 ThinkTekAway, civil engagement lives here. Aloha. I'm your host, David Tatsaka, and delighted you are joining us today for this out-and-about show where we explore a variety of topics, organizations, events, and the people who fuel them in our city, state, country, and world. As a disclaimer, any views or opinions expressed by me are strictly my own and not connected with any organization. Joining me in the studio today is Ken Nishihirao, business owner and the incoming district director for Toastmasters District 49. Ken is a distinguished Toastmaster and is the district director for District 49 Toastmasters. His district includes Hawaii Island, Oahu, Maui, and Kauai. In 2016, as the club growth director for District 49, Ken started seven new clubs for his district. This helped the district attain distinguished status for that year. He is a licensed land surveyor and the owner of KN Surveying, LLC. He has been in land surveying since he was 18 years old in 1978. He started from the bottom and worked his way up. When he's not working or participating in Toastmasters events, he spends his time with his wife of 35 years and with three kids and four grandchildren. Welcome to the show today, Ken. Thank you, David. I'm glad to be here. Tell us a little bit about your background, Ken. Where were you born and grew up? I was born and raised in Kalihi. Oh. I grew up in Kalihi. I went to Farrington and right after high school, I started working as a land surveyor. Wow. How did that happen? Was your father a surveyor or uncle or friend? No, actually, I got that job from an employment counselor. Oh, wow. I was going to be a baker, actually. Big difference now. But the employment counselor said it would be better if I do land surveying. Wow. That was a big catalyst for who you are today. It taught me a lot of things about life and about hard work, too. Good. Good. Good. Where did you first work when you became a surveyor? The first company I worked for is the R&M Tower Corporation. Oh, I know about them. You know, then after that, I went to Virginia Surveys, Hawaii. Oh. Then I worked for the state DOT, we laid out the H3 Freeway. Wow. And then went to the city and county of Honolulu. There I became a licensed land surveyor. What is a licensed land surveyor? What does that mean? Well, that means you're, it's a profession. And it means you're licensed to practice surveying in the state of Hawaii. And so it's up there with engineers and architects. Wow. The test is really hard. So you have to go through qualifications and testing to get that designation. Right. You have to be qualified. You have to, you have to have, I think at my time, was two licensed land surveyors would have to write a recommend you. Wow. Yeah. For your character. So you had to jump to big hoops or small hoops to get to where you are today. It was, it was, it was a big jump. Wow. Congratulations. Thank you. Tell us a little bit about how you got involved with Toastmasters. Well, back in 2010, while working at the city, you know, one of my coworkers had an open house, so she invited me to one of the club meetings. And I went to the club meeting and, you know, I thought I don't, at first I didn't think I could do it, you know, because I had to speak in front of people. But I knew that, you know, it would be better for me if I learned and overcome my fear. So, you know, I thought about it hard and I took the big jump. I joined Toastmasters. Wow. And from then on, you know, it transformed my life, actually. What's one thing that you think it helped you with? It helped me with my confidence and my self-esteem. So once I got that, and once I knew that I had more confidence, I just, I went, you know, bonkers on Toastmasters. I just went to every meeting, I made a lot of speeches, so, you know, worked my way up and I started to serve the district as a district director, district leader. And that made me grow more because, you know, I grew as a leader from serving as a leader. It's like a laboratory where you can learn by your mistakes and, you know, all your trial and error. You know, you try something, it doesn't work as well. You try something else and it works better. So then I learned how to work with people and it actually helped me in my job at the city because I became a supervisor. So from there, I, you know, supervised my crew, my section and, you know, did the work really great for me because I had no problems with my workers. That's wonderful. So that was awesome. Definitely benefits for you joining Toastmasters and really getting involved in learning to be a public speaker, but also to create leadership skills in your life. Exactly. How did you happen to be on the leadership team that got you to where you actually are now? Well, they always have a survey, you know, in a club meeting if I want to serve as a district leader. So the first couple of years I joined Toastmasters, you know, I said, no way, I'm never going to serve as a leader. You know, I don't want to be put in front of people. But after I gained more confidence, after maybe the third year, I said, yeah, why not, you know, you know, I accomplished a lot of things. I got my confidence, you know, I overcome my fear of public speaking. So yeah, I joined as a district leader. And from there on, I learned a lot more about leadership, about people, and I learned about myself. So I just continued, continued whatever the district asked of me. I would say yes. Well, that's terrific, Ken. You know, being a Toastmaster myself, I've seen that joining Toastmasters is such a great opportunity to learn and grow personally, professionally, and just in terms of communication in general. And I found that joining Toastmasters is the only place that I could practice without fear of embarrassment or a fear of making a fool of myself. And I always felt unconditional and loving support. Did you find the same thing? Yes, exactly. That's the reason why I stay at Toastmaster because everyone, every club gives you support and you can feel the love, you know. So after I joined Toastmasters, I became more loving too because, you know, you feel the love around you with your support from your fellow club members. So now I feel the same love, yeah? And that's why my goal is to build the district, a membership by 10 percent in membership and 10 percent in clubs because I want to spread the love too. How many clubs are there and how many members are there in District 49? There are 65 clubs right now. We took a hit last year. Started with 73 and it went down. And the membership went down too, I think it was 2,000. What are some of your goals for your administration? And I know you have two others that are on your executive team. My goal is to build a membership by 10 percent and create new clubs by 10 percent so that at the end of the year, we have 10 percent more clubs and 10 percent more membership also to enhance the quality of the clubs because, you know, the members' achievement is the most important. Until I joined Toastmasters, I had a great experience. That's why I'm the district director today. But I also want to give that to the rest of the membership so they can get the same experience that I received. It appears that you were very fortunate to have a great experience, probably good mentors along the way. Probably made a lot of friends through Toastmasters. I made a lot of friends. Ever since I joined Toastmasters, I had no problem meeting people now. And no problem interacting with people. So that's what Toastmasters means to me because they have given me so much love and friendship all over. My life is fulfilled, like I live a full life. Tell us a little bit about what a person can experience if they come and visit a Toastmasters club. Well, you're going to come into a friendly atmosphere. Every club is friendly. And they will have their speeches and, you know, they'll have evaluation. They'll have table topics. Table topic is impromptu speaking. Table topic master will ask a question and choose one of somebody from the audience or somebody from the membership that hasn't spoken that day. And then they'll come up to a two-minute speech. Wow. So if you're our first time, you know, yes, you're just going to observe. And if you feel like you want to join, you're welcome to join. What are some of the trainings that Toastmaster offers to members? Well, they have, so when you first join, you'll be on member. But then you need an officer, you need officer, executive officers to run the club successfully. So you may be asked to join as a club officer. So if you join as a club officer, whatever position you choose, you will go get training on that so you can do your job better. And so you're learning how to do your job as an officer for the club better. And at the same time, you're learning how to do that. And you can transform it to your regular life or your job. So that, you know, in that aspect, you learn a lot. I've seen that there's some significant changes to Toastmasters in this past year. And it's because they've changed the way that education is done with a new system called Pathways. Would you share a little bit about Pathways and perhaps why they went on this route? Yeah, Pathways is a new educational system. I think they went through that route because it's more geared to the individual, you know. So you take an assessment test to see what are your, more likely your strengths are and more likely what your personality is. And then they give you a choice about three choices. You have eight different paths, but they give you about three choices and you can pick one. And that, when you pick that choice, you're going to go to that path and you start off at level one doing your icebreaker and then you get evaluated. You do another speech and then you do research and then you pass level one. And level two, three and four and five, you get five levels. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty, pretty, because in the old days, a couple of years ago, they had a manual. So you go through the manual, do your speeches. So it's kind of a really different time for Toad Smith. It's changing time. And, you know, so I guess some of the members will have hard time changing, especially the old timers that used to do the old way, because the old way was good. You know, it built leaders and communicators. But this is the new way and we're just going to embrace the new way. Well, Ken, I'm just impressed. Being a Toad Smith to myself, I know the pathways is the path of the future. And I truly acknowledge you. And we're going to be taking a short break. I'm David Tosaka. This is Out and About on the Think Tech Live Streaming Network. We're here today with Ken Nishihira, Business Director for Incoming District Director for Toad Smith's District 49. We'll be back in a minute. So stay tuned for more of this story. Hello, everyone. I'm DeSoto Brown, the co-host of Human Humane Architecture, which is seen on Think Tech Hawaii every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. And with the show's host, Martin Desbang, we discuss architecture here in the Hawaiian Islands and how it not only affects the way we live, but other aspects of our life, not only here in Hawaii, but internationally as well. So join us for Human Humane Architecture every other Tuesday at 4 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii. Hey, aloha, standing energy man here on Think Tech Hawaii where community matters. This is the place to come to think about all things energy. We talk about energy for the grid, energy for vehicles, energy in transportation, energy in maritime, energy in aviation. We have all kinds of things on our show, but we always focus on hydrogen here in Hawaii. Because it's my favorite thing. That's what I like to do. But we talk about things that make a difference here in Hawaii, things that should be a big changer for Hawaii. And we hope that you'll join us every Friday at noon on Stand the Energy Man and take a look with us at new technologies and new thoughts on how we can get clean and green in Hawaii. Aloha. We're back. We're live. I'm David Tasaka and this is Out and About on the Think Tech live streaming network series talking with Ken Nishihiro, business owner and district director for Toastmasters District 49. Ken, a lot of changes for Toastmasters. I heard this is the first change. Pathways is the first change from almost the time that they started. And I've seen the challenges, but I can also see the benefits because they're planning for the present and for the future. And I'm really pleased that they really made the Toastmasters website so robust with videos, with all kinds of resources because that's where people are now. They're online. Would you share a few of your ideas that you'd like to put forth for the members of Toastmasters in our community here for District 49? Yes, some of the ideas that we've been thinking about is to reach out to the members to find out what they want from the district because we, the district, actually serves the members. And it's hard to serve the members if we don't know what the members want. So we're planning to put out a survey to find out from the members what they want us, what to have for their clubs. And of course we always want to help the clubs get new members or build their membership because if you have a club that's just eight members, it's not as vibrant and fun as if you had a club with 25 members. So we are always constantly focused on guiding people to the clubs so that the clubs can grow and become more vibrant, more successful. And the more different people in the club, the whole face of the club, the whole personality of the club changes. So the club's always going to benefit from new members. I've seen the new District 49 website and it is beautiful and really powerful. I think it really looks great. Would you like to share who created it for the District? Yes, his name is Slava Slavik. He's a Toastmaster and he is such a great person. Just want to share his, and he's a master. He's a master creating a great website. He's also a master photographer. He can make you look good. Really? Really. Well, I'm impressed with him. I know that we have many talented Toastmasters and I know that you appreciate all of their support. I feel that your administration and your incoming group, your support, is it called DEC? Yeah, District Executive Committee. You want to share who they are? There's a lot of people. I have John Coleman, he's our PQD, Program Quality Director. Seth P. Utahola K2Y is our Club Group Director. So John will be in charge of training the club officers and training the other leaders. So he's in charge of training and putting on the conference and the speech contest. And Seth P. Utahola will be in charge of growing new clubs and also helping struggling clubs build their membership. And there we have a lot of more people. We have a finance director. We have her name is Wendy Lee Atkins. We have the public relations manager. Her name is Karan Lau. And we have a lot more. Do you want me to go on? No, that says that. So you have a whole team behind you. We have 28 people. Wow. So you have a lot of support. Yes. And what I've seen is your primary purpose is to lead with vision and dedication and this trickles down through the whole team. Yes. What are some of the ideas that you'd like to see for your administration come into reality? Well, I'd like to have a continuity of club growth. You know, like train our club growth director with different methods of growing new clubs. And we don't want to waste people's time too at the same time. We want to grow new clubs, but we don't want to make our volunteers work too hard. So we try to narrow it down and stream it down so that we can just get to the point, just get to the main market. And that's one of the things we're working on with CEPI. We're going to go to the international convention next week in Chicago. That there, she's going to get more training. As a club growth, I'm going to get training as a district director and John will have training as a program quality director. So we want to build new clubs and a membership and just guide everyone and have everyone focus on the same thing in the whole team. We have every director that visits the clubs. They're going to go there to not only help the clubs, but they're going to help the clubs. But from the first contact with the clubs, they're going to make sure that everything is working inside the clubs. The public can get to the clubs. Make sure that the email addresses are working. The phone numbers are the phone numbers of the right people in the club. And if not, we'll have them change that. Just a little tweak. They can get maybe another couple more members. Well, I'm very excited for the changes, Ken, because I know that with your vision of making the district, the members district, where everybody has a voice, everybody has a say, everybody's welcome, and everybody feels like they're a part of a family that are coming together to help each other become the best that they can be through many different paths. And public speaking is one of them. I envision your administration to be evolutionary of sorts, meaning that your ideas really have a resonating vibration for me. Thank you. I feel very excited that our direction is on the right track and a very powerful track because it is something that I feel the members really desire and deserve. And I think the team you have on board now are just tremendous supporters and leaders in their own way. And you are very fortunate to have a team of this high caliber. Do you think that you would like to share any ideas that new ideas or some of your vision that you'd like to see accomplished for district 49 during your reign as the district director? Well, I want this to continue. Leadership to, you know, like, say this year we grow so many clubs we have and we have maybe other potential clubs in a pipeline. We wanna pass that on to the next club growth director. We wanna improve our quality of training for the officers. It's very important that the clubs serves the members so that the members can have the best experience that they can possibly have. Because with the members having a great experience, who knows if we might have a better leader, a stronger leader next time? Because when I first joined, I wasn't a leader. And I wasn't a great communicator. But after joining and becoming a leader, that was a great opportunity for me. So this is what I wish for the membership so that they can get a great experience and they can continue. Because there's a lot of people that join those masters and if their experience is not that great for them, they may leave those masters. And missed opportunity. What is the District 49 website address? District49.org. Org. Okay, so people can go there and find the clubs and information and look for additional information. Right, yeah, you can go there, you can find a club. You can look for your area director. You can see our email addresses, contact, whoever you need to contact. Well, I've been so pleased to have you as a guest, Ken. Thank you. It's really been a pleasure having you on. I feel a vibration with you. The classic thing of one of the politicians of the past was quiet but effective. And I would apply that to you except that you're not only effective, you're really not that quiet. And I really feel that Toastmasters with your administration will really fulfill the needs and the desires of the members who you all serve. And you said it right at the beginning. It is their district and you wanna make sure that they are heard, that they are served. And I know that if they have any concerns, they can get answers for their concern. And I think that that's very important for any organization. As we look forward to your administration really lifting off and taking off, I truly am looking forward to a great year with you as the leader. And as I said to you before, I'm here to support you because I believe in you, Ken. Thank you. You the guy. Thank you. So we've been talking to Ken Nishihiro and we're out of time. This is, I'm David Tosaka. This is Out and About on the Think Tech. A live streaming network. We've been talking to Ken Nishihiro, business owner and district director for District 49. Thanks for tuning in and we welcome your feedback. Thanks to our broadcast engineer, Ian Davidson, our technical producer, Ray Sangelang, our floor manager, Robert McLean and to Jay Fidel, our executive producer who puts it all together. I'll see you every other Monday at 3 p.m. for more Out and About on the Think Tech. Aloha everyone.