 Hi, I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines. I'm very grateful that I'm able to feature such a wide spectrum of truly amazing guests who inspire all of us to be better in making a positive impact in society. We are here right now broadcasting live from the beautiful Think Tech Hawaii TV studio in the Pioneer Plaza in downtown Honolulu. This show is based on my book also titled Beyond the Lines and it's about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence and finding greatness. Today's special guest is the extremely popular radio DJ on Star 101.9 and he is one of the best marketing directors in the state of Hawaii. He is Flash Hansen and today we are going beyond radio. Hey Flash. Great to see you. Now you've been making such an impact in Hawaii for decades. Right? A couple years, couple years, yeah, yeah, 20 years or so. Now Flash, I want to ask you, where did you grow up at and raised in Hawaii? And what schools did you go to? Ina Haena, New Valley, Kalani, Ankeizer, both and UH. And you played any sports during those years? I played baseball growing up. I played a lot of baseball until I found skateboards. So then from my, I played baseball through my freshman year and then I switched to skating. And at what college did you end up going to? UH, but I, as many self-starting busy people do, I ended up dropping out I think after three semesters and never went back. Really? Yeah. And yet you're so successful today. Right? Sure. Yeah. You know, in hindsight, I probably would have liked to have stayed in college or maybe not stayed in college. I think getting out when I did and doing what I did was what was meant to be. But I think if you have the time to go back when you were an actual adult knowing what it is you're actually interested in and going back and taking classes, not even necessarily for a degree, but I think that would be a good thing to do. It's something I've actually still, even to this day, think about, I'll never do it because I'm just too insanely busy, but like in a perfect world, I think I would do that. Yeah. Just for learning. I mean, knowledge is power. Correct. Now, Flash, I want to ask you what was the first job that you ever had in your life? Like many kids, I had a paper route. Oh, nice. Yeah. I think I was 12, 11 or 12, like seventh, eighth grade. Okay. Yeah. Was it fun? I lived in Wile Ike. That's a crazy ridge. Yeah. And I had to walk a mile down through the route with the 50 papers and then walk back up to my house. So in hindsight, it was fantastic exercise. Yeah. And I've got the calves to prove it to this day, but yeah, it was tough. I mean, I was never, I'm not big now and I was definitely like a scrawny little kid and to have this newspaper bag with 50 papers in it was like that thing weighed as much as I did. It was very hard work, but I really liked it. And since then, Flash, you've had a ton of jobs. Can you tell me the types of jobs that you had and what places you worked at? I started out as a busboy at Hot Rod Cafe, which was owned by David Shutter and Fred Palusso, two kind of big 80s nightlife guys, business owners, and Hot Rods was, I mean, they would hate for me to say this, but it was like a stew to bakers rip off. Yeah. I started out as a busboy there, then became a bar back, bar back at some other spots around town. And after bar backing for about a year became a bartender. And that's, those days is where I got my nickname that's obviously still stuck. And I'm definitely a lot slower than I used to be. You're still flash to me. That name isn't as applicable as it used to be, but yeah, you know, I bartended all over town and I, it's weird now because for a very long time, people knew me as this bartender. And I mean, I bartended everywhere. I bartended at Pure Platinum, which then became totally titanium. You guys know what I'm talking about. The Jungle, Hula's, Blue Zebra was where I really made a name for myself, World Cafe. And then I opened my own nightclub when I was 24 and bartended there as well, 1739. Wow. Geez, a lot of places. Yeah. So I came up as a bar guy. I mean, that's, that was kind of my, that's, that's my foundation and was really the bread and butter of how I made my money. So in terms of bartending, what are some dos and don'ts for customers? Great question, Rusty. I'm glad you asked this. Number one tip, always tip, even if the service isn't great, you want to tip when you're walking up to a bar, when it's busy, have your money or your credit card out already and know what you want to order. You know, what's the worst thing is when you have a busy bar and the guy finally acknowledges you or the lady and they go, Hey, Rusty, what do you want? And you go, Oh, it's like, dude, you've been standing there for 10 minutes, like have your order ready, have your money ready and just be, you know, be nice. You know, the biggest thing when I was bartending is, is I always say you see people at their worst in nightlife. You know, you've had a long week, you've worked really hard, you're, you're going and blowing off some steam, you've had a few drinks. It's kind of a perfect storm for people to be at their douchiest. And when you're working, you need to realize and accept that that's kind of how people are going to be. So you need to be patient with the customers. But as a customer, just be nice and be courteous. And that'll really typically go a long way. Also, when all else fails, if you're with a hot girl and you're not getting service, send her to the bar. She'll definitely get called on. I like these insights flash. Yeah. Now, let's talk about you and Maddie Boy. You guys ran some of the best parties to affect Honolulu's nightlife for many, many years. Why did you guys start that and how did you guys connect? So originally I was, after my nightclub closed, I went and became, and this is obviously the shortened version of the story, I became the Promotions and Marketing Director for Wave Waikiki. Yeah. So I would call the Studio 54 of Hawaii and it was open for 26 years, incredibly successful club, and they turned over the marketing position to someone who'd never done anything like that before. I was a bartender. Even though I owned my own nightclub, I was the bar manager of the nightclub and I wasn't on the marketing or promotion side. I knew the bar. I didn't know anything else. The owner of the Wave Jack Law, my mentor to this day, he's just an amazing magical person, super sharp. You should definitely have him on the show. He saw something in me that I certainly didn't see in myself, made me the Promotions and Marketing Director. I did that for several years. I always had people working for me and eventually over time I had a full-time assistant position open. I actually hired Maddie Boy before I even met him. I was friends with his brother and he said, Tim was his name, Tim said, hey, my little brothers is coming for the summer. I know you're always looking for workers. Do you have anything? At the time, I would pay anybody $7 an hour to paint the Wave black because the Wave was this giant black box and it always needed to be repainted black and pull out staples from the walls, just grom stuff. I said, yeah, I'll hire him. Maddie worked for me for the summer. He was incredibly shy. Didn't really say much, but he was 21 or 22 at the time and I just knew there was just something about this kid that was special and different and we really got along well. He started out painting the Wave black for me and pulling out staples, which we joke about to this day, to then becoming my full-time assistant. I was doing obviously all these parties at the Wave and he would ask me all these questions constantly and this is just a really good thing for anybody in business is always get someone in the room that knows nothing about your business because the experts will tell you all the reasons why you can't do X, Y, Z, but if you have someone that doesn't know anything about it, it's that different mindset, that fresh different set of eyes on it will ask different questions, come about things in a different way and that's what Maddie did because he'd never done anything like this before and by this point I've been doing it for several years. He would ask these questions and I'd be like, you know what, I don't know why it's that way or yeah, we should do it this way, like that's right and he just got me to thinking and looking at things in a little bit different light and I just I really liked how his brain worked. I mean he's young, he's good looking, he's extremely shy but he was very charming and he had all these ideas for events and he went to his brother first who was also a promoter and his brother said, no I don't want to do events with you, that typical older brother kind of mentality and I'm like, well let's just do it together. I said I'm already doing parties here, just do a party with me, I'll put up all the money, like I'll do everything, just come in and do, Maddie was just always a very, and he is a very, very creative thinker and person and I said yeah, let's do it and we did a party together called Glitter and Glamour and it was this big fun dress-up party and we just had a blast working together. You know, you guys had a, you guys came up with such great names for your parties, I mean you guys were legendary. So thank you, I'm definitely hiring you as my publicist so you know what happened was, is Maddie and I had a run of doing events together for about eight years, all different kinds of events all over town and they were, as a general whole they were successful, I mean you always have your misses and some of the funnest, in fact probably the funnest party we ever did was a complete and utter financial failure but we just had a blast and there was a lot of parties where, what I would say is we did everything right but make money and we were never really doing it for the money, it was always we just wanted to have fun and we wanted our friends to have fun and be like oh wouldn't be cool to like create this experience kind of thing and I think that's a really pure and honest way to come about doing anything is not try to think about the end result, the end financial result, I can validate for that because I had a lot of fun at you guys' parties now, you know, for Maddie Boy he became a co-founder of BAMP and Philup and you were with BAMP for a while. Right, so Maddie and I after we were doing nightlife and parties and events for eight years we realized that we didn't want to do that forever, you know we were doing events at Pearl at the time and you know Pearl's closing at four in the morning like you get older you're like this isn't as fun as it used to be so we thought the logical step would be to open a restaurant which we then open department three together and right about this time is when BAMP also kind of really started taking off BAMP project, largest concert company in the state now, it wasn't at the time they were doing you know a handful of shows a year and apartment three open in 2009 and that's kind of when BAMP was really starting to take off doing a bunch of shows at Pipeline and all that and when Maddie started you know talking about the idea of opening what became the Republic which is there's a lack of venues in Hawaii for shows why doesn't BAMP just open their own venue and then that's the reason that the Republic is even open and Maddie and I kind of always knew that if and when the time come for BAMP to hire a marketing you know director that you know I would be that guy and I think in 2012 is when that happened so I was actually up until 2012 BAMP was just like three dudes and people don't realize how big BAMP got without any employees I was actually BAMP's first employee yeah and first full-time employee and that could only even happen because I was also the marketing and promotions director for the Republic yeah so I was I was doing I had the same job title for the concert company and for the concert venue as well it was interesting you know to look back now and see just the growth you know from that time period and now you're the extremely popular radio DJ for 101.9 star right now sure yes why why do you like doing radio right now I love to talk give me a mic and I'll talk all day I love to pontificate for sure and you know I had worked in radio before with Malekko and I you know I'm sure we'll circle back to that but you love music I love music and obviously with all the work I've done with BAMP over you know the five and a half years I was there I became very associated with marketing for specific types of things and even you know what I did before that basically entertainment marketing is something I've I've for better or worse I'm known for at this point so I heart approached me with a job opening that I didn't wasn't on my radar and I certainly wasn't looking and not only that the job opening for their you know marketing and promotions director position was available but they wanted me to actually take over Malekko spot on the radio as well and I was much more interested to be honest and being on the radio than I was of taking the real job side of it for I heart but yeah I love being on the radio I love being able to talk say whatever you want I mean you have your own TV show I'm gonna have on whoever I want I'm gonna talk about whatever I want I'm gonna ask whatever questions I want it's fun it's great and you know what everyone has to listen you know it's not like a conversation in real life where someone can you know steal the mic away from you flash we're gonna take a quick break and then when we come back we're gonna continue going beyond radio with you sounds good you are watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest Flash Hanson we will be back in 60 seconds Aloha this is Winston Welch I am your host of Out and About where every other week Mondays at 3 we explore a variety of topics in our city state nation and world and events organizations the people that fuel them it's a really interesting show we welcome you to tune in and we welcome your suggestions for shows you got a lot of them out there and we have an awesome studio here where we can get your ideas out as well so I look forward to you tuning in every other week where we've got some great guests and great topics you're gonna learn a lot you're gonna come away inspired like I do so I'll see you every other week here at 3 o'clock on Monday afternoon Aloha hey loha my name is Andrew Lening I'm the host of Security Matters Hawaii airing every Wednesday here on Think Tech Hawaii live from the studios I'll bring you guests I'll bring you information about the things in security that matter to keeping you safe your co-workers safe your family safe to keep our community safe we want to teach you about those things in our industry that you know may be a little outside of your experience so please join me because security matters Aloha welcome back to Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii my special guest today is the extremely popular radio DJ on star 101.9 and he is one of the best marketing directors in the state of Hawaii he is Flash Hansen and today we are going beyond radio Flash we're talking a little bit about the Malekko and Flash podcast how did you guys start that? In 2007 Malekko said hey I want to do a podcast with you and of course in 2007 it's like what the hell are you talking about what is that he was already on the air on star and at the time podcast you could only get them on iTunes there was you know it was like almost pre-smartphone certainly you didn't have a podcast app most people didn't know podcasts were so it was kind of a very archaic very almost beta time for podcast and we did the podcast from 07 to 09 we ended up with somewhere in the neighborhood of over 2,500 subscribers well we ended up in the top 100 iTunes comedy podcast which comedy is using that word loosely for sure but it was really Malekko's idea but we had really good chemistry I had subbed in on the radio with him a few times and we knew that we there was something between us chemistry wise and we were best friends in real life too so it's like of course you always want to do something if you can do something fun with your friends you know why not and we had these great facilities it at the time clear channel now I heart yeah so we did that for two years one of the program directors at I heart actually listened to the podcast and liked it so much that that's how we got a morning show on at the time I 94 nice and so we stopped doing the podcast because then we started we had our own morning show on the radio and we did that for a couple years as well and that was happening when apartment 3 was open as well yeah it was incredibly busy so how's how's the podcast going now currently so now you know we stopped the podcast to start the morning show and we always were like hey we want to at some point get back to the podcast or both really busy and there wasn't really an incentive to do it and we finally the stars aligned and back I think in February of last year we started it up again and again we've got these great facilities at I heart why not do it I heart has this great technology that makes it really easy to deal with podcasts on the back end and so we just started doing it again mainly because Malekko and I again have this like chemistry and it's just fun and let's just get people on and you know we have guest bartenders so now we're drinking and it's you know we joke around it's all just a ruse to get people to give us free alcohol we bring in bartenders that make us all cocktail so that every and rusty tick notes on this by the way we have cocktails there and bartenders making us drinks in real time while we're having a conversation with someone and it's worked out fantastically in the podcast now it's you know it's the most popular local I heart podcast it's getting really good traction we do it once a week on Wednesdays and we've had some really really amazing fantastic guests on it you know local celebs and of course you know I have a lot of local you know entertainment and music ties and so we're able to get some some really amazing people on the show and you know you sit and rap with them for 60 to 90 minutes as you know and you get to learn a lot more about someone who might just be guy hoggy the weather guy you know on all those memes you know you get to find out who the real person is and what makes them tick and get some insight behind the scenes of whatever you know it it is that they're doing you know it's it's similar to this show only longer and with alcohol a little funny or two flash in my book in my book beyond the lines I talk about looking forward to challenges and welcoming adversity what what's been an adversity that you dealt with in your life that you have to overcome I think for anyone that lives in Hawaii that wants to stay in Hawaii I think a general adversity that we all face is the just the ability to live here yeah if you can find a way you know to put food on the table and to pay your bills and not have to move away to do it I consider you successful and it's it's very hard to do that here and I've I've always wanted in my mind I thought success was just being able to stay here you know where my family is and said to just to be able to continue to live in in such an amazing place with just amazing people it's very difficult and that's that's a common adversity that everyone that lives here faces I like hearing that perspective and let's talk about Krista Whitmire she's someone that goes beyond the lines and or the viewers that don't know I mean she was a hugely popular radio DJ here in Hawaii she's one of your best friends and she passed away a few months ago because of cancer how did you and Krista meet ironically Malekko introduced that yeah I was doing a party I did a party called Skyline at the Honohana Room and this was before it became this you know giant beast of an event that the skyline that everyone knew this was in the early days it wasn't that busy Malekko brought Krista in and we I mean it was just like instant chemistry and I think at some point we even you know who deanied on Malekko and her and I ended up at the wave and you know we're partying till four in the morning the first night we meet we're just how we just had such an instant connection we have a very kind of similar personalities similar energy level similar optimistic outlook on life that like there was just a lot of similarities between us and we just really clicked yeah and really from that day forward you know we were best friends yeah well people also refer to her as super CW and I want to know flash why why was she so special there's many reasons why she was special and I think you know her her energy level was through the roof and her just her she just radiated positivity in a way that I've I've never really seen out of someone else before you might see it out of other people that in that way in small doses but being as close to Krista as I was we were together a lot and she I mean she that's just how she was you know all the time she was just wired that way and it's just nothing ever one of the the key things I always think about when I think about Krista and what she taught me personally was Krista saw the absolute best in everybody you could have a hundred things going on 99 of them are terrible you know you're a dick no one likes you you're mean you're all these things but she would find that one thing out of a hundred about you that was positive and she would make sure not only that you knew it but then everyone else around you knew it too and she just had this incredibly innate ability to focus on only the best qualities in people and to help bring those qualities out in those people and also let everyone else around those people know that those qualities existed in you phenomenal phenomenal and that's part of the reason why people felt so connected to her and she was so loved is because whenever she's around you she uplifts you she makes you feel better about you and she was very empowering in that way to other people and again she was just wired that way you know and she was just really good like that and she was just she was just an amazing person to be around in general she was such a hard worker she was really good at connecting people she was a connector she collected people and she connected all the people that needed to be connected together oh rusty you have a TV show you got to meet my friend flash you'd be great to be on your she just did that constantly all the time yeah now and you know flash you and Krista have such positive energy about you guys and you know Krista the last time I saw her was backstage at the Duff Leopard concert and she looks so happy I'm like Krista and she's like rusty and you know Duff Leopard is my all-time number one favorite band and it might be for Krista too because of how she looked she was I was shocked surprised and to find out she's a Duff Leopard fan as big as she was yeah and yeah it was one of her favorite bands of all time yeah and flash you know when she got diagnosed with cancer she's so brave I mean her perspective her outlook in life can you talk more about that I was with her when the in the room when they when they came back and said this is for sure cancer you know up until that point we we suspected and we knew was probably true but it's different when you hear the doctor say the actual words yeah and stage 4 cancer you know on top of that it was very hard you know she broke down and it was interesting because at first she didn't you know you have to process it and she didn't know what she was gonna do and she didn't want me to tell anybody and it took her several days to wrap her head around it but then that's when she decided not only am I gonna beat this but I'm gonna go public with my journey because there's other people going through the same thing I'm going through right now and she almost immediately recognized and this speaks to her selflessness of she she realized very quickly that others were going through what she was going through and how can I help those other people how can I use me having cancer and the platform that she had at that time you know on social media and in real life with her network and her connections she realized that this was the reason that she was put on this earth was to help guide people that were in the position that she was in and also people like me that were friends of people in that position how how can we all get through this together because it's really scary and the scariest part is the unknown you know what happens next you know with cancer there isn't really a guidebook now there is thanks to Krista because she wrote one yeah but it was incredible to see you know the bravery that that she had and I went to many doctor's appointments with her and she would say you know get your phone out and I want you to record this and I'm like I don't maybe not this time or maybe not this one thing and she would just be like no you got to film all of it because she felt it was really important to get that message out to have people see you know her being scared vulnerable so that they would feel okay to be scared and vulnerable it really really courageous I mean I even watching her go through that and all the good that it did I wouldn't be that strong to be able to do that now if I was in that position flash I appreciate you you know really sharing these insights because I mean we're all better people or knowing Krista and hopefully all the people that will watch this episode will share it with all of their friends because it's it's it's very impactful and we need more Krista's in the world and I have to say flash thank you for coming on to the show because we want more flashes in the world oh god no but I appreciate you sharing your insights about you know everything and how you're really helping impact the community in Hawaii all right well thank you thanks flash and thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii for more information please visit RustyKamori.com and my book is available on Amazon Barnes and Noble and all Costco stores in Hawaii I hope that flash and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs aloha