 Hi, I'm Rusty Kamori, and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou School 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 mindset, leadership, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the owner and co-founder of Unique Fitness in Honolulu. He is Brian Watkins, and today we are going Beyond Physical Fitness. Hey, Brian, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Hey, Rusty. Thanks for having me. I love what you do, giving an opportunity for small businesses to have a platform to share their story, and it's awesome what you do. I always put a smile on my face when I see you and we talk story. Brian, you are an incredible person. I'm so excited to have our viewers really get to know you. You have so much positive energy. I love it, but can you first share a little bit about your background? Sure, absolutely. Born and raised in the UK. I'm a bit of a traveler. I like exploring. I played soccer growing up. Just relating to the sports viewers out there in terms of how that relates to business. Lived a little while in Bermuda, mainland US. My mother's American. My father was from the UK and found my way here to sunny Hawaii. And the adventure continues. Now, Brian, I'm so happy you're in Hawaii. I mean, I'm so excited for people to really get to know you. And can you share where Unique Fitness is located and what the parking situation is like? Yeah, absolutely. Unique Fitness is located in the type of financial building, which is downtown Honolulu. Very close to your background there. So if you're familiar with Aloha Towers, we're right there across the street. There's a parking entrance that's located on the Alamoana side of the property. And then, yeah, we have validated parking. So we try and make things as convenient as possible for people because we know that that's often one of the hurdles to overcome when it comes to prioritizing health and fitness. Oh, that's for sure. And Brian, can you share with everybody what compelled you to pursue ownership of Unique Fitness? Temporary moment of insanity. I love the challenge. And I've always dabbled in the fitness industry and the space. And I thought it'd be great to be able to have the ability to control an environment of what I thought would be useful for a community and the people that would be in that area to improve their health and wellness. So when the opportunity presented itself, I jumped at it. I knew it was going to be one of my biggest challenges and a hell of a roller coaster. But I'm in it. I'm enjoying it. And I'm happy to be doing it. And Brian, can you share about how tough it was during COVID for you to really stay alive and survive? Absolutely. We talked a little bit yesterday when we was just talking story. And as I said, there were moments for sure where I was wondering what was the best thing to do. Do we shut it down? Do we try and move into a smaller footprint? How do we navigate this? And as we talked about, after a while, you realize that the gym is its own community. And it's more than just a business. It's this collective of people that have been there and have shepherded the place for the last 60 years. So that was a very big influence in how I decided to move forward, even though there was 98 members at the time. And there wasn't much hope for us to make it out on the other side. But just having that background and the history with the club and the support from the members that were there, I'm happy that we moved forward and we found a way to navigate through the weeds and get out on the other side to where we are now. It's absolutely amazing what you've been able to do there. And Brian, can you talk about the exercise rooms and the exercise equipment and the classes that you offer there? Yeah, the space, the architects and the founders of the building and the developer, they had an amazing foresight to foresee that having a wellness facility would be important to the downtown community and their building as an amenity. So the space is kind of preset. We have a few different rooms that are laid out within the footprint of the Fort Street Tower. So we have the weight and cardio room. We have a functional training space where a lot of our trainers hang out and work with kind of specialist routines. And then we also have a sauna, steam room, jacuzzi swimming pool if you like the executive workout. Now, Brian, let's talk more about that because people need to understand that unique fitness is underground. It's in the basement level of the Topa Tower. And you do have that underground swimming pool, the jacuzzi, the steam room, the sauna. And I have to say that I'm a member and I absolutely love it. I cannot wait to go and do my workout and then take a dip in the swimming pool, sit in the jacuzzi, go into the steam room, go into the sauna. I mean, I absolutely love it, Brian. It's a great amenity. And I'm so happy that we have it in the downtown area. So as you can imagine, we're surrounded by a lot of businesses and a lot of office buildings. And for people to be able to come downstairs and hop in the jacuzzi or the sauna and relax for a minute, even that in itself is going to have a positive impact on your mindset. Or it's just a place to relax. And because we have a smaller member base, a lot of the members know each other, so they come down, they talk story. And then there's obviously the other benefits biologically of the effects of using the sauna and the steam room and all that fun stuff. So it's just a really cool place to hang out, work on your health and fitness, take a break, see people like you, Rusty. Yeah, that's definitely me. I mean, it helps me with my balance, working hard and then gotta relax and rejuvenate. And Brian, you and I are both friends with Michael Vernon and Michael Vernon works with you. He's a fitness champion. And I feel that the members there are so lucky to have somebody like Michael be the trainer, be around him. I mean, he's such a great guy. What are your thoughts about Michael? Oh, I love Michael. He's an interesting character. He's got some great leadership qualities and we're very fortunate to have crossed paths. I met Michael when he came through the doors as an intern when he was at HPU. And he just demonstrated so many great qualities that you'd want to have around a fitness facility. He's born and raised in the Ukraine and ended up here in Hawaii. So I can relate to that story a little bit in terms of you're born and raised somewhere else and you come to this fantastic place and you find your place in the community and how you wanna help people and contribute to what's going on downtown and improving people's lives. And Michael does the same thing. And he was also a former Marine. So in terms of his discipline and his character, he's extremely reliable and I've only got good things to say about the guy. I completely agree with you. I featured him on my show and people that watched it, they were just so impressed with him. I mean, again, I'm so happy that the members, they have to be very fortunate to have somebody like him there. And I wanna ask you about your staff because he's part of your staff as well as some other workers that you have that are so very helpful. I mean, they're very educated, they're very professional in what they do. Why is it that you have such a great staff? I think these types of businesses attract people that enjoy interacting with the community. So you've got multiple different types of people coming through the doors and different personalities. And it definitely takes a certain type of individual that's able to navigate and be able to provide a service like we do and keep things positive. And I mean, we open at 4.30 in the morning. So, I've gone in and covered hours at that time and to be able to have a smile on your face and treat people in a way that motivates them to keep coming back. It's definitely a certain type of individual. And we try and cultivate that as well, that reminding people that this might be, this might be the one thing that they're really looking forward to that particular day. You don't know what they've gone through prior to walking through the door. So let's make sure that everyone has a really good experience and we try and keep that momentum going. That's such a great thing to focus on there because yeah, you never know what somebody else is dealing with that day. And Brian, I want to ask you about the members. I mean, you're right. You mentioned earlier that it's like a smaller community, everyone kind of knows each other and everyone's so friendly. I mean, when I'm there, everybody's so nice and you have such a wide range of ages of members. Can you tell me more about that? Yeah, we have a wide range of ages and also backgrounds as well. We have owners of companies, law partners, restaurant workers, you name it. It's a full gamut of people that are interacting with each other. But I think like I mentioned in the beginning and like you've noticed as well is because it's such a small member base, everyone just, it kind of self manages and we've created a culture of respectful communication with one another and it's great. It's become a place to network and focus on your health and fitness. And even for me, it's been a learning curve when I first moved here and first took over the club as well. My communication style, it's had to be very nimble in terms of how I interact with people and to keep it as a positive place whilst also making sure everyone else is being respectful of one another. It's like being a mediator of everyone's wants and needs and the businesses. Yeah, I totally get that. And I mean, I look forward, whenever I have time to go and do a workout there, I'm super excited. Love talking with some other members that are there working out at the same time. And Brian, I wanna ask you about Ryan Tanaka. Ryan Tanaka, business leader, community leader, he's the founder of Brutahood Grines, Sisterhood Grines, which benefits the University of Hawaii Athletics. And you are a sponsor of Brutahood and Sisterhood Grines, which ultimately helps our community. And when I had talked with you about it and you were so excited, I mean, you just provided, you said, I wanna be a sponsor. I mean, that's incredible, Brian. Anything that we can do in addition to what we're already doing to help the community, I do whatever I can to try and reinforce other initiatives that are helping people who want to improve their lifestyle, whether it's through education, health and wellness, the environment, anything that we can do and it makes sense, we'll absolutely do it. I'll jump at it for sure. You guys are awesome, what you're doing, I love it. You can share a little bit more about the program, but just in the short moment that we chatted, I was like, I'd love to be part of this and support what you guys are doing. Yeah, I mean, this is just the third year of Brutahood Grines and it's incredible how many restaurants are included and how many businesses have stepped up to be sponsors to really help University of Hawaii Athletics. It's truly amazing and Brian, for me, I do a lot of executive coaching as you know and a lot of it, I try to help executives or their companies having good physical fitness because if they have physical fitness, they're able to perform well, maybe even have peak performance at work, but also at home. But I also focus on mental fitness because I'm trying to change the narrative from mental health to mental fitness because the brain controls the body, right? What are your thoughts? I agree, I think there's a lot of synchronicity between the two and it's one of the areas that's neglected a lot and it's something that I focus on heavily now is making sure that I focus on my brain health as well. Just for making better decisions, just trying to be a little bit more sharper with how I operate as a business professional as well. It's something that can easily get neglected and you can kind of stay focused on working harder, sleeping less, drinking more caffeine, all of those things that we feel are helping get us through the day but maybe you just need to take a little bit more time out and focus on some things that are good for your brain and body and definitely throughout the pandemic, that was one opportunity where I was like, look, the only way we're gonna get through this is if I'm absolutely functioning at my best. So I don't know how crazy this was but I cut out alcohol, sugar and caffeine and went whole turkey, started meditating, really focusing on how I could function and make the best decisions that could help get us through that situation. So I encourage anyone that hasn't tried it before, try yoga, try meditating, try getting out on the water or anything that has a single point of focus that takes you away from your normal thinking patterns. And if you have a hard, if you have a, just like myself, if you have a hard time meditating for five, 10 minutes, then you probably need it. That's what I tell myself is if I can't sit still and try and just sit there and focus on something else, then I need to do this more. So Brian, that's incredible. I mean, so you made the choice to cut out those things and to start meditating. I always say once you make that choice, that's a discipline. And when you have that discipline to really commit to it, that leads to habits which lead to success, right? Yeah, and some of those choices were made for us as some of the restaurants and bars were closed. But at the same time, yeah, absolutely. If you can have a goal in mind and something that you want to achieve and you take the steps that start moving you towards that, whether they're small incrementally, every single day, you'll start, if you focus on the small improvements and how that's affecting your life, then absolutely. The momentum will start and the changes will come and the positive outcomes will come with it. Yeah, that's for sure. And you've probably seen a lot of your members improve their physical fitness or their mental fitness or their emotional fitness, right? Yeah, and just like we talked about before of it being a social place, it's another place for them to interact, work out and focus on their health and well-being. So just being able to come down and talk story for a few minutes while you're working out. For a lot of these people, it's a break in their normal routine. And having a break in your routine and then being able to go back to a problem or you're trying to figure out a solution. Sometimes those little breaks of having some exercise, getting the blood flowing, having a few laughs, it sets you up a little bit better to go back to a challenge or a problem. And I'm just talking from maybe a corporate standpoint where someone's coming out of an office building, but just in general for our members, I know that being able to exercise, they all find just a lot of improvements mentally, physically, sleeping, sleeping better, immunity boosting, all that fun stuff. That's all positives right there, Brian. And Brian, I wanna ask you, if you can share some of the challenges that you face in owning a local business? We definitely have to be nimble. The community downtown has changed so much from when we first took over the space. So being able to listen to what's going on with other businesses downtown, adapt, and work with the environment around you. Me personally as a business owner, my evolution, just from being somewhat younger, I mean, we took over the space when I was 30, which to some people, they're starting businesses in their early 20s, but the evolution that I went through in terms of how I communicate with people, how I process feedback, how I adapt to the surroundings and the environment. I don't really quite know how to specifically answer that question. It's like a whirlwind that you're always in and you just have to navigate and move with it a lot of the time and be open to changing, open to feedback and evolving with it. I mean, we took over what was Clark Hatch Fitness Center, which had been in operation for 27 years when we took over and prior to that, it was the center club, I believe. And that club had gone through so many changes and then we wanted to put our vision and plug in what our mission was into the club. So it's had a tremendous amount of challenges from renovating the space, through onboarding a team that believes in what we're trying to achieve and then getting the support from the members in the downtown community to try and help us as one of the... There's only a few locally owned and operated fitness centers here in Hawaii and it would be great to have the option of being able to adapt to the community. Not saying that the other big national brands aren't good options for health and fitness, but we have the advantage of being able to make decisions quickly without a corporate office to have to navigate through. If something's going on downtown that we feel will be beneficial to the people that are in our office building or the surrounding community, we can make those changes on the spot and really listen to what our members' feedback is. So anything you can do to support us, I'm happy to reciprocate and provide the services that may be needed downtown for people to function better in their office or their workplace or whatever they're trying to achieve. Now, I'm glad you brought that up, Brian, because you're right. I mean, you can make some of these changes, some of these improvements immediately. I mean, overnight versus a big corporation. And Brian, I wanna ask you, you have both of my books and you, I mean, everything in the books, you're doing so much of it and it's you. When I look at you and when I met you, I'm thinking, man, you go beyond the lines. So what are some things that stood out to you in the books? I really love the message that you gave about character and we talked briefly before about sports and I played soccer for a long time. I still play now in an over 35 league. So the nature of competitive is a little bit different, but I've had different coaches and leaders over the years. And one thing that stuck out to me is, how do you want to be as a leader and what type of, how do you wanna cultivate the culture around you? And we've had, just in the sports background, we had different coaches that, it was a winner all cost mentality. However you get there, we just want you boys to win. And then there was others that let's get to the end goal with some class here and be respectful. And it was interesting of being exposed to that from a young age. And that's one thing that I love about athletes that we work with if they're on our team is that a lot of the times I've had those same experiences. So when we have a message of how do you conduct yourself in the workspace? How do you communicate with the members? What message do we wanna be able to have them here? A lot of them can relate to the character aspect of, okay, we've got a lot of different personalities that come through the door, but we're here to help them. So let's put our egos on the side if we're being challenged in some way and let's listen to what they have to say and how can we help them? So yeah. No, I'm glad, Brian, that you brought up the character part because I mean, that's all you, I mean, you're a man of great character and I also talk, as you know, about great leaders build other great leaders. And that's what you're trying to do. And right how you just mentioned about, you know, when you're growing up, we're all on teams growing up at some point in time, whether it be in sports or business. And we watch what the leader or coach does that might be good or that might be bad and that kind of shapes our leadership style. How would you describe your leadership style? Well, I'm just gonna backtrack for a second. I'm not, you know, you say I've got great character, but I'm not always perfect, you know, and part of the learning experience as being a leader is being able to reflect on when you feel like you've made good decisions and bad decisions and being able to sit with that and process it as well, because we're not always gonna make the best of decisions and how do you process that and what do you wanna take from it to move forward and learn from it? And that's something to me that's really important is what do we learn from the things that we've done in the past and how do we move forward better from that? In terms of how would I define my leadership style, that's tough. My biggest focus is on communication and that's something that I'm always trying to improve is working with different people's personalities and making sure that I take the time to listen and hear and understand what they're trying to share with me, even if the delivery may not be ideal. And that's something that I've learned over time is that when you have emotions involved and you have something that someone may be passionate about, you need to be able to stay grounded and centered yourself to be able to hear a message that someone else is trying to deliver. So, I'm passionate, I guess I'm a compassionate leader. I try and listen, I might disagree because I have my moments, but at the same time, even if I get a little bit excited, I'm always making sure that I reflect and listen to someone's message and see what I can do to improve what it is that they're trying to achieve. No, Brian, I'm so glad. I mean, yeah, you are a compassionate leader and I'm so glad you brought up about communication because that's so necessary. I mean, even nonverbal communication is communication. And Brian, you've built, with your business there, you've built a great team around you and in order to succeed, you have to have a good team. You have to have teamwork. What more, I mean, why do you have such a great team around you to keep moving forward to accomplishing the club's goals? You know, Rusty, I really admire a lot of the people that are around the club as well. A lot of the members that have supported the club and even the building owners and managers, how they've handled certain situations through COVID and I learn a lot from other people as well and I feel like I've had so much support from other individuals in times that have been really, really challenging and I get to see both sides of that. I've felt that I, at times, haven't had the support from certain individuals that I've really needed. So when someone steps up in a time of what might be a business crisis as it were, you're dealing with your own personal issues. There's a million dramas going on behind the scenes with your business and we're still here to help people and someone else that, you know, they may just care about the club or they may just like me and they step up to the plate to help out. It's something that I then take and put back into the club, you know? So there's a lot of people that I absolutely am so grateful that have crossed paths with me and the club and yeah, even like I said, the building owners and the landlord, amazing, the members, amazing people like yourself and the community that, you know, here we're trying to do something cool for the downtown community and want to help out, have a chat on your show and provide a platform for people to learn a little bit more about our facility. Yeah, very grateful. Well, Brian, I am so happy that I was able to have you on the show today. I mean, you're somebody that loves to help people like you said and like I mentioned at the beginning of the show, you have such, you exude positive energy and I'm sure that everybody that watch you on the show will see how real, how genuine, how authentic you are. And I wanna thank you for taking time to be on the show with me today. Thank you, Rusty. It's an absolute pleasure. And, you know, I really encourage everyone who's watching your show to read your books. There's so much great content in there and you walk the walk and talk the talk and I have a lot of admiration for that when it's one thing to, you know, share knowledge but when you actually practice it and do it, I have a lot of respect and admiration for that. So it's really cool what you're doing. Read Rusty's books. Thanks, Brian. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit rustycomory.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I hope that Brian and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.