 Welcome to It's About Time on ThinkTech from our downtown studio at the core of Honolulu. I'm your host Becky Sampson, a professional speaker, author, and coach. Do you have an idea for a business and wonder what it takes to make that happen? And maybe you have a business but might be struggling to get it off the ground, or you might be thriving in your business and want to take it to the next level. Joining me here in the studio today is Celestra Thomas, principal broker and owner of Soldier to Soldier Real Estate, host of a radio show called Real Life Real Estate, and most importantly as serial entrepreneur. Today we're going to be talking about, so you want to be an entrepreneur and about what it takes to start, sustain, and thrive in seeing your ideas come to light. So welcome Celestra. Thank you Becky. Or Lester. Whichever way. Just don't call me after 2.30 a.m. I'll try not to. I love, I'm so grateful that you're here today because I was on your radio show actually. Yes she was. A great guest. What was that? A couple months ago? A couple months ago, yeah. Yeah, it's fun. He goes, just show up and we'll just talk. He's like, okay. You fit right in. It was a great thing. That was a very easy show. You can have a, just a dialogue. You know, and then with you having that Real Estate background that helps so much, also on the show. Yeah, you know, we were kind of talking earlier. I was in Real Estate for many, many years and did property management, but also high end and first time home building and stuff like that. So that was kind of fun that we connected and we met, I don't know, back in April? April or May or something like that. And I know when I came on your radio show, we talked a little bit before it and you had some amazing ideas of how you've been able to grow your business in being an entrepreneur and being successful at that. Before we kind of get into that part of it, what are some of the things and challenges that you see with being an entrepreneur? Like what, there's some stuff, right? Me is making sure I get enough sleep. Self-care. Well, I only sit at it because I understand when I went into this thing that either I'm all in or I'm not and I think that's the biggest thing for anybody that's thinking about starting a business or they currently have a business. You got to either be all in or not because there's so many days where you're going to be tired. You're getting phone calls late at night, but if you're all in and you understand it before you go into it, it's not a problem. How do people, in your experience, maybe for you or for the people that you've worked with, how do you see that they get all in? What does it start with? I think sometimes a lot of people look at entrepreneurship as, it seems to be the new fad now. Before it used to be I want to be an athlete, I want to be a doctor, I want to be a sports person, because a lot of people sometimes think about money. Now entrepreneurship seems to be the thing because of sometimes the TV and you see the people with the nice cars and all that stuff and they're entrepreneurs, but I really think what it really takes is you got to love what you do and then you don't work a day in your life. It doesn't seem like when you're working, exactly, when you're working 18, 19-hour days and people are like, oh you work so much and like, no I didn't work an hour today, you know, because I actually love what I do, you know. What started you being an entrepreneur, how old were you? I was 26, I think. And you're 27 now, right? Yeah, 24, I'm going backwards. Just wanted to make sure. So I started a non-medical emergency transportation company called Count on Us. As a matter of fact, I still keep one of the hats and shirts on the day. And what's that called? Count on Us. Count on Us. Yeah, it was a non-medical emergency transportation company. What most people didn't know, and I didn't know this at the time either, was Lurie, you could transport patients. I Lurie bought three youths and molasses, had them fixed up, and I started working for contracts from the hospitals and stuff in order to take care of the dialysis, run records back and forth. And I don't know where I could decide who you're from, but I know I wanted to do something. I was actually still in the Army full-time at that time also, so Lurie, I was playing G.I. Joe from 9 to 5, and then on the weekends and after that, I was doing a little night company. And the great thing about that company is I feel miserably. Okay, but so that's part of entrepreneurship. Exactly, and that's my problem. You've got to be okay to fail. Yeah. You have to understand that you're going to fail. Yeah. Well, and I often like to say, fail faster so you can succeed quicker. Exactly. Because when you, when it's not a level of judgment towards that, it just worked or it didn't work. You don't have to beat yourself up over it, and I kind of hate the word failure because people are so afraid of that, but if you have an idea and you put it out there, you just look back and go, you know, I would say don't look back unless you look back to see how far you've come. You've got to look at the lessons that are there, and how, I mean, how important is that as an entrepreneur? Well, I think our school system sometimes used the word fail and failure is a bad thing. Yeah, big F. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But if you look at most successful companies and you go back and talk to the head of those companies, they fail a lot, you know, and that was part of the process, and it wasn't looked at as a bad thing, it looked as a part of the process in order to get to where you wanted to go. So what did, what did you think you learned from your first venture? I had no idea what I was doing, but the point of it is it's okay. Yeah, it's okay. You got to start from somewhere, and you got to start by working the channels and I think the biggest thing was the educational side of it from who I contact, reading books every day, getting into the self-development of it. Exactly. There are tons of self-development now. I'm going to tell you my weakness. My weakness is, especially when I hire other people is I think they should be like me and self-develop, and I quickly realize everyone just doesn't think that way and operate that way because I'm always having my entrepreneur hat on. Okay, why doesn't that person not self-develop that? I'm looking at the big picture where they're hired for a specific reason. Exactly. And that is a difficult thing for an entrepreneur because you want it to run the way that we see it, and that's not everybody thinks like us, right? You think everybody should. Why are you not self-developing? Why are you not reading? Well, and I always say go into business and that's the best way to learn your weakness and your strengths. And to be able to, this is a principle that I teach with entrepreneurs is you find your strengths, right, and find your weaknesses and find somebody else that that's their strength, and they become part of your team. Oh, I love that. Oh, gosh. Because I clearly think they were. We've got to build our team of leaders, my friend. And I tell, by the fact I just hired another assistant, and she was my old assistant before and now she's coming back on. And she knows that, hey, look, I'm hiring you to cover up my weakness. Yeah. Oh, there you go. Not to enhance my screen because I have those, but I'm hiring you to cover up my weakness, and that's the main purpose. Yeah. Yeah, and that's important. That's a really important aspect, especially when you're going out because entrepreneurs try doing it on their own. And they think that they're an island and that they think that they have to row. I remember I was having a conversation with one of my business partners and I said to him, I said, get out of all of the things that you need to do, you know, to be able to move forward. You got to get this person doing this and this person doing this. But oftentimes we don't have a lot of resources. Yeah. So you said back on your very first go at it in being entrepreneur, you learned that, you know, a lot of your stuff was self-development. You learned what you're weak and what you're strong at. And I was doing everything. I was doing mom and pop versus trying to actually build a business. Right. I was the driver. I was the person that was taking the appointments. I was the guy that was cleaning them. I was trying to do everything in order to save a dollar. But what I quickly realized is I can't grow. That way. And in order for me to grow, I should be able to walk into my business and no one needs me. And I think sometimes it's hard for a lot of people to let go. I'm waiting on that day when I can walk in and I'm like, what are you doing here? I don't need you here. So what advice would you have for yourself on that first go out? At first go out, what I would change different would probably be to actually read a little more than I did, even though I read every day. Yeah. I literally read about two or three pages a day. And so if I read two or three pages a day and I learned something new every day, then I'm growing. Then I'm growing. Right. And so develop you. So you went from that. What kind of, what was your next venture? My next venture, you won't believe it's actually, I bought a McDonald's franchise. Oh, really? And I went out to Hamburger University out in Florida when they had it out in Florida then. And I thought it was about the fries and the burgers. Mm-hmm. And I was so far from that field. It's a real estate business, right? Exactly. It was all about real estate. Mm-hmm. I mean, even Starbucks is all about real estate. Mm-hmm. It's what their location is where, where they at. And what I learned from is there's so much psychology behind and in business. Mm-hmm. At this time when I went to Hamburger U, it was the credit card thing was coming out. Right. Right. Where they were testing credit card machines at McDonald's. Mm-hmm. And seeing if there was a growth and purchases because there was a machine versus there wasn't a machine. Mm-hmm. And what they found out was people had the tendency to spend more. Yeah. If they swiped it. Uh-huh. Versus if they paid cash. Yep. You know what I'm saying? Because I asked a guy at a meat one. I said, why don't we have a psychologist at McDonald's? I mean, we've done a ton of people out there eating fries or something on that. What's the point? Yeah. What? It's all psychology. Psychology and selling, right? Exactly. It's a great, I mean, if you're an entrepreneur, that's a great audio. Have you ever listened to that one? Psychology of selling? Yep. Oh, yeah. It's understanding why people buy what they buy and how they make those decisions. And it's all psychology. I mean, everything in life, but same thing with our own psychology, you know, and trying to figure out what works and what doesn't work. I think what's bad for us sometimes though is when someone's trying to sell us, at least for me, there's no in-between with me. Mm-hmm. If I wanted, I'm the easiest seller. If I don't want it, you're just wasting your time. Yeah. But that is also, that's something I always say too, is you can't say the right thing to the wrong person. And you can't say the wrong thing to the right person. Meaning, I mean, they want it or they don't. Right? Exactly. We don't have to sell anything when you're doing it the proper way. So, in that kind of thing. So, you went from McDonald's and then, is that what got you into real estate? When I got into real estate, I started flipping houses just because I wanted to do something. I had to be busy going, I just never had the ability to sit still and go to the beach and enjoy. I just couldn't, it made me feel like I was missing something. Right. And this is my whole time in the army. So, I left McDonald's and started flipping houses in Oklahoma. Mm-hmm. I spent 20 years in the army after that. I bought houses every time I PCS. I was like, oh man, it's about time to retire. What do I want to do? Mm-hmm. So, the natural transition was to go into real estate. Right. You know. And you know, I think we've talked about this too, is how much of your background of being in military and that structure has played a part in your success in your company and your entrepreneurship. I think the biggest thing is you don't go home until the job is done. Yeah. Probably the biggest thing. Yeah. And I quickly realized, here sometimes it's not the same thought process. What I say here sometimes is, I hate the word civilian world because I am a civilian now. Mm-hmm. And most people don't see it as you finish and then you go home. Mm-hmm. You know, it's always tomorrow. Mm-hmm. And I was always, you taught in the military, you know, you don't go home until it's done. Right. And then when it's done, then you go home. And you do it correctly. Yes. Right. Oh, it's a long night. Or else you just keep taking the test over again and just keep doing it over until you get it right. So, I took something from every job I had. I was actually a recruiter in the military. And at this time when I was a recruiter, now we're asking, there was three wars going on. Yeah. So, I'm going into parents' house and asking their young daughters and sons to the military and knowing that there's three wars going on. Yeah. The problem with them going to war is very high. Mm-hmm. And was it tough? Yes. Oh, yeah. But again, I learned so much about the psychology of people. What did you learn? Let's... Who is the influencer? Who is the person that's making the decision? Mm-hmm. And what we quickly found out was it was the mom, not necessarily the kids that were making the decision. So, if you could influence the mom, that it was a good idea for Johnny to join the army. Yeah. Then, Johnny would join the army. Mm-hmm. It was really about finding the influencer. And even today, it's in real estate the same way. When I go into someone's house, there's always either the wife or the husband. Okay, but which one, typically? Here, it's been the wife. Is it? Yeah. It's the same thing when I did it for years, too. It's usually the wife that makes that decision, because this is her home, right? Yeah. This is where they're going to resign. The husband's like, whatever. But of course, when they see the closet, they're like, okay, I'm taking all of that. Yeah. They always make that joke, right? That the woman's going to take the whole entire closet and the guy can be in the hallway. That sounds familiar. So, yeah. So, let's just take a break right now, actually. We're going to go on to the break. When we come back, let's talk more about the challenges and also some of the things that you have really worked for you to take you to the next step of entrepreneurship, because you have some really great things to say or concepts that I know that if people apply them into their businesses, that they're going to be able to take it to the next level. Absolutely. So, yeah, we'll be taking a break. I'm Becky Samson. This is, it's about time on Think Tech. And we're talking to Celeste or Tom Thomas about, so you want to be an entrepreneur. So, stay tuned for more. We'll be right back. Aloha. I'm Keisha King, host of At the Crossroads, where we have conversations that are real and relevant. We have spoken with community leaders from right here locally in Hawaii and all around the world. Won't you join us on thinktechhawaii.com or on YouTube on the Think Tech Hawaii channel. Our conversations are real, relevant, and lots of fun. I'll see you at the Crossroads. Aloha. Aloha. My name is Wendy Lowe, and I want you to join me as we take our health back. On my show, all we do is talk about things in everyday life, in Hawaii or abroad. I have guests on board that will just talk about different aspects of health in every, in every way. Whether it's medical health, nutritional health, diabetic health, you name it, we'll talk about it. Even financial health. We'll even have some of the Miss Hawaii's on board. And all the different topics that I feel will make your health and your lifestyle a lot better. So come join me. I welcome you to take your health back. Mahalo. Hi, we're back. And I'm Becky Sampson, the host of It's About Time. I'm with Celester Thomas, and we're talking today about, so you want to be an entrepreneur. So before we break, we kind of were talking about some of the challenges and the journey really that you've been on as an entrepreneur. And you're now, and a couple of the businesses that you've been involved in, what are you doing now? I mean, you've done some McDonald's stuff and you did some other earlier businesses. And now you're in real estate. I mean, obviously you're retired from the military. Right. And so you call your real estate company soldier to soldier. I call, yeah, soldier to soldier for white royalty. There's a reason behind that. I won't go into details. Well, give us a little snapshot. What made you want to? Originally, I had another name. Uh-huh. And I received a phone call from a lawyer that says, hey, you need to cease and desist using that name. And mine, you had it all the research looked up and it was never filed or anything else. Mm-hmm. So the entrepreneur and me say, I'll just change the name where it's very close. Mm-hmm. But still within the... Guidelines. Guidelines. Yeah. And the funny thing is, me and either the guy there, we're fighting over that name. Mm-hmm. None of us can use it today. Mm-hmm. I'm not sad. Yeah. It's an obstacle. But again, again, it's part of being an entrepreneur. Mm-hmm. I mean, that's why I tell people there's going to be tons of challenges in the way. Yeah. How do you adjust and move past those challenges? Yeah. Yeah, because it's definitely, I know on the screen, they've got your website. Soldier to soldier, Hawaii Real Estate, or Realty. And there's actually, let's just talk real quick, since this is up. I was talking to you before the show. I think it's really interesting because what's happening right now in this industry of real estate, a lot of homes are coming up. Talk a little bit about that, how the Airbnb is causing a lot of people to put their homes up. You know, the funny thing is I had an Airbnb expert guy on the radio show, which he brought a lot of insight to, one, the changes, the areas, and how some places were in the zone, where you can do Airbnb. And now they're outside of that zone. What you see a lot now is, people are putting their properties up because... Yeah, because they don't want to get stuck. Yeah. And a lot of that Airbnb income that they were getting was supplementing their income, one, the pay for the house, and two, their lifestyle. Yeah. And I never looked at it from that point of view. That's how you write, you know. It affects people on both sides of the aisle. Yeah. And at the same time, if you're living in a community... Mm-hmm. And of course, when you do an Airbnb, and most people know you come to Hawaii, you're like, they're up all night, and they're partying, and they have a fun. Oh, yeah. But if you're living in a community, that may be a nuisance to you. So I kind of understand both sides of it. Yeah. Now, I'm not sitting on each side of the aisle, but I do understand both sides of the issue and why some are wondering in the area and some don't want it in the area. Because you know Hawaii is pretty expensive to live here, you know. Yes. Really? You think? Just a little bit, you know. People always use milk. I don't even drink milk. We got to pay the price to live in paradise, my friend. Exactly. That's what I always say. But I think that that's... So the point with that with entrepreneurs is, again, I love the thing that's expected and unexpected, right? Yeah. I mean, you're in a business, and the business is going a certain way, and then all of a sudden something comes into play, like a law, past, or something, and it changes the dynamics. Exactly. So talk about how important it is as an entrepreneur to be adjustable and to be viable to children. I think it's very important to be a foreseer. And why I say that is, there's a billion dollar company that just went out of business. They're called the company's name. Right. Because they didn't foresee Amazon and the way a lot of people do what now? Shop online. Shop online. And that's how they... Especially here in the island. Exactly. So those companies that got affected by that didn't foresee it. They saw a lot of people. And I think I read the general order corner or something and it was like, oh, no, people still want to come into the store and touch and feel the products and stuff like that, which is not the case anymore. It's not. Isn't that interesting? Tesla Psychology comes in at right. But people have it so changing. It's almost, yeah. And I think it's really interesting because I know when the water first came out, I thought, who in the world is going to pay for bottled water? Eight dollars of water. And now nobody is going to drink regular water because of that. And it's kind of interesting to see this shift that's happened with our buying. And regardless of what business you're in, you've got to be able to see where the trends are and stay up with other things that are happening in the communities that can affect your business. Instead of just going, well, this is... For instance, let me give you an example. My family, we own a summer camp for kids. And for 46 years in Southern Utah and all the national parks, it was kind of more of a business where rich kids came to because it was a little more expensive and adventurous. But the way that we marketed was to go to these shows, the camping shows. Camping shows, right. And that's just how my dad's done it for 40 years, right? But as the internet started coming and as people started sharing pictures, I remember going, well, we've got like this, these little disposable cameras and we're going to have to get them just, you know, and then on there so people can share their experiences. And they're like, you can't do that. That's like privacy issues. It's different. And so, you know, we are now out of business. We went out of business and this is just my way of looking at it. But it's because we kept doing the things that we did for so long and didn't conform kind of to the new way and get into the psychology again and into the social realm of sharing those photos because that was not okay 20 years ago. And now it's like, what are you kidding me? I want my kids. I want to know what they did two seconds ago. Exactly. You know, and I want to share it with the world. But it's very different. So that's another great concept is to stay up with what's going, you know, be able to look in the future. I always admire the NFL of being out of business and being out of industry and then on Snapchat. It's not funny. I don't even know how to use Snapchat. Exactly. You never thought the NFL was on Snapchat. You can literally go to Snapchat and see the NFL on them posting stuff on Snapchat. Okay, so are you on Snapchat? Yes, I am. Okay. I know you're on Snapchat. You're also on YouTube. I'm on YouTube. I'm on... I stalked you. I'm on Craigslist. You're not on Craigslist? No. Come on, a real situation. It's not... Anyway, so you're on Snapchat. You're on... I'm on Snapchat, YouTube. I'm on... What is it? TikTok. I've never even heard that one. I've seen you never even heard TikTok. Well, I obviously won't find you there. Are you on Instagram? Instagram, yep. Okay. All the social media platforms. And they're like, oh, you're everywhere. Okay, so this is another concept of entrepreneurship, right? You've got to be willing to think outside the box and put yourself in all those different... And they're all free... You can't think like how you would go buy something or find something. You always have to look at how the majority of people are finding things. Right. And where they're at. And where they're really good at because I do stalk you. So, you know. Okay. What is it? I love that you really are an out-of-the-box thinking person that you do these little cute little videos and that's not normal for real estate. You know what I mean? Usually they're all very proper and they... I think there was one that you were on the bus. Oh, yeah. I was on the bus. You and your... I was saying, get on the bus when the market was changed. Yeah. So you have to... And nowadays in marketing, you've got to be even that much more creative. But then also talk about how sometimes that can be overwhelming. We feel like we have to do everything. Like how do you manage all of that? One day at a time. I love that answer. That is a great answer. One day at a time. But I really believe, and this isn't me studying people, I really believe people like seeing people in that natural environment. Absolutely. And the way I act on my social media platform, this is the way I act while I'm on TV, making a commercial, it doesn't matter on radio, I'm the same person. And I think people gravitate to that more than anything else. Well, and I love that you said... Because people... What I've learned about social media is that they want to see you, like not advertising, because that's... People get really, really tired of being advertised and be sold to. Oh, tell me about it. They like to be entertained. And so when you do something, if you can put marketing with entertaining them, like being on the bus, that's called Stick To It. What is that book? It's called Suck. I can't remember. I can't remember. You know what I mean? Made to Stick. Made to Stick. Because that's what sticks in our brain. We think of, oh, Lester, he's on a bus and he's talking about how you better get on the bus or not, get off, you know? You know the funny thing, my first TV commercial I did, this is my two, three years now. And I was debating whether or not... I said, you know what? I was about to get tired of being locked in the contract. I was looking for... What is consumers tired of being? Different. They don't like being in contract. You know how I solve this problem? It's something that can bother me. They're not happy. And I sent it on the commercial and I recorded it. Some people at the station were like, ah, it's a little harsh. And I was like, no, it's not. And literally the day before, I was about to take it out. And they looked at it and said, no, just leave it in and this will help. And I left it in. So literally to this day, matter of fact, this didn't happen yesterday. This guy was in Starbucks, like, hey man, you're the fire me guy. I love it. So that's what they remember me by. Of course. You know, because that whole, you can fire me. Right. Then of course I get some people pulling me up and say, hey man, you've been fired. You know, I'm like, no, I'm crying too though. You're selling your house. So why do you think the whole, you're fired bit, you know, that's been a social thing with Trump. You know, you're fired from entrepreneurs. Some people confuse that. I also thought I got it from Trump, but I just know that people don't like being in contracts. I don't like being in contract. So it's like, what do I do to alleviate that problem? Well, and it alleviates their stress and their objection, right? And understanding objections and entrepreneurship is when you're in business, you got to know what they're thinking so that you can speak to that and the objections to be able to give them what they really want. But here's a psychology that also, most people will not fire you unless it gets so far, so bad. Yeah. Nobody wants to fire anybody. Yeah. If you say, yep, I'm going with this person, it will take a lot for that person to say, you know what, I'm going in another direction. Right. So that's a psychology I understand. Even though I say that, I understand it's still hard for people to know. Say, you know what, I want to go in another direction. You know? So again, that goes back to the psychology of the way people think and act in certain things. That's awesome. So as we wrap up, where do people find you? We know that it's social media, right? Social media. You can go to my website at www.SoldierSoldierHawaii.com. You can call me at 808-312-7884. I don't even think I had your number. I need your number. Nope, I think we're going through Facebook. Facebook. Social media. I love it. Well, thank you so much for being here today. No, thank you for having me on. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and out-of-the-box thinking and being an entrepreneur and showing people that you can be really successful if you get creative and like you say, jump off the cliff, right? Just jump. You just got to jump. Where about it? We'll say it to bottom later. Just jump and the wings will show up. I promise you. I promise. I promise. So thanks so much. We're out of time and we'll have to wrap it up. I'm Becky Sampson with It's About Time on the ThinkTech live streaming network series. We've been talking to Celestor Thomas with Soldier to Soldier Real Estate and thanks to all of you for being here. Thanks to our broadcast engineer, our floor manager and to Jay Fidel, our executive producer who puts it all on together. And of course, I'll see you next Wednesday for It's About Time on ThinkTech. I'm Becky Sampson. Mahalo, everyone.