 Yeah. Yeah. You can do a show and learn. This is Think Tech Hawai'i. Community Matters here. Hello, Han. Welcome to another edition of Business in Hawai'i. I'm Daelyn Yanagida, and we're broadcasting live from the Think Tech studios in downtown Honolulu. If you would like to tune in live, we are at www.thinktechhawaii.com. You can also sign up to get on our mailing list there as well. The theme of Business in Hawai'i is to bring you stories of local businesses by local people. Our guests share with us their journey to building successful businesses in our sometimes challenging environment. In the Think Tech studios with us today are Tracy Newman, MBA candidate at the Scheidler College of Business and intern at Hawai'i Tech Support, and Satellite Gateway Operator at General Dynamics. Just three titles, and Lee won't disappoint either because he's got his share. Lee Wang, who is also an executive MBA candidate with the Scheidler College of Business, agent with Locations in Hawai'i, and owner of Lucy's Lab Creamery in Ward Village. My goodness, you guys, throw me off my game. Thank you. Most people have one title. So thank you so much for joining us today. We have a lot to talk about. First of which is that you both had full careers. Full careers as a business owner and as the space person in the Air Force. And that's something that we didn't share in the intro, is that you've also had a full career in the Air Force, which you've closed out. And we'll talk about what's next for you. But I think it's amazing that having full careers and yet still on the journey into reinvent yourselves into different, whether it's different industries or different directions. So I would love to hear first, Tracy, if you want to tell... Go ahead and give me the fancy title again. All right, yes. Thank you for having us on the show, Daelyn. Oh, my pleasure. So we'll start out, I guess, at the first thing. I can kind of summarize my career in the Air Force. I was in the Air Force for about nine years stationed out in Colorado. And my job was a space operator. So I started out commanding GPS satellites. And I went through a few other things before transitioning out of the Air Force. And I was looking around in California where I was raised and a couple jobs in Hawaii. I was lucky to find the job at General Dynamics where I'm at now. And so I'm there full-time while attending Shidler College of Business. And I wanted to finish my MBA, so I'm on track for that, which is great. And kind of making a pivot into the world of marketing. I loved everything about aerospace. The industry is growing, and it's so exciting to me still. But I'm also kind of growing and changing. So I'd like to get out in front of more people out from behind the computer screen all day. And just the whole community of Honolulu has been so exciting so far and just the business world. So I'm really happy where I'm at now. I just started an internship with a local tech company, Hawaii Tech Support. And I've been absolutely loving that. So that's what I'm looking forward to over this next semester. And we'll see you in the future. So what are you doing at your internship? So I'm the sales and marketing intern right now with John Strandberg. And we are going into a lot of networking, a lot of networking functions, a lot of developing the sales and marketing plan. So I'm using literally all the skills that I just picked up from class, like the night before, I will say, and kind of put together a business plan for this growing tech company in Honolulu. So it's been fun. John is no stranger to several shows on Think Tech Hawaii. And so we do know that he is a GM at Hawaii Tech Support. And of course, everybody knows John. And so obviously you're going to have a great time learning under his leadership. So congratulations on landing that internship. And from what he already tells me, is you're amazing. So thank you so much. So I know it's great. I know it's going to go very well for you and for Hawaii Tech Support. Lee, well, I mean, so you're an MBA candidate in the executive MBA program at Shidler, but you already own a business. So tell me about that. So I own Lucy's Lab Creamery, which is a boutique artisan ice cream shop in Kakaako. We're located in South Shore Market. We just celebrated our four-year anniversary. And we started off on nearby and not so great neighborhood that has flourished into really thriving, vibrant, up-and-coming neighborhood. And we're going strong and having fun doing it. So I know Lucy's Lab Creamery. It's amazing. But you're a successful business owner. I mean, honestly, yes, you started that business in a not so desirable area. But you must have tagged it to be that up-and-coming area because you are in it and it's current, right? I mean, it's booming. I mean, part of my full-time job is actually a real estate broker for locations. And so I'm in real estate. It takes a little bit of vision from when they were pitching the idea five, six years back to see it come to fruition to what it is today. And I actually do project sales for Howard Hughes as well. So seeing their master plan come all together kind of helped me have faith in their vision and, you know, we're seeing it come to life now. They just finished the park and have a lot of other things coming into play. So having all that experience, you would think that he could potentially teach one of these classes, the executive MBA program. So what led you back to school? When I first started Lucy's, I told myself, OK, I've got to put a little bit of money to get this started up, but this will be an MBA by experience and getting my feet wet and making the mistakes and having fun doing it. And it definitely was learning by experience. But at the same time, I just wanted to get the there. I think there's a whole gamut of things that I didn't understand. And I wanted to get formal training and understand the theories behind why I'm doing the things I'm doing instead of just kind of running around with a chicken with his head cut off. So I kind of put it together. Saw if it was right for in my time in my life and the stars align. So I said, let's go for it. So what's the difference between the traditional MBA program and the executive MBA program? I think the traditional MBA program seems almost self-explanatory, I think. But I think it's a different focus at the end game for a lot of the executive MBA students, I've noticed, have kind of more their eye on the C-suite positions at the top, if I'm right. They feed us. That's one of the differences. No, I think so. I think they do. They go to class and they have full meals. What are you getting? I don't know. I've got a... Where's the vending machine? The vending machine? Exactly, the butter and jelly. And the traditional program in your bag. The crystal ball is my favorite, yes. The crystal ball. Yeah, I think that's part of it. Part of it is just because I think the average experience for an executive MBA in our cohort was like 12 years. Nice. The global was like three or four years. And so just because of the experience is why I think most of them are gearing towards the higher end executive positions. But I think this is all of us in due time. I think that's the main difference. Partly would be time too. I think global commits a lot more time to classes than we DRs are a little bit more abbreviated and faster pace. So what makes you decide to go from... Well, I mean you both still work full time plus plus with your full time space job and the internship and then with Lucy's and working for locations. What motivates you to go back to school? I mean, first of all, where do you find the time? And then second, what's the motivation? Well, the time, I just create it. There really isn't any. So I wanted to go back to school and I'm so glad that I did because just the energy, I think there's a spirit of innovation and kind of like a forward-looking vibe that I get whenever I'm in class with my classmates. And I just love being around that, just having all these ideas flying around and people wanting to go somewhere new, a new direction, or start something new. And that just is like an addictive feeling, so exciting. Yeah, that's definitely... I think the information is the information, but the people and the energy you get from it and the connections are invaluable, especially in a place like Hawaii where connection is everything. So my guess is that with the Executive MBA program being what you're experiencing, cohort mentality, is that right? Yes, everybody's very tight. Everybody knows each other's strengths and weaknesses. Now, we have to remember, there are a number of professional organizations, active in town, Vistage, EO, YP, which are all present in our community because leaders, business leaders, CEOs, executives, they are looking for a way to network with one another, but not just to socialize. It's an exchange of thoughtful ideas and upcoming trends and innovation. And is that what you both are experiencing in your programs? Yeah, absolutely. Do you spend a lot of time in that think tank, if you will? Yeah, I could say for the traditional MBA program, I've noticed there's a lot of small projects and presentations that we go through throughout a single class, and each topic is kind of onslaid. They give us a small window of time to research something that's brand new in data management or something, some part of business, so we'll kind of go through and we'll just put together maybe a five-minute presentation, but just having to do that ourselves kind of puts that in your mind, and so you have this idea of what's coming up and what's happening in the world, what's new. I think for me, having worked in real estate for a number of years and having done this business, there's definitely a distinction between working and executing and actually doing it, and then going back and learning the theories and concepts and so taking it from the idea to... I went backwards, I went out and did it and then learned about what I did and the new stuff that I had no idea about, and so especially in this business environment, things are always changing. If you're not innovating, if you're not creating a better version of yourself at wherever you are, you're going to be falling behind. I think maybe I felt a little bit of that in both the real estate side and the business side that I was using kind of old techniques that need to be refreshed, so getting the experience from the concept side was really important. So for us old folks, we need to learn from you young folks and what's up and coming. So we're going to take a quick break, but when we come back, we want to hear about your thoughts. As the young people that's going to lead our business communities in a new direction, how technology is affecting the way that people do business now because we know it's changed immensely. So let's talk about that when we come back. We are going to take that short break. We'll see you back here shortly. Thank you. This is Think Tech Hawaii. You guys are amazing. So tech, of course, right? With the help of a physical therapist, most of our businesses are ingrained in tradition and you get to actively participate in your care. Protect all of the culture and a lot of family-owned small businesses if you don't change anything. But where technology is pressuring businesses to make some changes, even brand new businesses like yours, it's four years old, inviting you to visit with us on cannabis chronicles, a 10,000-year odyssey where we explore and examine the internship, what you want to get out of it, where you want to live. So let's get out there, tell everybody what you want to do so that they'll find it. They'll find you. Welcome back to Business in Hawaii. Joining us today are Tracy Newman and Lee Wang, both of whom are MBA candidates at Shidler College of Business. And they have many, many titles, but I'm going to not mess that up. But when Tracy isn't at school and her space job, she is an intern at Hawaii Tech Support. And while Lee is not in school, he's an agent with vacations and he's a business owner, but you guys are innovators and I think you guys are going to be taking our community, our business community in a new direction. And when we left, I had asked you folks to share with an older person like myself. So what do we need to know or what are we looking out for in terms of technology and how it's demanding to change the way we do business? I mean, I think there's a need in Hawaii to keep talent here. Keeping talent here is going to create opportunities for the generation after us. And really the mentality that the older generation has passed to us about paying it forward hasn't changed. It's really just the way we go about it. So there's a number of issues that are really passionate to me, especially being in real estate, affordable housing, cost of living. It's tough in Hawaii, but I think all these are rooted in the opportunities that we have in Hawaii. So the more we can keep talented individuals in Hawaii, the more opportunities there is going to be for it to go around and help Hawaii in general. So I think tech is the tool and the vehicle to that end and it's kind of up to us to make sure that we can execute that. We were just saying that your business is four years young, but you had already mentioned that there are things that you are realizing through your executive MBA program that there are things you didn't know and that you need to work on. What are some of those things? I learned tough lessons like the toughest one is employees. I think that's the lifeblood of any business. Your people will advocate for you or be your biggest headache sometimes. And so learning the ins and outs of, like you said, you're in a startup that does HR and payroll and things like, even the basics like that as well as just company culture, motivation. The stuff we learned in the MBA program is geared towards large scale corporations, businesses if we were to take executive positions, but I took my business as a great incubator to test these things out and learn firsthand if I employ this strategy what's going to happen and what kind of response am I going to get from my employees? Wow, nice test case. That's an incredible test case. And you are a true tech person from the Air Force to now what you're doing at General Dynamics. How do you see tech changing the way we need to do business? I do. I had to agree with a lot of Lee's points from earlier about the tech industry in specific in keeping jobs and good people in Hawaii because I think that's something that almost every company is needing is that tech side. And one of the easiest things to do if you're graduating and you have technical skills is to start looking maybe Silicon Valley someplace that has like a higher pay rate but what I think people are not understanding is that there's an increasing number of tech jobs available in Hawaii. There's a lot of opportunities here and there's a lot of companies too if you're a small business on the other side that might be looking to outsource some of that. A lot of people will look straight to the mainland but there are a lot of really good tech companies right here at home too. So I think that kind of... that's one of the biggest things that I'm noticing that's been changing and just growing. I would agree because we've had a number of guests on the Business in Hawaii show talk about tech, tech startup and the fact that just because there's not a brick and mortar people tend to think, well, Hawaii's not really tech. We're tech all over the place, right? We need to transact across bodies of water as opposed to just miles of highway and so we actually do have those resources, those businesses here but I think people just don't see them and realize that the opportunities are here which is why I think what Shidler College of Business is doing is amazing because it's reminding their candidates, their master's degree candidates that the jobs are here and we're building and developing businesses in Hawaii and particularly for an already established business owner like yourself to go to Shidler and say, hey, this is where I want to do business. It's amazing. So tell me about some of the exciting things that you folks are going to be doing at Shidler coming up. I know that you guys get to build businesses which is amazing and you have amazing professors who have extraordinary experience already in the business community and then you have your cohorts. You folks probably build some amazing things. Can you guys talk about some of that? I can start out with personally what drives me I think is being part of an industry or some edge of growth where I'm still able to shape some of the decisions and the directions so that's why I was attracted to space and then in the same vein that's why I'm attracted to technology because cyberspace, cybersecurity is another frontier that's changing every day and I love being part of the factor that kind of shapes what that means to people and where does IT come into people's everyday lives. So that is going to be a shift for you, right? From the whole tech space thing and then wanting to go into sales and marketing. Is that an interest that you developed along the way? I've kind of had a little bit of that plug all along and so now I just really want to explore the marketing and the network side of it it's so much fun to me and also I think there's kind of an educational aspect to it when I go out and I try to explain to people the way that an IT solution for example will fit their needs and how we can customize it and what it used to look like before and what it looks like now and what it will look like into the future is this thing where I like to come up with something that I think will work the best and hope it works the best for everybody and I just like having the freedom I guess to creatively come up with something like that. So what we do know of entrepreneur's Lee, like yourself, is that you guys don't stop. I'm very restless. That there's always another idea and another idea so tell me about what your thoughts are. I mean you're in the executive MBA program and you folks do use that as an incubator for some creative things so does that mean that you're often running onto something else? I have a couple of projects I'm working on. This semester is our last semester so one of the classes we had last semester was entrepreneurship and our professor kind of developed for us to, based off for me, although I have a small business the entrepreneurship of a startup is totally different and so it's a really exciting, interesting you know rabbit hole to jump into and so for a practicum this semester we're going to be doing a startup that involves group dating and another class we're taking real estate investment although I'm in real estate everybody in my class expects me to you know this stuff already it's a lot of really interesting material one of the projects we have is we have to put together a plan for some sort of real estate development and so that is definitely an avenue that I have some familiarity with but not the level that they're expecting us in this class so it's going to feel good to stretch out and go beyond what I'm comfortable with and kind of look forward to very busy quite often where they can choose sometimes perhaps for a wheel, just going and going you can just see that so for some of our viewers they are already established career people like yourselves what's your advice, do you go back to school do you not, is it worth the time what are your thoughts I say it takes a high level of optimism and kind of like we were saying you can have an established route and that's fantastic but if you want to if you want to change it you're risking you know losing something that you have and moving into something possibly better so you got to think of it that way when you chose your internship was it very was it clear the path that you wanted to take so you knew exactly what type of internship you wanted I think so at first at first I was kind of shopping around and I wasn't totally sure but I think it was when I met the people at Hawaii Tech that I kind of knew this is going to be a good fit for my oddly shaped career but you know I mean after speaking with John Strandberg at Hawaii Tech support I mean what they're gaining out of your internship is amazing and they never imagine that they would find such great resources in an intern and I think that goes to the point that you folks have established careers and then you go back to school because that must be a different perspective as opposed to when you did your bachelor's degree maybe without any work experience then flipping it on its head and having something to apply to real life and do you use Lucy's as kind of that look back and forth I do it's a looking glass to see if I'm on the right track and if there's I think that mirror always tells me there's always room for self improvement and things that I can be working on so to me as much as business is also a tool for me to kind of self evaluate so would you recommend your path to other business owners my path was really a little bit rough but I think you get hardened by fires so why not you say it's rough but everybody's looking like wow they see the duck on top of the water but they don't see it they saw the storefront Lucy's lab beautiful and then we saw you move into you know the up and coming commercial sector right I mean no one sees your struggle yeah but maybe maybe maybe one day that is something you should talk about because there are going to be folks that want to open up businesses and the struggle is worth it that makes it look so easy maybe you should expect some if you don't expect water it's worth it is there anything else that you'd like to share about your intern experience or your candidacy before we wrap this up today I think I can say it seems almost like a cliche if you say something new is kind of a mixture between anxiety and excitement but if you're feeling more excitement then I think that's kind of tells you that's the right way to go fantastic one of the MO's for our business at Lucy's was to give back a portion of our proceeds goes back to breast cancer charities and I think as young professionals whether we're in a nine to five traditional job or we're starting businesses or we're in a startup I think the component of giving back to the community needs to be part of what we're doing here in Hawaii I agree wholeheartedly and Hawaii thanks you and Lucy's for giving back and for being that business I cannot wait to hear about the businesses the startup businesses that you folks are cultivating at Shidler College and of course having you back to talk about your business adventures amazing unfortunately we are at a time I do want to thank Tracy and Lee for taking time out of their super busy schedules to share their amazing stories with us and a very big thank you to the amazing staff production staff here in think tech studios if you would like to be a guest on our show please feel free to email your information to shows at thinktechhawaii.com business in Hawaii airs every Thursday at 2pm and we look forward to seeing you here next week yeah you guys are awesome so exciting so exciting