 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 respected leader and very successful chief operations officer for Hale Kalani Corporation. He is Peter Schoenland, and today we are going beyond luxury. Hey, Peter, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Rusty, it's great to see you and it's an honor to be here. Very excited. Peter, everywhere you've been in the hotel industry, you have really improved those hotels greatly, and I think we're just so lucky to have you here in Hawaii doing what you're doing with Hale Kalani and Hale Punah, but I want to first ask you if you can share about your background before entering the hotel industry. Sure, you better tell you my darkest secrets. Absolutely. I was born in December, so I was one of those kids who went to college at 17 and was thrown right into Manhattan in the late 1970s, and it was another era and another environment entirely then today. I actually came out of an arts background with my family, and my dad was a music composer, a film composer, and everybody played an instrument, and we liked creative things, and I had to make a living, and he said, you've got to pay half your rent in tuition. So I went to bartending school, and then it wasn't a weak program with videos. It was really, really serious stuff with veteran retired guys from the Art Deco era, you know, the 40s and 50s in Manhattan, and it was quite a serious deal. So it gave me a sense of what you referred to, so aptly, in one of your books, which is this culture of excellence. I certainly wasn't living in one, but I stepped into one, and it was really tough. Man, I want to have you make us some drinks so that I can partake with you there, Peter. I'll take you up on that. Happy to do so. Now, Peter, how did you get started and interested in the hotel industry? You know, it was really through food and beverage because I was a young guy, I was bartending, and then I guess I seemed to be somewhat conscientious. Somebody spotted me with something, so I became an assistant night manager at a small place, and then I was working, working, working during college. And then eventually, a consultant who was at one of the hotels, I was working at a restaurant and said to me, you know, you should really work in hotels because they have better insurance program than independent restaurants. And he really foretold the future. So I somehow, by sheer accident, ended up in a hotel in Manhattan, and I was in the sub-basement storage cage issuing canned goods to night cooks. And my nickname was the dumb kid, and they all told me I'd never get anywhere, and that made me mad. So I started learning, and I literally climbed upwards from there, and it was a long, a long, slow ascent. Well, I looked into your background, and it truly is amazing wherever you've been. I mean, you have just made everywhere super successful. And Peter, I want to ask you, why is the Hale Kalani Hotel so unique and iconic? You know, it's interesting. I've, by happenstance, to begin with, honestly, Rusty, my career landed from iconic to iconic to iconic institutions. It was the way it played out, never worked for a big chain. I wouldn't know how to do it well today, honestly, but I ended up in these various legacy hotels over the years and around various places around the world. And Hale Kalani, I had never been to Hawaii, and I decided after 20 years I'll take a break from the business, and I was in St. Thomas. I had been with Rosewood Hotels running the Caribbean for them for many years. And I took a break, and I bought a house, and I put my kids who were small in school there, and I just pursued my other hobbies for a while in interest. And then I got a call, and I was so curious because I always heard about Hale Kalani, but I'd never seen this icon of icons. So I figured, well, I'll take a look. I don't think I'm going to move, but I'll go out and look at it. And they tricked me because when I got here, between Hawaii, the people, the culture, and the hotel, and its legacy and staff, there was no way I could say no when they made the offer. And I've been here for almost 18 years since. So that's how it started. But Hale Kalani itself has a mona that goes back in hospitality. The employees believe deeply as do we that the old Robert Lewer's house, which was on the side of the old building now, which is beautifully preserved by our owners, was where Robert Lewer's the lumber magnet saw these local fishermen going by in their boats at sunset, paddling away. And at times they couldn't make it home to West Oahu by dark and would pull up on the beach for a while. And he said, you know, what do you got in the boat? And they said fish. And he saw the fish and said, well, you know what? I'll have my staff cook it. You can join me at my table here for dinner. And I'll put you up for the night. And it was almost a hotel before it was a hotel. And that type of respect and diversity and open-mindedness in that era yet was exceptional, particularly at that time in Hawaii, as we all know. So that is the site of Orchids, the current restaurant. And they believe there's a mona there that's radiating strong and that we have a responsibility to honor it by preserving and evolving that legacy. That's the story. Well, you know, those, I mean, Orchids restaurant, I absolutely love it, as well as La Mer. I think La Mer is like the greatest restaurant in Hawaii. Now, why do you think La Mer and Orchids are just so popular? Well, you know, they were great well before I ever arrived. And I found that in iconic institutions, the mission of the leader is based on one thing to understand quite clearly. No matter what I do, no matter what I can contribute, I don't know how long I'll be here. But I do know one thing is Orchids and La Mer will be here longer than me. And so my responsibility is to steward them, not to manage them. And that staff are smart people. They'll let it resonate and sing for themselves. So you empower these people and guide them and let them know what the vision is, the end game, as you say. And they really, really do it. But I think the setting is gorgeous. But I think at the end of the day, it partly is the legacy I described a moment ago with the Lewis legacy. But more so, it's about the staff. And what we do with training them is say, you know, it's not about what. It's about why. And it's easy to tell someone, teach them how to open a bottle of wine. But why is it important to do it well and be discreet and respectful of the people at the table? Why did those people come to dinner tonight? And that's a discussion that we have with them, where there's no fixed answer or end. And at the end of the night, we sit down together and say, what happened tonight? You know, who ate what, who was happy, who wasn't? And then we continually second guess ourselves in that culture of excellence. So I give it to the staff. They love the place and they treat it as their own. I completely agree with you, Peter. And how has the luxury hotel industry changed over the past decade? Wow, well, especially, you know, especially obviously in the last two to three years, we're in year three of COVID-19, right? So I would say in the last two years, it changed more than in the last 20 years. I think the industry became complacent globally, like many others, in the sense that people will travel, people will come no matter what. And what we found out is that even in iconic institution, we saw many fold around the world in different industries over the years, the recent months, everyone's vulnerable. So we should never assume, you know, we take the attitude, I'm a New Yorker, so I'll use the Yankees in a positive way. I'm sorry to the Boston folks, but you know, you can sit in an iconic institution, you say, well, Yankee Stadium, it's always gonna be here. You never should assume that. You know, you've got to be on your game and as they say on Broadway, you're as good as your last performance, the show can close. So we think that the industry is more tuned into people's safety, but as an imperative, not as an alluring tactic of marking. What does the customer really want? And as an old mentor of mine once said, remember, Peter, they're never really paying for the room. And that shocked me. I thought, what are you talking about? That's our whole job is to get them to pay for a room and as much as possible. And it's not true. They're paying for what they can't at home. Why would a billionaire who has a 60-bedroom estate and more staff than I have, why would they return to Halakalani every single year? Because there's something there that they can't buy. And that is that total ethos of the experience of the hotel. And it's the same at Jalapuna across the street, if that makes sense. No, it really does. And you're right. We can never take anything for granted. And Halakalani is known for having superior service and superior standards. Now, how do you keep that consistency going? That comes back to the why conversation because as you indicated earlier, things change, like our industry changes. Travelers have changed. You and I know this. And anyone listening knows our individual priorities and desires as a traveler have completely changed. And maybe COVID eventually gets tamed to some degree. But the reality is we're living in a different era in a different world now. So what it takes is just simply ask the customers what they want. For all the automation, all the technology, this belief, particularly in the United States, that technology is the solution, the future, and the answer, so to speak, I think is a really imbalanced paradigm. And we're in the business of serving human beings. So if technology can be harnessed to further enhance that experience, then that's great. But we've always said at the end of the day at Halakalani, we're not about high tech. We're about high touch. And we never really want to lose that. Well, Halakalani, I mean, the location and the views are absolutely spectacular. And how do you enhance the experience of your guests? Like you said earlier, I mean, some of them are billionaires. And they're not just coming there for the room, but how do you enhance their experience? So we used to think, not just myself or us, but the entire industry until recent years, that it was all about the hotel. They're coming to Hotel X. And they must want what's in the hotel. So let's get them in the restaurants, the bars, the entertainment, the library, the lobby, the spa, the room, and there's your cycle, the retail. And what we've realized is hotels have changed and that it's smarted to take an approach that you're gonna get that business from them if they're there, because they trust you. So they'll try your other amenities. You'll be okay. But the reality is in Waikiki, I've got 500 other restaurants right outside the door. People want to use a hotel room as a home base now to explore the area, because with more culture-based tourism they can't get that, just staying in one single building. And so instead of recognizing that and trying to cope with it, we've decided to embrace it. So many of the experiences, like our arts and culture programs, involve, for example, a compliment. If you show your Halakalani or Halapuna Ki, you have complimentary admission to the Honolulu Museum of Art, to the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra, to the Hawaii Opera Theater, to the Hawaii International Film Festival, the Lillistran House, and other partners all over the island. And you can go out and become enriched. And I think that's our goal, is that when somebody goes back, they're recharged so they can cope in this crazy world we're in today and they're enriched. So the way that they think about their life and what they can do for others is really important. At the end of your book, Beyond the Game, you know the last sentence really stuck with me because you talked about, if you finally figure out what you really want to do and you do it and it's a success, then go and help others do the same thing. And to me, that if I'm corrected in what you're saying, some people call that now service leadership, right? So if we give you tickets to the opera and you're staying at Halakalani and you go and come back and say, this was great, now I'm gonna go to dinner at La Mer. Thank you so much. We're happy about that, that you experienced it. But if your kid who's six years old says, when's the next opera sitting at that table? That's our victory. That's when we know that we inspired someone as early as possible with the humanities, with the arts, with culture, in a way that when they become a world leader somewhere someday, whatever their role may be, that they offer more value to get back to society. So it's much more than a hotel. It's a point of hopefully inspiration and that people can take that out into the individual lives that they live. Speaking of inspiration, I mean, I can feel your passion. I'm getting inspired just listening to you, Peter. And for me as a coach, I had to really inspire all of my players, my entire team. What do you do to inspire your employees? Well, the very first thing is, I think there has to be constant communication. Now, we have almost a thousand people and it would be a fantasy to think that I could ever see and talk to each one of them, if at all, as much as I ever wanted to. Sometimes the best conversations with the employees are not during the workday in the hotels where I'll run into them or come to see someone, or in the corporate office. It's in the town, it's at the market. It's at the farmer's market on Saturday. It's at the supermarket. It's at Costco, whatever the case may be. And we see each other and there's this equal playing ground, so to speak, of conversation and communication. And so we need to be talking to them and also giving them form to really listen. Do we do it perfectly? No, we always have to do it better than we're doing it today. But I think that's really, really key. And then when you have that audience and they have your audience, then there can be an exchange of ideas. The first thing is to see if there's something, they know more than me. If I'm in La Mer, they know everything going on. What do I know? Yeah, I'm a food and beverage guy, so on and so forth. But I don't know what happened last night in La Mer. They were on stage. So the best thing I can do is say, what's going on? How's it going? And it's unbelievable what you find out. And what I'm trying to overcome is that to get, I always, wherever I am, is to try and get my managers never filtered to me because I want to hear the bad news first. Tell me anything you really want me to know as long as you tell me respectfully. Because managers, when they manage up, have a tendency to tell the boss everywhere what they want you to know. And I want to know what I don't know. So with that open mind, I think you stay young and you can continue the institution avoids getting stagnant. Well, I like hearing your insights there, Peter. And you know, you and I, we've been on teams before, whether it be in sports or business, and we know what the leader does that was good or not so good. What do you feel are some of the key things that the greatest leaders do? You know, it's funny because you, in your teaching and your speaking, I know you talk, this is interesting to me in particular, you talk about character, but that's really, I gotta stop right there, I gotta start there and stop there for a minute because this is really, really huge. So not just for a person's character, but if you talk about Hala Kalani or Hala Pune, you know, hotels are like people. They have certain characters. Now, some people are dynamic. Other people may be great people, but maybe they need a personality pill. You know, so for example, I remember watching a tennis championship years ago and whoever the big number one was at the time won the tournament, I think it was US Open years ago. And I thought, my friend said, you know, how come you're not clapping harder? This was, he was amazing. And I said, because he, I can't get excited about him. He seems just nice, not very interesting to me even when he's interviewed. And I thought he is a wonderful technical player, but who is it that evolves the sport? If I'm correct, it's the guys. Sometimes the guys, we don't like their behavior. We don't have to name names, right? But over the years, it's those fireballs. I remember seeing Jimmy Connors once in New York and I went back and I worked twice as hard the next day because every single time this guy hit the ball, it was like the last swing he was ever going to take. You could hear it in his voice, right? So I think character is really, really huge. And I think that speaks to this integrity issue where, you know, today it's funny, you know, business people, they take classes or they read books and what they're looking for is technique. They're trying to figure out, I want some more tools from my toolbox to make me a better leader. And I actually think that that second base and first base has to be, we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and say, and forget about the workplace. But when we're home in the morning at night is look and say, you know, who am I? If I had to, what's that expression if you had to write your obituary today? Well, the truth, what would you say? It's scary. And so I think the thing, I start by doing that and I have an old teacher who said to me, you will never be able to look at yourself in the face with a straight face in a mirror for one minute. And you know what, at this day, I still can't do it. You start to look away because you see the parts you don't like. And so this is this integrity test and I think that that just comes down to the inspiration for your staff has to come from. They can read it like a book. I come from New York and we all think in New York, oh, you know, it's the fastest place on earth and we're quicker than everybody. And it's just not true. I found that in Hawaii, people will read you in 90 seconds in New York after 90 days, you can say, how's a new boss? And they say, that's early. He's only been here 90 days, not sure yet. That doesn't happen here. So even if they don't agree with you here on a point of operation of business at all, they still know whether you're being honest with them with what you're saying. And I think that that is the first thing, just be truthful and be yourself. And then people will accept you and then you can really work with them. But the integrity issue today in business, I think it's overlooked because everyone's looking for, you know, some quick fix. It's very American, honestly, in a way. I travel all around the world all the time. And this is a very American thing. I love the country, but there's this idea in business that if you get, oh, I just found something and it'll fix me, it'll make me a great leader or I just found a new diet and I'm gonna lose 10 pounds. But they don't ask themselves, why do you even wanna lose 10 pounds? Well, maybe that's a good thing, maybe you're overweight. But if it's because you're vain and it's vanity, you might wanna just be nicer to people. And so on. So those are just my initial scattered thoughts on that topic. Well, I love hearing your scattered thoughts and how you said about character and you're right about Jimmy Connors. I like your examples, Peter. And Peter, I feel so honored that you like my books and what are some things, you mentioned some already, but what are some things that really stood out to you in the books? I'll tell you the biggest one for me, honestly, to just jump straight out of me. Well, there were two things. This is the part of it for me and I kind of would work backwards and frame other things that you talk about in the books. You talked about mastering your mindset and this word mindset, it's just huge. I think it might have been Carl Jung, the psychiatrist who said a hundred years ago or more, you know, we have a thousand different ways that we can react to any situation and it sounds a little uninteresting or obvious. But what he's saying is that, you know, I mean someone can come up to you in the morning and they can say good morning and you could say nothing or you could say morning or you could say good morning or you could say, how are you? Or you could say, can I help you with anything today? I mean, if you think about anyone watching this who works with a bunch of people in an office, ask yourself two things. What is, when is the last time anyone, no, maybe I'm wrong, maybe they did it today. When's the last time anyone came to your office at the end of the day, knocked on the door and said, hey, I'm going home, anything I can do for you before I go home? And when's the last time you ever went to anybody else's door before you went home and said, I'm going home, but can I do anything to help you? We just tend not to even do that. So master a mindset, if one adapts a mindset to say, for example, you know what, I'm gonna be more helpful to people than just myself. I'm gonna be more selfless than selfish. You know, that could change the world and certainly yourself and your level of happiness. Now, I do not profess to be expert at this at all. I fail all the time, but the mindset issue raises something that I really ask our managers to do, be introspective. You know, when you're talking to people who you realize that just the reason that you think they're stubborn is because they really don't ask themselves, how am I appearing right now? You know, how do I sound? When some people start to talk to me when there's a crisis like the pandemic first hits where there's a tsunami coming or an earthquake. When I have my team in the room, I know what the things they're gonna talk about. So I have my six operations guys and they're gonna talk to me about the seawall and the furniture and the guests and the staff and it's all very important, the city, the fire department. But when I once I know what they're gonna be saying, I turn off my ears and I actually just watch them like a silent video because what I'm looking for is the behavior. I'm looking at the body language. What I'm looking for one thing and this came up to me, you hit this in your book straight on when you said ignore the doubters. This is the biggest advice anybody can get in their life, I think, is that what I'm managing a lot of the time and what we're managing in business is we're not managing the business. We think we're in hotels, we're managing hotels. We think we're in finance, so we're managing money. We're actually managing people and we're managing fear because we're all scared. It's human nature, animals are the same. So if you start watching them and see who's scared and why, then you can put the audio back on and now they're talking about the front of the hotel and I can jump in but some guys are scared in emergency, they go through denial. Ah, the tsunami's not gonna hit us. That means they're scared. Okay, never gonna happen, hasn't happened in 20 years. Wishful thinking. Panic, running out the door. I hired the wrong guy. But ignoring the doubters, if I can just touch that for a second more directly, it was an affirmation to me. When I have a new idea and I toss it to my team, I put it out there, I wanna know what they think. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's not a good idea. But when I have a new idea and they shoot holes through it here and there, I actually, but not that badly. I actually abandon the idea most times. If they really try to kill it, like across the board, oh, boss, this is a really bad idea. Nobody ever did that before and blah, blah, blah, blah. If they do that, then I go for it, unleashed. The reason is they're scared. And the reason is they're scared is because it must be breaking new ground and that makes us all nervous and uncomfortable. So that's when I say do it, let's do it now. And I tell them, I know behind my back you guys think maybe you like me but you think I'm crazy and here's my answer. I am crazy and that's why I got this job because the investors know that they cannot let an institution just sit as it was. We're 104 years old now, 104 years old. So 105 years old, just 22. And you cannot rest on your laurels and your reputation. You've got to be relevant to the contemporary traveler in our case. So that's the type of energy and come back to your word mindset. Can we all just get in that mindset that we're far from perfect, that we make mistakes every day, but that we have ideas and if you're a doubter, maybe it makes the idea scares you because it's new. So let's just dive into the plunge pool into the ice water together. And otherwise, you know, I never get paid. I never consider myself working because I feel like I'm getting paid to have fun. The day it turns into work, I quit. Oh, Peter, you know, everything you said there makes total sense. I mean, it's just, it's so good to hear these things from you. And Peter, your other hotel, Halepuna, I really love the Halepuna as well. Well, what's the biggest thing that you really love about Halepuna? Well, you know, it's funny that, you know, the translation is roughly a house of welcoming waters and it sits above the sacred stream, the cavea-vea stream that goes also under the Halakalani spa and out near the pool into the sea. And if you look at an aerial shot or you know that aerial well, if you know the pop surf break right there, you know that there's this bright green band of water going out into the blue ocean water right there. And that is that fresh water that the royals enjoyed and their sojourns to Waikiki in the summers, you know, hundreds of years ago. And we really want to respect and honor that. And we think that's right where Halepuna is. So that's got the mana of, if we allow it to, if we surrender to that energy and allow ourselves to live and breathe that, that's where it starts to pulse in that hotel. Second thing is we cross train, so that staff has the same service ethic as in Halakalani. And I think that it's got a contemporary touch and energy. It's a sister hotel to Halakalani. So we're sort of like a family and those are our kids and each one's different and unique. So it's a little bit of, it's a little bit of apple and orange there, but people who do stay at Halapuna say, I can feel the interrelationship with Halakalani, but it's unique to itself. So that's what it has to offer. And we're really proud that out of the gate, right before COVID in its first year, it won both the Travel and Leisure and both the Continas Traveler Best Resort in Hawaii commendations, the awards by Readers Pulse that year. This year was wonderful for 2022. Halakalani has won the Travel and Leisure, you know, for Best Resort in Hawaii. And so now we've got these two kids in our house who rival each other a little bit, but that's a healthy environment, right? It must be like players, two good players on a team, right? No, it's exactly like that. And you're so right. I mean, I love both hotels, the Halakalani and Halapuna. And Peter, I could do a two hour show with you. I mean, your insights, I can really see why you're successful and you're such a great leader. And I really wanna thank you for taking time to be on the show today. Oh, you bet. Listen, it's my pleasure. And I hope if there's just one idea we kicked out together that can change things for somebody and that's helpful to someone out there now or next generation or both, then I'm honored to have been a small part of that. Oh, definitely. Thanks, Peter. Thank you, Rusty. 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 Peter and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.