 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 also titled Beyond the Lines and it's about leadership, creating a superior culture of excellence and finding greatness. My special guest today is an extraordinary woman who is a very successful entrepreneur and she is the founder and publisher of the very popular Pacific Edge magazine. She is Naomi Hazelton and today we are going beyond magazines. Hey Naomi. Hi Rusty. Great to see you. Thank you for having me today. Good to see you. You know you're so busy I don't know how you do what you do but you're always all over the place. I see you everywhere. Absolutely. I love people and I love being in different places at different times and when you're an entrepreneur as you know you have to hustle. And you hustle. I do and I love it and I wear these great shoes while I do it. Oh those are flashing. Now Naomi tell me about your youth. Where did you grow up at? Well thanks for asking. I actually grew up in Sausalito, California and then my parents moved to Mill Valley and they put me in swim lessons at age six and swam for the Mill Valley Swim Club until eight and then at eight we moved to Kauai and we lived in Lihui and I went to a small Catholic school and then went to Waimea Canyon for seventh and eighth grade which was amazing and then went to Kauai High from ninth grade to my 12th grade year. So that's kind of a little bit about growing up on Kauai as a local holly girl. So when you were in school what did you want to be when you grew up? That's a really good question. When I was in school in college I wanted to be a newscaster. As a young child I just loved performing and dancing and doing puppet shows and singing. So I don't really think at this point when I look back I knew what I wanted to do. It wasn't till later in life. So you're always outgoing? Oh well yeah absolutely but there's times you know when any extrovert needs a little time to themselves and so you know there are absolutely times when I definitely just need my own time but for the most part yes. So what college did you go to and what did you study? So my father grew up in Minnesota and he grew up going to Catholic schools and so he went to a Jesuit school and I know you went to a Catholic school as well and so I actually used to lectern with him and so he took me to we went on tours and that was a beautiful thing traveling with my father so we went to look at Gonzaga and Seattle University and UW and then we went to USD and so I'd apply to UW Huskies right and then at the very last minute University of San Diego said oh we've accepted you and so I thought hmm surf and warm weather or very cold weather and so I chose USD and I'm so glad that I did it was an amazing experience. So Naomi what was your first job that you officially had? I was 16 and I worked at Call of Hail Steakhouse and I was a busser and I loved it and it was you know Call of Hail is a small town so you would see everybody you grew up with and you know it's kind of like waiting on family and oh can I get you or you want some more iced tea you know so it was it was a great time and it really gave me the ability to to stay focused and to move quickly and to look at very various moving pieces as it relates to dining and working with the bartenders and the servers and I loved it it was a great experience great experience. So let's talk about your family your mom and dad and your sister tell me about them. So my mom and dad actually met when they were 25 okay and mom worked for the American Red Cross and dad was a physical therapist and it was during Vietnam so he enlisted and went into the Navy and mom and dad met while he was emceeing a Navy ball in Japan and they were friends for a very long time and then they got engaged in Japan under under a beautiful bridge and while they were on the water he rode her out there so romantic and so then they got married where she grew up and they lived there for a while so mom one of the things about mom that has really helped me be who I am today is that she left Santa Barbara where she went to school I think she was 17 or 18 and drove to the South on her own and worked for Dr. Martin Luther King and the story she shared with me I will live with me forever she's an amazing woman a super brave woman well you know I can see how their impact on you was tremendous because you're amazing Naomi and you know you're you're inspiring to so many people I mean a lot of business people I know admire who you are and what you do now speaking of that can you tell me about element media absolutely element media is it's my baby along with my son who's actually out there as well he's he's no longer a baby but I think he'll always be a baby in my eyes and so element media really started out I went to graduate school at HPU yeah and they I'm very right-brained I have analytical thinking as well but I tend to go more towards the creative outlets in life and so they said Naomi you have a choice you can do a thesis or a practicum so I went right to the practicum which became a project and what I did is I put myself through college by really starting to work with new publications in the state of Hawaii so I would help set up distribution do the advertising sales and what I loved about that is the people that I met along the way so I looked at Hawaii business and PBN very long-standing publications and I thought wow no one's featuring the young entrepreneurs the the blood the sweat the tears the inspiration the motivation and the innovation behind why these young Hawaii entrepreneurs do what they do and why they did it and so Pacific Edge magazine started out as my practicum and I presented it to the faculty and they pulled me outside and they said hey Naomi have you thought about maybe taking a step forward and making this a business and I said sure how hard could it be and here we are today and so there's many moving pieces that go along to that story in that puzzle well I love hearing that and you know so I want to ask you Naomi tell me more about Pacific Edge magazine I love your Pacific Edge magazine and it's a quarterly magazine right it is it is so Pacific Edge magazine was really about featuring the motivation and the inspiration behind why Hawaii's entrepreneurs you know started and why they do what they do so I take someone like Robbie Opa or Rob I Opa and he works for he is the owner of WCIT architecture born and raised in Hilo just an amazing man and he infuses like you know the Hawaiian culture within what he does through his design and and through you know his reach and this was 14 years ago when he first started and now I think he's in the top five and in the architecture world or someone even like I think you know Tom Park you know bar leather apron leather soul and these these two gentlemen and they're amazing and the way they started and their vision just really moved me to let other readers know hey if they can do it so can you and just take that leap of faith and just make it happen and so it was about inspiring other people in the state of Hawaii to become whatever it is that they wanted to be yeah no I love that and I love Tom Park too because he's such a great guy such a successful businessman you are a great people person you love connecting people you love building relationships with people tell me more about why you love people so much people inspire me I'm the type of person that I would prefer to listen and hear what you have to say and then I absorb it so I take it in and then it never leaves my mind I love reading don't get me wrong but I haven't done it in quite some time I did read some some of your book however when I can have a moment or an hour with you and really understand what makes you tick what is it that makes you super passionate about why you do what can you share with me that I may need to grow in the future that is what I love and so when I know what you need and I know what somebody else needs I get jazzed and excited about saying hey Rusty I would love for you to meet Reg Baker yeah because maybe you can have a television show but that already happens so it's the connecting and seeing other people benefit and being happy about it yeah no I love that and you also do quarterly networking social events it's very successful tell me about that they are so much fun so the whole emphasis actually started 14 years ago when we started our first issue Pacific Edge magazine okay and I looked at the features the advertisers and the readers and I said I'd love for them to connect right so because Pacific Edge started out as a networking tool yeah so we would feature the young entrepreneur and then we place their phone number their email and sometimes even their address and some people would come to me and say hey are they free are they single we're not doing a dating magazine here it's strictly business but it became a networking tool so the bigger picture was let's connect the general public the advertisers and the features so that they can build and grow and get to know each other and build each other's businesses so the first one was at the Hano Hano room with flash was on your show and it was amazing you know meleco was up there emceeing and we had all these booths that we that we had rented and it was just it was socializing on the front end and networking on the back end and I wanted it to be that way so it wasn't like oh rusty how you doing how's everything going it's more like rusty what's going on you know tell me about yourself sure that's how business is done today yeah well last month you had a networking event that I was at it was honoring the women in business and it was a fantastic event at the mission houses tell me more about that thank you I appreciate that so everything we do as it relates to Pacific Edge magazine's events are cutting edge fresh hip new and so we move the locations every single issue so this was at the mission house museum lawn and we had had their prior and what I decided I wanted to do is have it tinted we had a separate VIP room in the actual the mute the so sorry the gift shop yeah and then we turned the mission house museums into speakeasies and so it was really lovely in that you know you had the opportunity to taste some good scotch or some good bourbon thanks to Johnson brother yes and and I thought you know let's mix in the feminine and the masculine that women don't enjoy a good Johnny Walker or whatever they drink but I thought it would be nice to have those two entities come together and then we worked with mud hen and we did vegetarian food and we know uplifted we had cars and we had stations where dry bar came in and massage and we made it interactive and again that's about connecting yeah and just fun a good time oh it was it was awesome I had a great time and it was like a sold-out event and really look forward to the next one that you're gonna have as well now as an entrepreneur what do you see is the biggest difference in you today versus you ten years ago wow that is an amazing question the biggest difference in me right now is that I really have learned to take some time and allow things to unfold back then 14 years ago you know I never knew what it was like to pick the low-hanging fruit so in 2008 when 48 magazines folded in the state of Hawaii we were growing yeah and it was because I was very very very creative and tenacious and and partnerships were a huge key of that however today it's more the long lines of don't force it let it unfold and give yourself Naomi a little time to be more creative and to think about what's going to happen in the future yeah because Prince changing so 14 years ago it was stepping stones and getting there and now it's let it unfold and see where you're gonna go next yeah no I mean it's interesting to see how things are changing and you have to adapt and adjust to the changing times yeah Naomi we're gonna take a quick break and when we come back we're gonna continue going beyond magazines you are watching beyond the lines on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest Naomi Hazelton we will be back in a quick minute hey loha my name is Andrew Lening I'm the host of Security Matters Hawaii airing every Wednesday here on Think Tech Hawaii live from the studios I'll bring you guests I'll bring you information about the things in security that matter to keeping you safe your co-workers safe your family safe to keep our community safe we want to teach you about those things in our industry that you know may be a little outside of your experience so please join me because security matters aloha hi my name is Amy Ortega Anderson inviting you to join us every Tuesday here on Pinoy Power Hawaii with Think Tech Hawaii we come to your home at 12 noon every Tuesday we invite you to listen watch for our mission of empowerment we aim to enrich and lighten educate entertain and we hope to empower again maraming salamat po mabuhai and aloha welcome back to Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii my special guest today is the founder and publisher of the very popular Pacific Edge magazine she is Naomi Hazelton and today we are going beyond magazines Naomi you know what are the biggest challenges that you're dealing with in owning these magazines that's a great question you know when we first started Pacific Edge magazine print was flourishing and then we took on Vacations Hawaii's in-flight magazine Bill Smith and then we purchased Green magazine Hawaii which is the voice of sustainability a phenomenal publication and product and we were flourishing and growing and what I see today is not that we're not still in the game however video has come up YouTube has come up generating content has been a huge integral part of our new process and so we launched a new brand I launched a new vision called Beyond the Edge and it's a series of video interviews a series of events that are just strictly powhanas no platform no let's meet all these amazing leaders just having a good time and then a series of news later newsletters that are kind of hip and cool so Pacific Edge is more Bishop Street and Beyond the Edge is more kakaako in Chinatown and so it's looking forward to the future and seeing what is this new generation one what are they viewing and it is video it is what's happening right now yeah now that's interesting to see and I know about you being part of Pacific Century fellows but can you share more about that it was one of the most amazing experiences I had in my life and meeting the 30 plus cohorts I think there were 35 of us total we had the ability every month to meet different leaders in different industry from agriculture to hospitality and tourism one of the most phenomenal experiences of my life was spending the night on the USS Vincent which is which was an amazing aircraft carrier and it gave me huge perspective into the freedom that we have and these young men and women that are really day and night 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. sometimes you know fight for our freedom and protecting us and it was beautiful beautiful experience yeah no that's great to hear I mean the military I mean when you see it up close and personal like that I mean you have a whole new appreciation of what they do absolutely now let's talk about my book Beyond the Lines I know you're working on it yes what are you liking about it so far well you talk about leadership yeah and you know leadership is a very broad term however for every individual that is a leader there's growing and there's experience and you know I think in your context winning so many games and being so proficient what you do and then you know for you now taking that leap of faith and writing a book is really what's profound to me and that experience in itself is amazing and you know you went from leadership and yet you're a leader again in a different way and meeting other leaders and it's hard to write a book it's not easy I know the writers block now Naomi in my book I talk about welcoming adversity and looking forward to challenges what's what's a major adversity that you have to overcome in your life well major adversity that I had to overcome in my life would be starting a business in general I knew nothing about business sure how hard can it be there's so many moving pieces and so I had to learn along the way and then as we grew I learned to actually have courage and ask for help and ask for mentors and so the adversity really for me in the broadest scale of things is that I went into it completely not knowing a thing yeah yeah and you know what you just said there the greatest leaders I mean they don't know at all and they have the courage to ask people you know to help them and and you know your team your people will respect that from you as the leader as well absolutely I don't know at all none of us do now you were talking a little about risk you know starting your business tell me how important risk is when you're in order to achieve success it's everything you have to get out of your mind and say I have the courage to do this and I believe in myself and I believe to think is to create just think about it know it you'll get there don't worry about how you're gonna get there to think is to create just go for it and if you fail you fail and if you fail then you learn yeah and if you don't fail you don't grow and that's what being a human is about completely agree I agree with you Naomi now what do you feel is your purpose in life oh rusty my purpose in life is really to see other people perpetuate and grow so if I can help them collectively together by making an introduction and they can then grow in different ways or together through business professionally personally and my job is done here on earth yeah I love hearing that now people define success in so many different ways 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 $5 more and he said to me hey darling I just want you to know that this insurance company paid me $5 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 $50 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 so Naomi what what do you do to continue to improve and better yourself I for the first time started taking time for myself I had this perception that I always had to say yes sure I'll do everything and anything for you I will take that additional phone call or I will be there at 8 a.m. for you and and whatever that means and I think that there's balance in that and so for me personally I've started to take to take the time for myself even if that's just sitting down and decompressing and taking time to read your book that is really important yeah I love hearing that and I want to Naomi who is someone that inspires you oh my mom you know having the courage at you know as a teen as a you know 18 19 year old and driving to the south and she shared with me that she was in a burning church during that time and she didn't know if she was gonna get out and the fact that that she was there fighting for human rights during Martin Luther King well during yeah during the civil rights movement that's really inspirational to me because people matter all over the world and it doesn't matter what we do it's really who we are and that's why we're put on Earth is to help people yeah that's our greatest gift and so she really inspired me by having the courage to do that and standing out no that's great to hear I mean we want more people to have courage to do the right thing yeah people are people yeah Naomi what is something about you that a lot of people don't know about when I was 24 I ran for Miss Koi and I was in drama at the time prior to that and so I did a monologue and it was about a woman in an extremely abusive relationship and so I took the title later on because Miss Koi decided to let go of her crown and so what that did is it helped me go to HPU and so that financial scholarship gave me the opportunity to start graduate school and so a lot of people don't know that I don't share that but it was a phenomenal opportunity for me yeah yeah it was great I'm hearing that yeah it's fun Naomi who is someone that really impacted you and helped you in business I would say my business partner Jamie he was an amazing leader he taught me to really look at the strategic aspect of things and not get your let your emotions get in the way but then also allowed me to have intuition and gut and so he taught me a lot about business and a lot about myself and set up all the strategic you know platforms that we have and and he inspired me a lot he was he was a very amazing business person yeah yeah how long how long ago did you guys start the business together it we started in 2005 in a small little house that we were renting on a desk and we had our yeah that's a whole another ball of wax but that was a long time ago it was great all right now Naomi whether it be personally or professionally what's something that you want to do but you just haven't done yet can I say a few things oh yeah I want to do the rough water swim growing up swimming I've always wanted to do that and I'd love to do I'd love to swim all over the world and then I'd love to be a food critic so I'd love to travel all over the world and eat amazing food and I guess blog about it yeah Instagram about it and then swim after I think you would be fantastic you know doing the food thing traveling the world tasting all the food writing about in a magazine that'd be fantastic it'd be amazing and to have the courage to do it independently yeah that's a big you know it's a big step now Naomi before we wrap I want to know what's a future goal of yours a future goal of mine is actually to get out of the office and go virtual yeah and today as long as the magazines happen and the videos get produced and the content is created and we're all working together collectively that can happen so I see that happening within the next year and I'm excited for that now Naomi I love hearing that I mean I know you have probably tons of goals but thank you for sharing that one so what's something I mean we're gonna wrap soon but what's upcoming for you now or your magazine is there a networking event that's coming absolutely actually we have a couple so we have an event at dry bar okay it'll be at International Marketplace on the 26th of June and then we're gonna do a beyond the edge event at Otorico off of Kapil Lani next to 24-hour fitness and then our leaders in health care issue actually in that issue we're featuring Glen Madares and so in that with that issue we're featuring a bunch of amazing leaders and entrepreneurs Katelyn of Premier Barbershop being one as well and that's at Sax Fifth Avenue and that's on September 4th and then we have our business achievement awards gala which is August 21st at the Kahala Hotel self nominations are recommended and we have six independent judges so I have nothing to do with the scoring process and who the finalists are but it's an amazing evening to recognize the young professional of the year small business owner family run business you should apply you should not be perfect well we'll see what happens yes we will see what happened Naomi thank you so much for sharing all of your insights today you know you are someone that definitely go beyond the lines I mean you're very respected such in I mean very successful business person here in Hawaii loved it loved your insights today thank you for having me rusty thank you Naomi and thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii and a special thank you to my clothing sponsor Ilani Incorporated for more information please visit Rusty Kamori.com and my book is available on Amazon Barnes & Noble and I think I hope that Naomi and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs aloha