, it's okay, it's really just get back up all down, but get back up, get back up all the time, and it's just, it's embedded in my head. And so now I'm saying this to my children, it's okay, get back up, you can fall down, but get back up, and so, you know, and also, you know, having a successful restaurant is because you have a good team, I have an incredible team, and through all my hurdles, some stayed with me and some didn't, and that's okay. But the ones that stayed with me are still here with me today. And I have, you know, my best friend, everybody knows this, you know, my best friend is Jenelle, but she's also, she's not just my assistant, she's not just the manager, the operational manager, you know, she's everything, and we work really, really well together. And Alan and I, we kind of mesh, you know, she's good at this part, and I'm good at this other part. She doesn't want to do my job, I don't want to do her job, you know? And so that's why, you know, that's really why we, I'm here today because of my entire team. You know, through the pandemic, it was just so, so hard, you know, we didn't open, we only could do takeout, and so, but the ones that stuck with me, they worked and they didn't really get, I couldn't pay them because there was no income coming in yet at that time. So we struggled, but we're still here, you know? We work, Hawaii just does well always. Thank God, I'm very, very grateful. Word is now its own, you know, restaurant. We're still Maii's time, but we're Maii's time word, and there's some things that we carry here that Hawaii Kai does it, and vice versa. And a lot of times people ask me, why don't you have this here, or why don't you have that there? And honestly, Rusty, it's because of the demographic. Some people don't eat certain things. And so you kind of got catered to your environment, you know, and sometimes things will sell well there, and they won't care. So but when people go and visit and they cross-reference, and they're like, well, they don't have that here, you know? Why do they have that there? And I said, you know what? Just give me a call ahead of time, and I will make sure that I'll do my best to make sure that you get your, sometimes they take, like you take clients, they want to have their favorites, and sometimes it's not there, and it's here or here, not there. So, you know, I try to make, I try my very best to make all my customers happy. Interesting. And Miley, you do such a great job. I mean, I'm so proud of you that you opened up that second location at Ward. I mean, it's such a good centralized location, a lot of parking. I mean, I love it there. A lot of, so many of my friends, and you know my friends, I mean, they absolutely love it at that location. Now, I want to ask you, Miley, you know, you mentioned about COVID and navigating your way through it. What do you see, what's the biggest thing right now that is, you know, with the restrictions? What's one thing that could really help all restaurants at the moment? Well, you know, it's, gosh, it's such a touchy subject, Rusty, because, and I feel like a lot of my friends and my customers, it's been, we've been divided now because of the vaccination. And I think everybody has their own opinions, everybody has their own beliefs. I've lost some friends, actually, I've lost some customers, and it's okay, everybody is entitled to their opinion. I don't want to get into too much to it because I know it's so controversial. So, you know, and I just, I just really, really wish that everybody respects, just to be kind and to respect everybody's decision. You know, people, some friends are asking me, well, you need to stand up like, you know, it's just, it's not the law. I mean, I could go on, I get DMs and they're not mean, but I'm asking them to be kind, I'm asking them to respect my position as a business owner. It's not that easy to just stand up. And you know, and the thing about it is to say, well, we can't come eat because we're not vaccinated. This is not true. My restaurant here, both restaurants, you can come eat if you're not vaccinated, you just need to take the test, which just takes a minute. We have the test available for you here and you can come eat, you know what I mean? I know some restaurants are in zero tolerance. You don't, you're not vaccinated, you can't come in. Well here, it's not that way. You can still come and eat and if you're comfortable, we have outside seating here, you know? But it's been really, really tough for me, you know, rusty and it's because some of the friendships that I hold dear to my heart, I'm just so shocked, you know? I support them, I still love them, you know? And hopefully one day we can overcome, you know, our differences. Yeah, no, that's, you're so right. I mean, and Miley, I know that you have both of my books and I wanna ask you, what's one thing that really stood out to you in the books? Well, you know, like when I started reading it, I gotta tell you, I'm so busy that I have like three books that I start, right? And then I try to get back and it's always, and then through this pandemic, you know, it was very tough for me, by the way, because I couldn't get enough workers to work. And some places had to actually shut down because there's no workers. I thought at one point I had to shut my restaurant down because I didn't have enough workers on what am I gonna do? So sometimes when I go home, I'm trying, you know, detox, but I'm thinking, should I listen to, you know, tapes or should I pick up a book, this and that? So when I picked up your book, it was hard for me to put it down, even though I was kind of like dozing off. It was very hard for me to, you know, put it down, but what's not for me was, you know, the respect, the discipline. The discipline was, I think about that. I'm thinking to myself, why it'd be so nice to just sleep in a little bit longer. It'd be so nice if I could just take today off, you know, and I'm just thinking to myself, you know, Rusty talks about discipline, talks about the stacked, you know, but when I think about that, I get off and I said, you'll be so much easier if I could just sleep another five minutes, but it's the discipline. If you don't have discipline, you have nothing. You're so right, because discipline is a part of success. And without discipline, there's no chance for success. And Miley, you mentioned earlier about Janelle. I mean, she, and I wanna ask you a little bit more about Janelle because she's a great leader like you are. And you guys make a fantastic team together. What is the biggest, what do you feel is Janelle's biggest strength? Hands off, really it's her honesty. And you don't get the kind of brutal honesty that you get from Janelle. And she tells you it in the most special way. I think that's the only way that I can actually, you know, describe it is she doesn't, she cares that she hurts her feelings, but when it comes to, Janelle is all business, really, she really is. And I think that's why we mesh really well together. We make decisions together. We bounce off ideas with each other and we really take the time to understand the situation, you know, whether it be a recipe, whether, and I'm thinking to myself, why am I listening to you? You can't even boil water, you know, but you know, honestly, she's been with me for so long. She's, she's, she loves our food. She has, her spice level has gone up since, you know, being best friends with myself, but her strength is really brutal honesty. And in order for you to be successful, you got, you don't want someone that's just telling you things that's going to make you happy or, you know, feel good about yourself. You want honesty because that's the only way that you would true to yourself and you're true to your business, you know, and, you know, and quite frankly, Janelle is actually, she was my sister's best friend. I kind of just stole her away from my sister. So I'm glad I did, you know, we've been friends for over, yeah, I mean, 30 years. You want to kill each other sometimes more. She wants to kill me, you know, but, and it's because I overextend myself, you know, one of these life lessons that I've learned is that not to always say yes to everybody. When I first started this business, Rusty, I was so afraid to disappoint people. Any chance that I got to really do something for someone or get my name out there. I did everything that I could and I said yes to everything, yes to this, yes to that. And it was hard because all of a sudden I'm saying yes, but I didn't have much time. I kind of had to like stretch out my time. And when you say yes to everybody, you think you're doing your best, but you're not, because you're overextending yourself. You're not giving them your 100% because now you're running off to one event, to another, to another. And then when you can't do something, all of a sudden the disappointment, wow, like they get so disappointed because they're so used to saying yes to them that the one time that you said you can't do it, then you see that disappointment, it just, it really bothers me. I don't like to be, I don't like people being disappointed. I don't like to disappoint people, but in life that's going to happen. You're going to fail, you're going to stumble, you're going to disappoint that the end of the day still got to get up. You don't give up, like my mom says all the time. No, that's fantastic. I mean, you know, like you said earlier about Janelle, I mean, I totally agree. And it's hard to find quality people. And when you find quality people, you got to keep them and to know that she's your best friend as well. I mean, that's so priceless. And I want to ask you this, Miley, besides COVID, okay, how hard is it to really run a restaurant? Because a lot of people, they come in as customers, they don't really know all the things that you deal with behind the scenes. Can you share about some of those things? Oh, yes, for sure. I mean, and they do, and you know, my job and my staff, I always say, you know, there's so many times where they lose it, I lose it, but we can't show that to our customers. They're paying customers, they come in, they're there to enjoy themselves, not listen to what bad day, what day you had and who broke up with who and all these drama, because there's every business has drama, where there's in the kitchen or on the floor, everywhere, every business has drama. It's difficult because when customers do come in and they are used to a certain item or certain pricing or certain anything, and then all of a sudden your crisis goes up and now they're upset, they complain, why don't we have this? Or why is this more expensive? Or you know, it's so difficult for owners because it's not, we don't do that because we want to, we do that because, you know, where we get our stuff from, the prices went up too, especially with COVID, it's, you know, supply on demand, and all of a sudden now everything's gone up. Prior to that, you know, the takeout, we can't use styrofoam, we can't use plastics, so now it's supply on demand again, so everything goes up, but when everything goes up, we have to, our prices have to go up too, else we'll never make it. These are the things that customers don't understand. Of course we all want value, and I try my very best, my team tries very best to shop around for value, but it's difficult because we just don't want to see that disappointment in them, we're still doing what we can to fresh produce, fresh ingredients, you know, we try our very best, and this is why I think people come back because all our ingredients are fresh, and we don't, nothing's frozen here, and we cook as you order on the spot, so that's why sometimes it takes a little bit longer, but it's worth the wait. I totally agree that it's worth the wait, but it's good for people to hear those insights about things that you deal with, you know, behind the scenes, and you know, Miley, you are at so many events, you know, where Miley's tie is, you know, one of the vendors there, and like you said earlier, you would say yes to everybody. Yeah. How difficult, I mean, I know that it's important to really be at these events, but is it, I mean, how draining is it on you, you know, as an owner doing everything that you're doing with two restaurants? And you know, and it is draining, but when I see my team work just as hard, if not harder, because to actually be at a location, we have to unload, but first we have to pack, we have to, there's a list that goes on, and then, you know, unpack, pack, but when I see my team still smiling at the end of the day, and they're still going at it, you have no time to feel tired. I mean, you do physically, but mentally you look at them, and you're like, well, look at you, look at my team here. They're doing that, I gotta be on it too, you know, and at times, because we've gotten quite popular, pre-COVID, there were multiple, you know, events at the same time that I would have to split my team sometimes, you know, and I would go to one and say hi, and check in with them, and then go to another, you know, so when you have multiple restaurants, it's, that becomes challenging, because now you gotta split your time all the way around. And then there's the private events as well too, you know. So sometimes I want to say ordered to be, because Janelle orders me to go, she has my schedule all the time, and she says, no, you have this, and sometimes there are families that hire me to actually, you know, either cook at a special dinner that they're throwing, or I do prep meals for fabrics, and that has slowed down a lot because of COVID. Well, it's, Miley, it's incredible, like all those things that you do, I mean, these events, these caterings, these private events, I mean, you're like a superwoman, Miley, but you know, I want to ask you this too. You know, why do you love this restaurant business, this Miley's Thai business so much? What is it about it? No, it's, it all comes down to the people, Rusty. I have made numerous connections throughout this restaurant, the both restaurants that I've got people coming in and out that I've met and remain my friends and business colleagues until today. I've met so many, I've learned so much. You know, with restaurants, you see all walks of life. See different people, different age range, and some of them have been my closest friends. They live, some of them in the mainland, they come every year, you know, they bring people in. What I like, what I love about this business is when I see people not familiar with Thai food, and I just change their mind, they come in here kind of, kind of iffy. They kind of here kind of unassuming, and they just came because their friend brought them here and their friend is hosting them. They have no, you know, no saying where they're gonna eat. And they leave here so happy, so full, so full of life and just thanking me. And then I see them with another group, but it was their idea all of a sudden now. So that drives me, it makes me so happy. And then they said, you know, I've never eaten Thai food before, and you've introduced me to something that I would have never, ever otherwise eaten. So that's what makes it all worth it for me. Of course with that, it comes like, you know, other things too, you know. Well, Miley, you, I mean, you do everything so well. I mean, and like we talked about earlier, you can't have success without failures. And, you know, you're having great success right now. And we, I want everybody to come and support you. I mean, you know, I love your food, like I said earlier. And Miley, thank you for sharing your insights on today's show. Thank you, Russie, for having me. This is the second time I'm gonna have to tell you. Things have changed since three years. Look at you, look at you, the background, everything. That's, it's nice. Well, we're trying to step it up for you, Miley. Do a good job. Thank you, Miley. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKamori.com. And my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Miley and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.