 I'm Rusty Komori, and this is Beyond the Lines. We broadcast live on Mondays 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 creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership, achieving greater success, and sustaining that greater success, and finding greatness. Today's special guest is Corey Correa. He is the president and executive chairman of Landmark Logistics Corporation, which is a hugely successful and very popular shipping company here in Hawaii. Corey's story of success will inspire hope in everyone searching for their greatness. Today, we are going beyond shipping. Hey, Corey. Hey, Rusty. Thank you for having me. Oh, awesome to have you here, Corey. I'm excited to be here. We've been friends for a while, and I know that you grew up in Waimanalo, but I don't really know about your early years growing up. Can you share with me about that? Sure. I was born to two 16-year-old parents. Great. Yeah, so I grew up very poor in Waimanalo. We grew up in Waimanalo Village. And the tough part about that was, I don't think we really understood how poor we were. We grew up in a welfare system. And during that time, we always had food on the table. It wasn't until I got to about seventh grade, where you kind of start getting into your youth and playing with your friends, where you kind of knew you were a little more poor than everyone else. But yeah, I wouldn't change it. It was a fun, growing up experience. So were you on food stamps? We were on food stamps. Yeah, so we had welfare assistance since I could remember. My mom never really held a full-time job, because at 21, she had three kids, 21 years old. So she raised me. She was a single mother, by the way, raised me and my two younger sisters at such a young age. And I think without the welfare system, at that time, we couldn't have gotten by. Wow, that's impressive. That's admirable about your mom. Now, what elementary school did you attend? I went to Waimanalo Elementary in Intermediate. And during that time, we had band and music class. I played youth sports in the PALE at Waimanalo Gym. And so I got to play basketball, football, baseball, soccer. And did you get into the ocean at all? I did. At such a young age, you know, that was kind of the, it's free to go to the beach, right? So my parents would be taking me to the beach every weekend. And so I started getting into bodyboarding at about seven or eight years old and entered my first bodyboarding contest in Waimanalo at around 10 years old. And you became a great bodyboarder, right, about, I mean, entering more competition. Yeah, so I did a lot of national and state events and then started doing some events on a pro tour later on in life as a teenager. And what ended up stopping that pursuit? So I ended up hurting my knee at 21 years old. So I had knee surgery and I got some bone fragments taken out. And at that point, it was the end of bodyboarding for me. So after attending elementary in Waimanalo, what high school did you attend? I went to Kailua High School. So all the kids from Waimanalo went to Kailua High School and all the kids from Kailua went to private school. So it was basically Waimanalo High School there. So all my friends I grew up with went to Kailua High School. And what kind of activities did you do at Kailua? So during my time at Kailua High School, I got more active in bodyboarding. So I never did any school activities. It was more so going to the beach. So I grew up going to Makapu and Sandy Beach with some of my older friends who were already professional body boards at the time. So I had some guys that were able to show me the way and started going to the North Shore about 16 or 17 years old and got introduced to the waves there. What college did you attend? So at about 19 years old, I think it was 19 or 20, I took a year off of going to school and after going through my bodyboarding years, I decided to put myself through college. And at that time, the only thing I could afford was working full time, which I worked at the Star Bulletin. And then they had University of Phoenix, it was an online school. First of its kind in Hawaii at that time. And so I started taking night classes to get my degree in business management. Great. After University of Phoenix, you actually said that your first job was working for the Honlu Advertiser. Yeah. How did you like that? I loved it. So I worked my way through that company. It was right when they separated from the, was Star Bulletin at the time. And they were the afternoon newspaper. So I started with, well, they merged with the midweek at that time. So I worked in the roll room where all the newspapers came out. So I started as a newspaper route person there and then kind of got into the sales portion of it and started working in their sales department in classified sales. And that's kind of where I hone my sales skills a little bit. Corey, let's talk about your family. You are the father of a new baby Harlem. So you have three kids. And can you tell me about your family, your wife, Derricka, and your three kids? Yeah. So my wife is fantastic. She's such a great mother and I work a lot and she gives me the time and makes sure that the family is taken care of so I can do my stuff at work. But yeah, she's, I've got a seven-year-old, Regan, who's my oldest, is a boy. And then I've got Victoria, who's five. And then our new addition, Harlem, who's five months now. Congratulations. You're such a beautiful family. You have to be so proud. Thank you. I'm very lucky. Great kids and working on getting more sleep now that Harlem's around, but I'm very lucky and fortunate. Derricka is such a great mother and she does well with the kids. Let's talk about your incredibly successful company, Landmark Logistics Corporation. I want to know, Corey, how did Landmark begin? So Landmark began, we just made our five years on August 12th. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. But I've been in the shipping industry since 2000. And so I kind of went through several companies and five years ago decided to take a leap and do it on my own, which isn't the easiest thing to do. Fortunately, I had good business partners and we were able to put it together in the beginning with very little and kind of took it to where we are today. One of your key partners was Seiji Aspengren. Aspengren, yeah. So can you tell me about your relationship with him? So Seiji and I have been friends for 10 plus years and he had a local trucking company called Courier Corporation of Hawaii, which his dad started about 30 years ago. So Seiji took that company over from his dad in 2010, 2011 and during that time he kind of built it up. He had the local infrastructure. So he had warehousing, trucking, and the local staff. And I told him one day we would be doing business together and lo and behold, in 2013 we came together and started Landmark Logistics Corporation. Now you also have Noah Chun as one of your key guys and the three of you guys have such an incredible dynamic. Can you explain more about that dynamic that makes you guys successful? Yeah, so Noah came to work with me at the company I was with previous in sales and fantastic sales guy. And when we started Landmark, he kind of came over from that other company four days later after we started Landmark with Seiji and I. And we all kind of had all different hats on. So we individually had our own skill, but effortlessly I think we kind of migrated into our own roles. And so I kind of took control of the sales department side. Noah did our operations and Seiji handled our financial and he was both of them instrumental in getting to us where we're at today. Yeah, I mean individually you guys have so much strength but collectively it's just a winning combination with you three. Yeah, people talk about business partnerships, how tough it is and knock on wood for the first five years of this, it's been pretty good. The first year or two was tough just because this industry you need a lot of money and we didn't have much money to start the company. I mean, we were David in a room of Goliaths, right? And so in the local shipping industry, which is a $2 billion industry, we were such a small piece. The fact that we got out of our first two years the way we did is amazing in itself. We started with a few hundred thousand dollars, which normally doesn't work. And the tough part is we maxed every credit card we had. No banks would touch us. We're a new company and so we kind of went through the first couple of years learning so much about business and I really thank God we're here five years later. Can you share what services you guys offer at Landmark? Yeah, so we're a domestic freight forwarding company and what that means is we ship products from the mainland into Hawaii. So as you know, Hawaii, there's not much products made in Hawaii. So 98% of our goods are brought in from the mainland or internationally. So what we do is we ship hundreds of items from the mainland into Hawaii. We do 30 plus containers a week with both Pasha and Madsen. Some months ago we had the devastating flooding on Kauai and East Honolulu and you and your company stepped up to really help the flooding victims on Kauai. Can you share with me what compelled you to do that and what happened? Yeah, it's a funny story, Rusty. So my wife was in a hospital giving birth, all right? So she was in labor for 30 hours, about 29 hours and one evening we're watching the evening news. This is before she gave birth. We're sitting in the hospital and she has her contractions. We watched the evening news and they showed that devastation flood in Kauai. I mean we were blown away. At that moment I started talking to local leaders and local organizers to see if we could do something for them. And what we came up with was an idea to do a collection at our facility and ship everything to Kauai Free of Charge. I saw that on our local news channels that Landmark and Corey Correa were doing that. That is just amazing that you guys step up in times of need like that. And right now you're also doing a thing with the Honolulu Food Bank. Can you share about the Honolulu Food Bank? Yes, so you know with us we try to give back every month to a worthy cause. And being that the University of Hawaii is doing so well this year in football and I decided to tie that in with the University of Hawaii. So I talked to Ron Mizutani, the head of the Hawaii Food Bank last week and I'm like Ron, we're going to donate $1,000 to the Hawaii Food Bank for every win you each does this year. With a minimum at the very least of $10,000. Awesome. And my goal with this is to hopefully get other companies involved doing the same thing. The Hawaii Food Bank when we went last week Friday, they have 10 days worth of food at the warehouse, meaning in 10 days if it's not replenished, we're gone. They have no other food. So they work 100% on donations, right? And they supply so much organizations with food. Being that we have so much natural disasters, a lot of their food has gone out. So I'm hoping that what we do here will inspire other companies to do the same thing and we can kind of help out the food bank in that way. I'm just impressed that you guys are stepping up to do that and you're inspiring other businesses to do the same. Can you also tell me about cooling cancer? So cooling cancer was a non-profit a friend of mine started six years ago. He unfortunately lost his dad to cancer. I think everyone has a cancer story. He owns a local company that some of his employees, they lost family members to cancer. So six years ago, he decided to start this foundation called Cooling Cancer. And what he does is one big event every year, which is a golf tournament, a charity golf tournament. And they give back 100% of the profits to the UH Cancer Center for cancer research. So in the last six years, he's given back as a non-profit over $250,000 to the UH Cancer Center. Oh, that's very significant. It's amazing. I love that. And you also, you're giving back to Waimanalo in your give back events. Can you share with me about those? So there's a couple of events in Waimanalo which really touches me. There's a cakey contest, a boogie boarding contest that's run by a local professional body boarder, Jeff Hubbard. And he was a world champion body boarder. So this event has been around for 30 plus years. I mean, it was the event I grew up boogie boarding in and what got me into the sport. So he kind of took it over years ago and grew it to what it is today. It's a free event for all the cakeies. They get free food, free prizes. You get a lot of local professional body boarders there. So we give back to that event. Obviously, it's something that really touches me. And there's another one called, it's a Thanksgiving event that my friend Kaui, Kaui Kaui, from Waimanalo that he started this 12 years ago. And it started with some friends chipping in and giving out food to the homeless that live in Waimanalo. Fast forward 12 years from then, he's got, I mean, thousands and thousands of dollars worth of giveaways. I mean, this past year, we had over 200 bikes. He gave away free to the kids. He had music by Landon McNamara. There was boogie boards given away, skateboards, balls, school supplies. It's fantastic. I mean, such an amazing event. And he doesn't want any credit for it, which is amazing. The news cameras came down and he's, you know, he doesn't want to take credit for it, but he, you know, he did such a great job there. I love hearing about all of these things. Corey, we're going to take a quick break. And then when we come back, I want to talk to you about success and leadership. Okay. Great. You are watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest, Corey Correa. We will be back in a quick 60 seconds. Hello, and welcome to Out of the Comfort Zone. I am your villainous host, RB Kelly. Today we are playing two truths and a lie, and I will tell you two truths and you will tell me which one is the lie. Truth number one, this is a real mustache. Truth number two, I want you to watch my show on Tuesdays at 1 PM. So tune in and let me know which is the truth and which is the lie. I'm RB Kelly with Out of the Comfort Zone and show up next Tuesday to see my mustache live. Aloha. My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea. Law Across the Sea is on Think Tech Hawaii every other Monday at 11 AM. Please join me where my guests talk about law topics and ideas and music and Hawaii and all across the sea from Hawaii and back again. Aloha. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My special guest today is Corey Correa, the president and executive chairman of the hugely popular shipping company here in Hawaii, Landmark Logistics Corporation, and today we are going beyond shipping. Corey, you guys have been giving back so much to the community and you appreciate all your customers and you value them greatly. To the point where you actually do a customer appreciation event, can you tell me about that? We do a few events. We did one for 4th of July. We rented out the modern hotel, the penthouse of the modern hotel, where they have a 1,500 square foot deck outside where you can kind of see the fireworks up front. We brought in some musical artists, Terrence Cunningham from The Voice. He came in and played music for us. We had a prime rib dinner and everyone got to see the 4th of July fireworks right in the 50 yard line. That sounds like a first class event and every customer, they just must have felt the love. It was a great event. We got one more coming up next month. So we rented out the Hawaii Glass Bottom boat. We chartered that and we take some of our customers out. We're going to go watch the fireworks, sunset cruise, food and drinks and entertainment. Great. Now I know you have my book Beyond the Lines and I know you're still working on it. I'm working on it. How do you like it so far? It's an amazing book, Rusty. It's a good read, very easy read. I think anyone from kids to CEOs of companies can take something away from it. Amazing. Well, you got to finish it and then let me know really how you like everything about it. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. I want to ask you about success. Corey, you're very successful. How do you define success? I think success for me, being the way that I grew up, is being able to give back. So if I'm able to give back to charitable organizations and make a difference when I leave this earth, that makes me feel like I'm successful. Yeah, I totally agree and that's what you're doing right now. That's the goal. I got to ask you, Corey, knowing that, why are you successful? I had this innate drive in me as a kid. I was very competitive and I think that really propelled me in many ways to achieve what I have today. This isn't the end of the book. For me, I think we're going to continue to push and push but I think being able to be competitive really helps you in that world. Now, anyone that's successful, they have to overcome certain obstacles on their way to becoming successful. What do you think has been your greatest obstacle in achieving your success and how did you overcome that? I think with Landmark as a company, the start of the company was tough because no banks would touch us. We had very little resources. We had connections in the know-how to get things done but we really didn't have the financial ability to drive the company the way we wanted to. So we had to pick and choose our customers in the beginning because you basically bankroll all your customers. They don't pay you right away. So you've got to be able to financially afford that. So that part of it was probably the toughest part for us and then the learning lessons of being a business owner at the time and everything that comes along with it. So going through that, I think that was probably the hardest part for us. The first two years, I never thought we would make it through it. There were some mistakes made, financial mistakes and some of those things helped us become better to where we are today. And I think the potential for Landmark is limitless. It's amazing. I think for us, we're still on the smaller end of the spectrum. I mean, we're competing with the big boys and companies that's been around for 30 plus years that have roots in Hawaii, none of them are locally owned. We're one of two locally owned freight forwarding companies. Most of them are hedge fund people from the mainland today. So we're lucky to be able to compete against them at such a high level. What do you think sets Landmark apart from your competitors? I think because we're young, we take advantage of technology and that's basically what helped us to become a little better than our competitors. We all ship in on the same boats, but our technology helps our customers identify where their products at at all time. And this is something that we started with. Before we got one piece of freight on our dock, we figured out how to use technology as a catalyst to this company. And I think that's what helped us kind of persevere. I like how you shared with me, I think last week, about you receiving a note, a thank you note from Miss Hawaii, Miss Universe, Brooke Lee. Can you tell me about how that made you feel? The cool thing about shipping is you touch every industry, everything from hotel, food and beverage, automotive, construction. I got to get to know Brooke from Lanai, a local entertainer, and she needed to move some stuff back and jump through hoops to help her move her family back into vehicles. And she didn't have to, you know, handwrite a personal thank you note to me, but she did. And I thought that was really nice. Yeah, I love hearing those stories about those personal touches. And you're all about attention to details and personal touches too. I want to ask you, Corey, what, you know, you're so successful already, but what do you hope to aspire to achieve in your future? My goal for me is to have my kids be able to take over the company one day. And work within the company and, you know, have a platform or have a job. Growing up, I didn't know what I wanted to do or where I was going to be. So if I can give my kids that ability to, you know, come into a company and run a company or at least learn from it, I think that's something that, you know, that's the goal for me. That's future. I like hearing that. And, you know, in terms of leaders, there's so many different kinds of leaders in the world. What kind of leader are you? I think I'm a lead by example kind of a leader. I think for our employees, the fact that we give back so much, I mean, my business partners are on board just like me and they want to give back. So our employees see that and I think it gives them pride to work for a company that gives back so much. So I think we lead by example. I think that's the kind of leader I want to be and the leader I'm trying to be. And that kind of leadership, it becomes contagious, you know, that positive energy doing the right thing out of, you know, in any circumstance. Yeah, I agree. I agree. You know, next year we've got some things lined up for our employees that that's going to be exciting for them. That's going to help our company give back to charities that they're interested in. So we're always looking at ways to give back and being innovative in what we do. Love hearing that. Now, Corey, obviously, you want to try to outdo what you've done. You're not taking anything for granted. What are you doing right now to improve your company at this moment? So I think some probably the most important thing that we're doing right now that I love is we created a nonprofit organization called Landmark Share 360. And so we set money aside and we're going to start giving back to a bunch of different charities every month, month after month after month. And I think our ability to touch the community in that way supersedes what we do as a company, right? So we deal with high up execs, big corporations, but we don't necessarily deal with the mom and dad or the or someone you see at the youth softball games and stuff. And so I want my company to be involved in that type of stuff where our focus is giving back to the kids and youth leagues, youth sports leagues, local charity organizations and stuff like that. So I think that will kind of set us apart from our competitors or just give us that feel good of doing right by your community. Yeah. Do you think that's what adds to your happiness and your self fulfillment? Absolutely. To me, giving is amazing. And I enjoy seeing the smiles on the kids' faces or any charities that we give to. So yeah, that's something that makes me happy. Now, every successful team, they have to keep innovating and they have to forecast certain challenges and predict certain things. What are you guys doing right now to really think about that innovations for your company? So moving forward, what we're trying to do is make sure that we have the operational part of our company to continue the growth. I mean, we've gone double the growth of our company every year. And that's really hard to sustain in a small business. So we brought in some people from the mainland to help us just work through some of the kinks that we've gotten because our sales are going through the roof. But operationally, we're still trying to catch up. And when we catch up operationally, then we can look at doubling again. So year after year, we're just looking to better ourselves in every aspect of the company. And Corey, you're a self-taught person. That's amazing that you're self-taught. Who is someone that you admire in terms of their success? Well, there's so much. It's hard to pinpoint one single person. I take from a bunch of different people. But I think, I mean, success comes from different people, different things that happen throughout your life. So I don't think I have one person that I look to. Every day there's somebody I could take something away from. Kind of inspires you. Yeah. I mean, you inspire me a lot. I do. You do. Hey, you just gave me a tickling feeling inside right there. What you're able to do with the tennis and the amount of championships you won and the humility that you have, I think that's a great story. Well, Corey, I really appreciate you sharing these insights and really going in depth with you being on welfare food stamps and then becoming president and executive chairman of Landmark Logistics Corporation and how you and Seiji and Noah work so well together. I really want to thank you for your time and being on the show today. Thank you, Rusty. I appreciate the platform you've given me and my company. And thank you for having me on. Thank you, Corey. Thanks. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. I'm Rusty Komori, encouraging you to check out my website, RustyKomori.com, and follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. I also want to encourage you to constantly strive for a superior standard of excellence every day and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.