 Hi, I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines. We are broadcasting live from the beautiful Think Tech Hawaii TV studio in the Pioneer Plaza in downtown Honolulu. This show is based on my book which is also titled Beyond the Lines and it's about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence and building winning teams. Today's special guest is an outstanding leader and the general manager of KHON2. She is Christina Lockwood and today we are going beyond the news. Hey, Christina. Hi, Rusty. How are you? Great. And, you know, last year I felt so happy to be a guest speaker for your sales and marketing team. We were the lucky ones to have you share your wisdom with our team, so thank you so much. Oh, but you bought books for everybody too. Yeah. Of course, of course. I want to ask you, Christina, about your early years. Tell me about that. Well, so I was born in the Philippines and I lived there for like a year and then my parents, we lived in Chicago until I was about 12 and moved to Hawaii. And so when we got here, I was at St. Francis and then I ended up at Kaiser, which is my alma mater, so I graduated from Kaiser. Very proud to be a Kaiser grad and a public school product and had a great childhood growing up and love Hawaii and love everything here and have obviously made my career and life here. So what kind of activities did you do when you were growing up here in Hawaii? Well, the beach was probably the biggest activity, right? Just going to the beach, hang out with lots of friends and a lot of socialization, probably too much socialization back then, but that, you know, that type of thing. Yeah. And then what college did you go to? Was it HPU? Well, I graduated from HPU. Okay. So I kind of took a roundabout way, but I went to school on the mainland for a year and it wasn't a good fit for me, so I came home. I wasn't really ready to be away at school and eventually I worked for a while and eventually went back to school, went to HPU, to their night school and it was amazing. It was such an awesome opportunity for me to be able to work and go to school and this is before online classes, right, so you actually had to physically go. And so anyway, I had a good experience there and finally eventually graduated, so that was really exciting. And you have two sons. I do. What principles are you trying to instill in your two sons? Well, a lot of principles. I think the first one is to do the right thing and be a good person and always go to bed at night knowing that you've done good for the day. So that's probably the first thing. It starts there. And the second is just really around hard work because I think no matter what you want to accomplish in life and what you do, you have to work hard and nothing is going to be handed to you. You have to go out and get it and work for it and make sacrifices and it can be painful and it can be hard, but it can definitely be worth it. Well, you definitely know a lot about hard work and sacrifice and success, of course. Now your parents, Christina, what did you and your sisters and your brother learn most from your parents? I think a lot of it was the hard work. I think it was also the teamwork of just our family and kind of working together. And I look at other families that I know and I have such an amazing relationship with my sisters and my brother. Like, they are my best friends in all the world and they are my mentors. One of my sisters owns a business and I talk to her all the time about business and she teaches me stuff all the time. And I feel so fortunate for that. And I just think my parents were really, they really focused on family first and encouraged us to really continue that relationship from when we were little to obviously now as a adult. Now, Christina, everybody now knows you as the famous general manager. Not famous. Not famous. Now, when you were really, really young, what did you want to be when you grew up? So when I was young, I can remember telling my mom, I think I was in eighth grade and it came up, what do you want to be when you grow up? And so I was, you know, eighth grade, maybe I was in ninth grade and I told her I wanted to be the next Katie Couric. And so she was very, I think her, both she and my dad, they really valued education and they didn't, I don't know that they thought that that was a great career. Anyway, they told me, that is so hard, why would you choose something so hard? You should choose something else. And then now, of course, I work in TB and it's just kind of ironic. So, yeah. I love the irony. Now you're ultimately helping many Katie Couric's in a way. Yeah. Definitely. Now let's talk about Bobby for a little bit. He's a great guy and how does he support you in your relationship with him? Well, he's so incredible and just a great support to me. I work really hard and spend a lot of time at work and it can be consuming, but he is just a great person to spend time with and to do fun things and also he can kind of talk through my work challenges and kind of give me a different perspective, which I really appreciate and have really grown to appreciate his kind of wisdom and advice and he's been a good partner to me. Yeah, no, I'm lucky that I got to meet him maybe about two years ago. Now, Christina, how did your career officially get started? So, I had gone off to college for a year. I was 18 years old and came back a year later and moved home and my parents were, I mean they were so disappointed. They thought going to college was a must and if I didn't graduate from college that I would never amount to anything and they were really hard on me. So, anyway, I came back and I just wanted a break. So, I applied for a job at mid-week. That was probably the start of my career. I was 19 years old and it was for a sales account executive role. I did not know what that meant at the time and I had the fortune of meeting a wonderful lady, Diane Pereira, who was my boss then and my friend and mentor up to now, 30 years later, and she gave me a chance. And I actually, I didn't get the job when I first applied. They hired somebody else and I guess the person that they hired didn't work out and so they called me back a couple weeks later and so I went back in and their offices in Kaneohe, I went back and they said, okay well we want to offer you the job and you know we'll give you a chance and they did and they not only gave me a chance but they gave me the time and the training to really be successful. So, I worked really hard but they worked really hard to develop me and I will always appreciate that. So, after mid-week, what evolved after that? So, basically from there, I had a client, the House of Adler, okay I'm totally aging myself, but our client at the House of Adler was, said, you know, Christina you should go work in TV. I'll introduce you to the GM at PGMB and so this was in the mid-90s and so anyway he introduced me to Dick Grimm, who ended up hiring me as an account executive a few months later and so when I left mid-week I was, it was, I always said it was sort of like getting a divorce because I was so sad to leave and I remember driving home over the pulley and just literally crying because it was like my family and I was leaving them and they had taught me so much and I had learned so much. It was such a great culture, I learned so much in that time that I was there and I feel like having that great culture and that great team is what you aspire for in your career and now as a leader, what I'm responsible for creating at KHON and so anyway I learned a lot from that and then obviously started at KGMB and continued on the path. So, Christina, when did you first have a leadership position? So, I ended up, from KGMB I was there for five years, I ended up at KITV and I was promoted as the National Sales Manager. So, yeah, so I handled all of our business on the mainland for KITV back then and then eventually I got, I was recruited to come to KHON. So, I worked at KHON and KGMB, they were owned by MS and I was the National Sales Manager for both of those stations but they were going to sell so they ended up selling KHON first and I was supposed to stay with KHON but they asked me to be the General Sales Manager for KGMB so I thought about it and I was like, okay, I'll do it and so I stayed back at KGMB and was there for a few years until I eventually went to the mainland. Now, you mentioned one of your mentors earlier. Who else really helped you through your career during that point? Well, I would say that I've had so many mentors. I mean, I think that is such a critical part of being successful, is finding people who have done it before or who can give you really good advice, who really want the best for you but also are willing to tell you the tough stuff about what you need to do to get it done and what those next steps need to be. So, as far as who would be, I think I would say, first off, my parents would be one. They're totally mentors even though they had different values as far as education, they really wanted me to do well and so they mentored me, I think, from when I was young. And then, I have a boss in San Diego, her name is Fran Mallis, and so I worked for her at Clockpedia and she was incredible. She taught me so much about relationships and building those relationships with your team and with your clients and how important that is to understanding what people's goals are and really getting to know them and be able to work well together and bring out the best in others and the best in yourself. Yes, speaking of relationships, I know a lot of your anchors at KHON too and they all absolutely love you. They said that, you know, as a general manager, you're the best. And, I mean, they care for you because they know that you care so much about them. Now, tell me about your, I mean, how popular and how amazing a lot of your anchors are. Well, I could go on and on, so I won't, but they're amazing. They work so hard and we've just launched some additional newscasts. We launched a four o'clock news, we launched a seven o'clock news, we launched and we expanded our nine o'clock news, but we're doing 47 hours of news a week and it is all on our newsroom that is doing that. And the reporters and anchors are out there every single day. Our goal is to serve the people of Hawaii and, you know, serve our viewers. Our tagline is working for Hawaii and that's something we all do every single day. I know you had a picture of Joe Moore a few minutes ago and Joe is, you know, Joe is the epitome of KHON. He's been with our station for decades. He's been number one at six for decades and continues to be and has been a tremendous leader in the newsroom. And really, I think, has really helped to instill the importance of journalism and getting the story, getting the fact, making sure that we're right and that we do it the right way. And I really believe he's been a tremendous part of our foundation in the newsroom. And we've added so many amazing additional talents to our team. In the last few years, I've been the GM for six years, so, you know, we have Howard and we have Bridget Namada and Justin Cruz and Gina Manjari and just a ton of amazing, talented individuals who brought so much heart to their positions. Yeah, totally agree. I mean, Joe Moore is such a legendary guy and he's inspired so many other news anchors to be better. Now, what do you think, Christina, is one of your most proudest accomplishments as GM of KH1 too? Well, I think there's a lot. I mean, I think as I look back on the last few years, I'm really proud that we've been able to cover the important stories in our state. So last summer, we had those hurricanes that almost hit us. Do you remember? Yeah. And we were basically the only station in the market that was live 24-7 as those storms were coming. And I think what makes me proud is that our people were so committed to the viewers. And then when the storms passed, what we saw was the viewers were bringing us food. They were bringing us lays. They were calling, emailing. Schools were having their classrooms send us notes. It was so overwhelming and just I have never seen anything like it. And that was a very proud moment because it made me feel like what we are doing makes a difference. And so I'm proud of our team for working so hard and accomplishing that. And they do it every single day. Yeah. No, you definitely have such a great team that's, you know, I mean, that everybody loves. I mean, I watch you guys all the time. I mean, it's fantastic. Thank you. Now, news and technology, I mean, it just has evolved rapidly. How are you keeping current? Well, the media landscape has changed dramatically. And I think right now it's so important for us as a news organization to be 24-7. So we have a great app, K202, and we also have our website, K202.com. So we are live streaming all of our newscasts, all of our local content is there on the web as it's happening. And, you know, people, you know, get push alerts all day long about what's happening in the marketplace so they can stay in touch. And I think that has made a major difference for us. And we're continuing to evolve as the market continues to change. Yeah, that's definitely a challenge to stay on. Now, Christina, we're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we're going to continue going beyond the news. Okay. Thank you. You are watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest, Christina Lockwood. We will be back in a quick minute. Aloha. I'm Cynthia Sinclair. And I'm Tim Appachella. We are hosts here at Think Tech Hawaii. A digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness in Hawaii. We are a Hawaii non-profit that depends on the generosity of its supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you'd go to thinktechhawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Thanks so much. Aloha. I'm Gwen Harris, the host here at Think Tech Hawaii. A digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness in Hawaii. We are a Hawaii non-profit that depends on the generosity of the supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you'd go to thinktechhawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Thanks so much. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. Today's special guest is an outstanding leader and the general manager of KHON2. She is Christina Lockwood, and today we are going beyond the news. Christina, as general manager, what's some of your biggest challenges that you're dealing with right now? Well, I don't know that I see them as challenges. I see them more as opportunities. So I think right now we just added a new station, Kahai, and so we're looking, we basically added new content as far as local news and we're launching some new shows. We have a new show coming up starting in May called Modern Wahine, Hawaii with Berkeley. So we're really excited about that. It's on Sunday nights at 7. But basically really just trying to create a new station in this marketplace and driving viewers there and extending our KHON2 news brand across all three of our stations because we also have another station called the Hawaii CW. Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, it's amazing how you keep outdoing what you've done. I mean, you just find ways to be better and it's good to take risks like that as well. Now, you're a big supporter of my book. I am. Thank you so much. I love your book and our team loved your book. It was very... What did you guys like about it? So I think for me, my biggest takeaway was your ability as a leader to have everyone work together and work toward the same goal and really focus on the team's success, not an individual's success. And I find that in our organization that's also really important. And you did that a nice talk for our sales department. And I think for that group, it was really inspiring to see how each person contributes to the whole and how you were able to do that with your tennis team and how it's the same principle at work as it is in sports. And there's so many correlations there. And I think just learning that from you and taking that knowledge and utilizing that on a daily basis to make sure that every member of our team is pulling their weight, doing their part and supporting each other, that is so critical to our success. Yeah, I totally agree. Now I want to ask you something, Christina. Why are you successful? Well, I think a couple things. One, I'm super driven. Like I will work harder than anyone. If someone wants something, I will do everything I can to get it. And I'm not afraid of hard work. And sometimes to my detriment because I've sometimes worked maybe too hard, but really just going all in and being 100% committed and knowing that if I focus and do everything I can for whether it's to support a client, whether it's to help our newsroom, whether it's to whatever it is, really giving my all, that that will in turn help everyone. You know what I get from you is I get that you just have a relentless perseverance to achieve great things. Yes, I do. I don't know that I have it to achieve it for myself. I feel like it's more about serving others and helping others to be successful too because I feel that gives me the most gratification, if you will. So I do like I'm totally willing to work hard and do all of that. But I also want to help others and I think that's a really important part of being successful because you can't be successful on your own. You really have to, you know, support other people and help them to be successful. And the light usually will shine back on you as well. It's all about helping others. I mean, it just makes the world a better place. True. Now, what's something, Christina, that was the biggest challenge that you have to overcome in your life? Well, again, I don't know if I considered a challenge, but I would say an opportunity. Okay. So I moved to San Diego in 2007 and I had taken a job with media. And it was the title was Local Sales Manager. So we were selling, doing ad sales in San Diego for the cable company. Anyway, I was there and I didn't know a single person in the market and pretty much walked into that town. It's a very close knit marketplace just like Hawaii and was able to really build those relationships with our team internally and throughout the company as well as with clients in the market. And it was a really great learning opportunity and such a good growth opportunity for me. I really appreciated it. It was so hard to kind of restart and do everything that you've done already all over again in a new place with new people. But I just jumped right in and I feel like it was a really good accomplishment. And when I moved away six years later, I feel like I still have relationships there and connections there with people who are so meaningful to me and who have really invested in me and who I've invested in and who I'll be forever friends with. Well, so that was scary just to make a move up there without knowing anybody. You have no fear. Oh, I have fear. I do. Now, your favorite baseball team because of that experience was the San Diego Padres. Yeah. So tell me about that. So while I was at Cox, we were the broadcast partner for the San Diego Padres. Okay. And so we did all of their games. They had 80 home games and 80 away games and we televised all of them. I didn't know anything about baseball when I moved to San Diego. I hadn't even been to a professional baseball game in my life. And so part of our sales effort was really understanding what you sell. So I went to all the games. I learned all the players. I really dug into it. And in that time, I also found a great appreciation for the business behind baseball and understanding the ticket sales, understanding ad sales, understanding the promotions and all that went with that. So anyway, I decided at some point that I was going to leave Cox and go try to get a job with the Padres. So I went in and I knew a lot of the upper management there. So I interviewed and I got really far in that interview process. Anyway, I didn't end up getting the job. You didn't get it. I was so heartbroken. It was devastating. And but at the same time, looking back on it now, it it made me focus and appreciate what I had, which was working at my current company at Cox. And in that role, I was able to shortly thereafter, there was a job opportunity for me to get promoted. And I ended up getting promoted to director of sales for California for Cox. And had I not done that, I would not have had the experience to be able to come back to Hawaii as GM. So it actually worked out for the best. And I do believe that sometimes in life, there are things you want and you put everything you can into it and you don't get for whatever reason. But it takes you on a different path. That's the right path. And that sort of ended up leading me back home. And so I am forever grateful for the job I didn't get. Wow, that's fascinating. Now, Christina, as a leader, what do you feel are the most important character traits of a successful leader? Well, I think the first one is to genuinely know your people and care about your people and understand what's important to them. I think that's really key. And then I also think that hard work is you can't beat hard work. You know, people who are willing to do the job and to come in and do everything they can to be successful. I respect that. I admire that. And I think that's critical for anyone wanting to succeed in life and in business. Yeah. No, empathy, hard work. I mean, those are so necessary. Integrity, ethics. I mean, you have all of those things. That's fantastic. Now, what do you feel are the most valuable piece of advice that you've ever gotten in your life? Well, I've gotten a lot of advice. Okay. Yeah. So I would say one of the things that I've learned is that you are the sum of the five or six people you spend the most time with. And so if you're around people who are negative, complaining, bitter, angry, unproductive, you're going to be just like them. But if you put yourself in a situation where you're with people who are positive, who are forward thinking, who are driven, who want the same things you want, then it helps to spiral you towards that as well. And that has been a real takeaway for me. I like to help people, but I also know that my inner circle needs to be with people who are like-minded. And that has helped me to be successful. And I think I encourage other people to also find a mentor. Having a good mentor is so critical because if they care about you, they'll give you advice that will lead you in the right direction. And that has been really helpful to me. Yeah, no, I like those insights. And you're completely right about, you know, being with positive people, it becomes contagious. But if you're with negative people, I mean, that becomes contagious in the wrong way. Definitely. How do you keep bettering yourself as a leader? What do you do? Well, so on my way to work, it's a long drive. I do listen to the books that on the way to and from work. And that has made an incredible difference for me on my focus. So there was a time when I wasn't doing that. And more recently, that has helped me to be, to really kind of come to work with a different approach and just to have a lot more clarity about what I want to do in the day. So that has really helped me. I also think just having a goal every year, so like a few years ago, it was a goal around public speaking, which I'm okay at public speaking, but I was never great at it. So I joined a Toastmasters class and honestly, you know, it was a great learning for me and watching everyone and also forcing myself to do it really helped me. So that was a few years ago this year. It's really about me being more public and being out there. Hence this show. Normally I would say, no, thank you. I'm too busy because I don't really like to be on camera. That's why I'm behind the scenes. But I do think it's important and I do want to share my message if it can reach someone. Yeah, no, that's great. And Cristina, before we wrap, I want to ask you one more thing. What's some words of wisdom that you would share to others? What's some valuable piece of advice? Well, I think it's just believe in yourself. So I look back on my career and I don't know that I don't know that I ever thought I'd be sitting in my current role and I'm really proud of our station and what our team has accomplished. But having this role is also a big responsibility. So I don't know that I ever thought that I was going to take on this in the future, but now that I have, I feel like if you can believe in yourself and focus on what you want and work hard and take the steps, take action, you can do it. And you just have to, it starts there. Completely agree because I always say when the odds are against you, you never bet on the odds, you always bet on yourselves. Absolutely, 100%. I know you're a great leader and appreciate you being on the show today, Cristina. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Thank you. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKawori.com. And my book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all Costco stores in Hawaii. I hope that Cristina and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.