 Welcome to Think Tech on Spectrum OC-16, Hawaii's weekly newscast on things in Matter of Tech and Hawaii. I'm Jay Fiedel. And I'm Keisha King. In our show this time, we'll review some of our Beyond the Lines episodes where you meet some of the incredible guests on that show. Yes, every Monday morning, tennis star Rusty Komori is host of Beyond the Lines and showcases his famous guest, week after week, people you'd love to meet. Rusty was the tennis coach at Punahou for many years and later became the tennis pro at Wailaik Country Club. As a popular coach and pro, he has gotten to meet a great many people in and visiting Hawaii and its shows. He's also an author. In 2017, he wrote a book on how to achieve leadership and excellence in your life. Coincidentally or not, it's called Beyond the Lines, creating a leadership culture to achieve extraordinary results. As you will see, Rusty is a welcoming, articulate, well-prepared and curious host. He puts his guests at ease immediately and they respond accordingly. Rusty has lots of followers and it's no surprise that Beyond the Lines is one of our most popular shows, often selected in our top five top of the line shows. Over the past year, Rusty has appeared in more than 90 episodes of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech. There isn't enough time to show you all of his episodes right now or any of them in full. Over the past 90 episodes, Rusty has had some very high-profile guests and we ought to name a few of them. These guests have included Justin Cruz, Willis Sparrow, Alicia Michioca, Emma Woh, Doug Chin, Glenn Maderos, David Ige, Chris Lee, Christine Kemp, Rick Freed, Luby Gazoff, Juliette Leiter, Trevor Ozawa, Christy Yamaguchi, Augie Tova, Guy Hagi, Frank Dalima, Maya Soutoro-Ing, June Jones, Devin Nakoba, Lindsey Berg, Kikoa Kakumano, Dave Shoji, Michael Bennett, Trini Kaupoiki, Henry Capono, Josh Green, Lee Donahue, and Nick Rolovich. Wow. This is just to name a few of Rusty's famous celebrity guests. If you don't know who they are, look them up on Think Tech, YouTube, Google, or Wikipedia and you'll see what we mean. For this OC16 show, we'll include segments from a handful of Rusty's episodes with a handful of these guests. We hope you enjoy them as much as we did. We have so much to talk about. Let's go right into the bullying. You were bullied when you were in fifth grade. Yes. Tell me about those experiences. Well, I was 10 years old and at that time I knew that I wanted to do something to help people. I loved being around my friends, I loved being around people, my peers, my family, and I knew that I wanted to be a person that could give back. And I had a best friend at the time who was involved in pageantry and we had been best friends since preschool. So I kind of looked up to her in a sense and I saw that she did pageants and I wanted to try, I wanted to follow in her footsteps because I knew that through pageantry they help out in the community. So I asked my mom if I could enter a pageant and at first she said no. So I was like okay, well, I guess I got to wait. But then eventually she said okay, you can do your pageant and I was so excited. I decided to tell literally everybody that I knew at my very small school that I was going to enter in this pageant and I thought, you know, being 10 years old and just being a kid everyone would be like oh my god that's so exciting. But this girl who is my best friend she told me things like oh well, you know you're not pretty enough to be in a pageant, you're not smart enough to be in a pageant, you're too fat, you're not going to win. And hearing those things from somebody that I looked up to who was basically one of my role models at the time I was like whoa okay I didn't know you could be like that but I decided you know I'm just gonna not gonna listen I'm just gonna do it because I want to. Once you left the FBI you decided to travel for nearly a year? Yeah yeah that's crazy that's a challenge. So a lot of people ask you know did you have a hundred thousand saved up you're planning to go for a year like how you know and luckily I was able to buy a condominium wiki key and I and I rented it out and yeah so I mean if I can share with you kind of what that looked like. So the night before I printed my resignation I had on my computer screen I had one I think Microsoft Word document with my letter of resignation and then on my little laptop computer I had I think Expedia or some travel website with a one-way ticket to Iceland. Whoa yeah so I knew and it was non-refundable you know I'm cheap right so I knew if I booked it and that was it right so I hovered over the reserve button for a while and then I just clicked and then and then I ended up printing my letter of resignation so the the week following I think I submitted it they were very happy because they thought I was actually asking for a promotion or something like this but yeah so that's how it all started. Risk determines destiny risk promotes growth. What are your thoughts about risk? You got to risk it for the biscuit. You know I think for me I'm a very visual person so I think about the pendulum right so the pendulum swings one way and it swings equally the other way right so on one side of the pendulum I consider risk the other side consider reward so if you take a little risk your reward's obviously going to be a little bit lower now the higher the risk the higher the reward but again that's situational you can't apply the pendulum theory across the board for example in terms of my financial investments my risk is a little bit lower my my reward is lower but I leverage longevity and like Warren Buffett says compounding interest over time as far as you know my personal I'm a very risky person you know so when I travel I like to do things that are risky but you know I do photography as well so the shots that I get might be extraordinary you know so it's really situational so again you can't really you know you know say this is the absolute law as far as risk and reward but I would say if it helps you for me it helps me visualize the pendulum yeah as far as risk and reward. Your first year coaching you took us to a bowl game you won that bowl game and you took us to two bowl games in the past three years and last season was our first winning season since 2010 what are your goals for your team this year? Kind of put talked about phase two what is we have to keep improving I said you know the bowl win was was so awesome for those guys those guys especially the seniors you know Corey Rasmussen Leo I mean Marcus Kemp these guys are at their core great people that continue to work hard continue to attack the process I was honored they gave belief in our in myself and the staff and they didn't hesitate and they wanted to go out as winners and they deserved to you know then just to be able to say a couple years later all right now we've won we woke up we were better in most of the games then then you know being 500 was great and getting the bowl win but then now you're taking another step mentally and I probably brought up the Mountain West Championship too soon for our program I don't know if we were ready mentally but we talked about phase two and I think it encompasses everybody not just myself the coaching staff the team I think it's equipment training administration fund raising everybody now let's see what we can really build this to I mean we've seen it get to such great heights whether it's a holiday bowl whether it's a sugar bowl and and just having some of the alumni come back and inject that pride back into our student-athlete there's a very high belief in not only what we're trying to do but how we try to do it as far as engaging the community especially the young kids and and being role models and I can't thank our team enough for just taking on that challenge to and realizing that yes I can I can make a lot of things better by doing something good today you know and and for me it was with with Hawaii it's always give first you know and and then things will come after I don't think it's come take take take take take I don't just doesn't work I want to know Naomi how do you define success there's a lot going through my brain right now success to me is really getting out of your comfort zone and really knowing as you do that who you truly are and being vulnerable being open not this persona of who I am and what I do what really matters what can I share with you can we have a real conversation as business owners and so for me success is being vulnerable and truly knowing who you are and once you know that you know what you can do and how you can become even better and especially for people in this world I like that be real and speak the truth yeah now what do you feel is the best advice most valuable advice you've ever received in your life I know that instantaneously so my father when I worked for him when I was 20 21 22 he called me into his office and he's a physical therapist yeah and he was going through some checks and one of the insurance companies had paid him five dollars more and he said to me hey darling I just want you to know that this insurance company paid me five dollars more and I want to take the time and send it back to them and he said know this what does it profit a man to own the whole world but to lose his soul it doesn't matter if it's one penny or it's fifty dollars what matters is you do the right thing and that is you know that's huge to me everything we do we need to look and say are we doing the right thing does it feel right is it right and that's that's yeah that's always stuck with me it's all about integrity and ethics absolutely yeah absolutely which is a big discussion today yeah chief in my book beyond the lines of a big part of it is about leadership and I mean you're an extraordinary leader what do you feel the best leaders do what are the qualities of the best leaders in your opinion that they listen to their people and find out what their needs are and their wants I mean that's good to know what they want also but there is a definite separation between the two and trying to try to satisfy their needs and do it on a daily basis that's that's to me the most important part of a leader and making it known how you're trying to to get get their needs met because it's important to them because I know that what we when we did surveys the farther you go away from your core unit like if you're in a sector farther you go away the less trust you have of those above you yeah and it's just it's just something that goes with any organization so knowing that you have to be able to come down and and provide provide what they need I think you have to be able to listen to them you should never I'll give you an example I had this I was on a way to a meeting and I was walking through the hallways and it was going to be late but this officer stopped me in the hallway and said chief can I ask you a question and I could have told him I'm not down I'm late for a meeting but yeah it was important for him to ask me so I said sure ask me the question and you know I answer this question and at least it satisfied his need at that time yeah but you have to do that as a leader you have to you know you can't stop that and empathy is huge I mean with your team and building trust like you said and respect and loyalty how did you first get involved in tennis well I grew up around tennis my dad was a club pro um but I didn't play tennis to begin with I actually played soccer baseball basketball and then eventually gravitated towards tennis but I think that's part of the reason why I ended up liking it so much was because I chose it I wasn't forced into it so your was your dad a coach in tennis he was he was the club pro at at hillcrest country club the head pro like I said I grew up around it was there all the time actually strung some rackets before I actually got into playing yeah stringing that's that's a talent too oh yeah now what kind of player were you were you always this fit I was a chubby kid really up and as I was playing baseball and and some other sports I could make contact with the ball and did good but I couldn't run very well so that was my challenge with tennis was you know I could make contact put the ball where I wanted to but I couldn't move really well but eventually I got the hang of it kept working hard and and it worked out well you move very fast on the tennis court nowadays thank you yeah now how how did you end up coming to Hawaii Brent I ended up I played tennis at Tyler junior college for two years we actually won the national championship there and I was part of a great team very fortunate to be part of that team and from there I knew John Nelson was a new coach over in Hawaii and we connected and I ended up coming out to play UH under his recommendation he was hoping that I would come and I and I did and loved it yeah loved the experience what's been an adversity that you dealt with in your life that you have to overcome um 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 um if you can find a way uh 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 um and it's it's very hard to do that here um 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 to 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 um 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 for 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 uh ironically Malekko introduced us yeah yeah um I was doing a party I did a party called Skyline at the Honohana Room and uh 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 um Malekko brought Krista in and we I mean it was just like instant chemistry and um I think at some point we even you know Houdini'd 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 we just had such an instant connection we have a very kind of uh similar personalities similar energy level similar optimistic outlook on life that like there was just a lot of similarities uh between us and we just really clicked yeah um and really from that day forward you know we were best friends yeah one of the biggest concepts too of our team was to welcome adversity and to look forward to challenges what are your thoughts about that nobody likes adversity I mean in the ideal world everyone would just like to cruise through life without any challenges but I mean it's I learned a lot about that recently or recently with the new job and recently just in life in general I mean everyone goes through their challenges it's how you kind of you know you grow from it I think your show at June Jones yeah he's talking about the car crash and you know how he had to mentally fight mind over matter to get his like legs back working and everything so I think adversity should be cherished because you're going to come out stronger mentally stronger if anything and it's it's something that I'm still learning to this day you know there's it's a restaurant something's broken right now something is broken but it's just like how we fix it and how we move forward and I think that part was trained early you know I lost a lot of singles matches I lost doubles matches but it's just how you move forward on from that yeah and you learned a lot from that and I like what you said about the challenges because you know I would tell you guys that when we would look forward to adversity and we we didn't know when it was going to happen but it was going to happen and once we got through it and we dealt with it we would become stronger for that experience we'd become better we'd become smarter for that because you say to yourself oh I've done I've gone through that already that's fine I know you have the confidence to overcome that hurdle if it ever comes up again so then you look what's the next hurdle coming up yeah it's a mindset exactly yeah and Chris what do you feel the best coaches or the best leaders do I think leadership just in general defining the term leadership for me is growing a culture that everyone wants to be a part of and I think like you did that at Punahou some of my bosses on the mail and did that like I enjoyed going to work I enjoyed going to practice even though it was work or practice you know it's creating that culture that you know I want to fight for you Rusty is live on thinktecawaii.com YouTube Facebook and Twitter every Monday at 10 a.m. and we upload all his shows to YouTube and iTunes so you can see and hear them later we hope you'll look at at least some of Rusty's shows if you want to know more about him see his website Rusty Kumori.com if you want to get his book beyond the lines it's on amazon.com including beyond the lines thinktec produces more than 30 talk shows in our downtown studio our shows are very diverse covering things you might never have otherwise known you can always find these links to our shows and our daily email advisories if you don't already get our daily email advisories you can sign up to get them on thinktecawaii.com and now let's check out our think tech schedule of events going forward think tech broadcast its talk shows live on the internet from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays then we broadcast our earlier shows all night long and on the weekends if you miss the show or if you want to replay or share any of our shows they're all archived on demand on thinktecawaii.com and youtube for our audio stream go to thinktecawaii.com slash audio and repost all our shows as podcasts on iTunes visit thinktecawaii.com for our weekly calendar and live stream and youtube links or better yet 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of apartment owners hawaii energy the hawaii energy policy forum Hawaiian electric company integrated security technologies galen ho of b a e systems kameha meha schools mw group limited the schuyler family foundation the sydney stern memorial trust volo foundation you riko j sugi mura thanks so much to you all okay kisha that wraps up this week's edition of think tech remember you can watch think tech on spectrum oc 16 several times every week can't get enough of it just like kisha does for additional times check out oc 16 dot tv for lots more think tech videos and for underwriting and sponsorship opportunities on think tech visit think tech hawaii dot com be a guest or host a producer or an intern and help us reach and have an impact on hawaii thanks so much for being part of our think tech family and for supporting our open discussion of tech energy diversification and global awareness in hawaii and of course the ongoing search for innovation excellence and leadership wherever we can find it you can watch this show throughout the week and tune in next sunday evening for our next important think tech episode i'm jay fidel and i'm kisha king aloha everyone