 Thank you everyone. Thank you for joining us right here on Think Tech, Hawaii. My name is Justin Cruz. I am a news and weather anchor on KH1 too. And today, we are going way beyond the lines because this is a very special episode. This is the 200th episode of Beyond the Lines, and it's a big milestone. And we're going to talk about how we got to this point and move forward with Rusty Kamori, author of two books, Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game. Thank you for joining us. Congratulations, Rusty, on 200 episodes. I mean, would you ever think that we would be here? I remember Rusty getting to 20 episodes was pretty epic. And look at you now. Justin, you know, it feels so funny to be in the seat of the guest today and I'm so happy to have you hosting the show. And yeah, I never realized, I mean, you're right, we're getting to episode 20 was a seat, let alone 200. And thank you. You've had me on your show two times. And, you know, let me begin by asking the people that you asked to be on your show, there must be something about them that you take like internally that you want people to see or know about them. So how do you go about choosing your guests? Well, Justin, you know, the show is based on my books and people that watch the show, they find it very educational, they find it very inspirational. So I like to look at a wide spectrum of guests and why they're successful. You know, how did they achieve success? How did they achieve greatness? And what can we learn from them? And so that's, I think that's the formula for the shows so far. You know, and you have a wide variety of guests that you interview from business people to athletic coaches, you know, to public servants and all that stuff. So there's something that everyone can learn from in each episode. So that's what I really appreciate about it. And by the way, congratulations once again. Thank you for doing this. Rusty, everyone knows your association with tennis, but what, how did you become a tennis coach? How did you know that this was something that you wanted to do? Well, originally I thought I was going to go into law school because I, graduating Creighton, I had come back, I took the LSATs, and then I started teaching tennis at Wildlife Country Club and Punahou School. And a lot of my adult tennis students were attorneys and they all had glasses that looked like it was three inches thick. And I asked them, I said, what do you guys do all day? And they said, oh, we read all day. You're going to read all day. You're going to have glasses like us. And I thought to myself, man, I don't want to read things that I have to read. I like to read things that I want to read. And that was the end of me pursuing law right then and there. And I continued developing a lot of our state's top ranked junior players. And then after three years of being a tennis pro, our athletic director at Punahou School and our tennis director had said, Rusty, you know, you teach private lessons to a bunch of our girls varsity players, but you also teach over half of our boys varsity team. We should make you head coach. And that's really how I became head coach. I was 24 years old. And at that moment I thought, you know, wow, I better have a plan because now I'm responsible for these impressionable teenagers. And that's really what happened. I had a passion for tennis and then I just had this passion for coaching as well. That's really heavy, Rusty, at 24 to have almost seemingly the weight of the world on your shoulders, being a head coach of a very prestigious tennis program at Punahou. And the pressure. I couldn't do it, man, but I give you props. You did it. And you were, you know, a coach with 22 consecutive championships, a record that is unbroken to this day in any sport in any school. So, I, okay, so I do want to ask you one question about law. Okay. If you were to be a lawyer, what type of law would you practice? That's a good question because I, you know, I was thinking about it in the past about, you know, would I be on the prosecution side? Would I be on the defense side? I'm just somebody that I want things to be done fairly. And I would want people to be represented in the greatest possible way. I really love law and order and I want justice in every situation. So I wouldn't know what side I would have been on. Yeah, yeah. And you know, it just, I know you personally as a friend and stuff like that. And to bring up a phrase from the 80s, you're a righteous dude, you always, you always have been very, very forthcoming and a very honest person. I could totally see you as a lawyer. But that, that didn't happen. You became, you know, you have the longest running streak in the US of all sports. What, what do you contribute that 22 consecutive state championships in 22 years? What are some reasons that you were able to accomplish that? You know, I, growing up through in playing tennis, I, and other sports, I just know that the mindset is super huge as well as character. And I know that if, if players or coaches, if they can have the right mindset and they can have great character, that unlocks the potential for greatness. And for me, once we would go through tryouts, I would tell my players, I said, Hey, you know, we're going to have some major adversity this year, we're going to have some major challenges. I don't know when it's going to happen, but I know it's going to happen. So we need to look forward to these challenges. And when it does happen, and we get through it, we become better for going through that experience. We become smarter. We become tougher. We become stronger. So we need to embrace these challenges because it makes us better. It leads to growth. And the other thing is my number one priority as a, as a tennis coach was to develop champion athletes of character first, and then great tennis players second. You know, I think I had the right perspective, and we executed correctly and training the mindset to really look forward to these challenges because it's all inevitable, but it transfers to the business and life as well. Yeah, yeah, Rusty, I think, you know, just knowing you and reading the books and character is so important to you. I mean, I'm glad that you're a coach that put that first, and everything else, because if you don't have that character. Everything is for naught. You know what I mean? It's so important. And that's, I think that's an overlying theme in both of your books. And I think that's the way you kind of live. Building characters above and beyond, above and beyond anybody else. But you've been doing it for so long, you decided to retire in 2015. Tell us about that. I mean, like you could have you stop at 22, which is epic, by the way, 22 championships. What, why did you stop at 22? And, you know, why did you decide to retire when you could have still stayed in the game? Yeah, you know, through the years when I was coaching, a lot of my players' parents were CEOs and business owners. And they would tell me, hey, Coach Rusty, you need to write a book, you need to share what you're doing with your teams. And I thought to myself, you have me write a book, that'll never happen. And when we're going for our 17th consecutive state championship, the media had told me that there was a swimming team in Colorado that had won 16 consecutive, and then they had lost. And so I'm thinking to myself, whoa, I had no idea about this. And, you know, I'm feeling pressure. And, you know, we're just taking things one year at a time. And when we were getting to that 22nd year, a lot of people were telling me that, hey, Coach Rusty, this is going to be your legacy. You know, this incredible championship streak. And I thought to myself, you know, that that's good, but I think I can do much greater things. And so for me as a coach, I felt like there was nothing left for me to accomplish as a coach. And was there a way that I could maybe help all students or all schools or all businesses or sports teams or families? And then I thought to myself, you know, maybe I should try to write a book because potentially everybody in the world could get the book and then the world could be a better place. And so I just decided that in that year, you know, we're at the top of everything and to just really come down to nothing and to start a new path. And I'm glad that people are just really loving both books and that it's really inspiring a lot of people, you know, to really strive for excellence and greatness. We're going to talk about those books in just a bit, but I do want to just mention something I feel is really important. Even though Rusty, you were the head coach at Punahou for, you know, the boys tennis program. You had students from all walks of life from different schools, you know, from other public and private schools and you were never, you never really were like you never treated any other student from a different school less than a Punahou student. You were all, they were all on the same page, you know, training and stuff like that. So I kind of appreciated that. I know you had students from public schools and, you know, you know, the other private schools that were competing against you, but you always, you always kept it fair. You always kept it, you know, character first, and then, you know, skill development afterwards. I just wanted to mention that. So I know you weren't thinking about the second book when you wrote the first book, but what's what's the difference between the two books in your opinion. Well, in Beyond the Lines, the big things in that book are the four P's and the P's of achieving and sustaining success. And in the second book, Beyond the Game, the big things are the three C's of leadership and the six keys for peak performance. So the first book I really wanted to create a general framework for people to follow in all walks of life and to really create a superior culture of excellence and sharing what we did with our teams and how that allowed us to not just achieve success but to sustain success. And then the second book to really go further beyond the lines to provide even more details about how you can achieve and sustain success in anything in business, sports, and life. And I think when we've had conversations, I think you're very proud of the fact that this is not an encyclopedia, right? This is a quick read, and it's something that you can pick up and read multiple times. Actually, your books are, if you watch Living 808 on KH1, your books, both of them are on the bookshelf right here in the back, just so you know. You got to look closely, but it's there. So your books have impacted so many people. Tell us some of the feedback and tell us how it's impacted, you know, organizations or sports teams, you know, what kind of impact are you having with them? I feel so grateful that it's having such a huge positive impact. A lot of CEOs or business owners, they're telling me that they're buying the books for all of their employees and they love it for two reasons. They love the simplicity and the clarity. They're saying that the employees, you know, everyone's getting the same message. They're striving for that same superior culture of excellence. And the employees can hold management accountable and management can hold employees accountable. And another really eye-opening situation that happened to me, I was a keynote speaker for this big insurance organization at the Halle Coa Hotel when my first book had come out. And after doing the speaking, I'm at a table signing books, half of the audience had pre-ordered books and the other half was ordering books right then and there. And midway through the line, this older Caucasian lady had come up and said, oh, Coach Rusty, you know, when I saw that you were going to be the keynote speaker, I had to come in and meet you. Can I order 20 books and you saved my life. And, you know, I, she kept talking and I'm trying to concentrate to spell the names correctly. And she said professionally, she's very successful. She owns her own business, but personally, her life was down in the dumps that she was contemplating suicide. I stop, I look up and she starts crying. And at that moment, I'm thinking to myself, wait, I wrote books about leadership and creating a superior culture of excellence. This was shocking to me. So I made the relation, how she said earlier that you saved my life and then suicide. I start crying. And she continues talking. She says, Coach Rusty, I read your book and it changed my mindset. It gave me inspiration and hope. She goes, you saved my life. Can I hug you? And I'm like, yes. So we are hugging and crying and hugging and crying. This is so eye-opening to me. And I asked her, I said, can you tell me what parts in the book resonated with you? And she says, oh my God, chapter one is titled The Choices Yours. You talk about choices. You talk about making people matter. You talk about contributing to society. You talk about welcoming adversity, looking forward to challenges. You talk about looking at that one positive among 20 negatives. You talk about inspiring hope. And when she said all that, I'm like, oh my gosh, I can see that now. I never looked at it in that way. And so because of that, you know, it just created a whole nother situation where we're just, I'm thinking, gosh, these books are valuable. It's not just helping people with leadership or creating a culture of excellence, but it's helping people with their mental health issues dealing with depression and now we know about suicide. So it's literally, it's hard to find books that apply to every student and every adult. And I'm just so happy that it turned out like that. I didn't plan it that way. I wanted to write books that would appeal to basically everybody, but to the depth and the impact that it's having, it's incredible. I see that's an incredible story, man. I mean, I mean, just you having that experience makes all it makes it all worth it. You know what I mean? Like just that one person. I mean, you've helped so many people but for her to open up to you on a very personal level like that, that's really deep. I would be crying too, man. I would, I would totally be crying. Hey, so your books, you help, you know, students and CEOs, you inspire them, but you also have this initiative to make sure or try to get these books into everyone's hands as much as possible and especially with schools. So you've done a little organization, not an organization, but you've done a drive and initiative to get these books into schools and you enlist some of your guests to make it happen. And you enlist some influences and then business people tell us about those book donations and how many books have gone into schools now. Well, Justin, I want to thank you. I mean, you've done two book donations to really help what we're doing as well as right now I have over 30 plus individuals and businesses that have helped with donating my books to over 30 plus schools and organizations. And because of the impact that it's making, you know, I, people would ask me, hey, co-trustee, we love your book, you know, how can we help you during that process? I'm thinking, I don't know how you can help me. You know, I'm learning as I'm going along. And so I thought to myself, you know what, I'm going to do a 200 book donation to Damien School. Everybody assumes I went to Punahou, but I went to Damien. And I had told the principal, the president, I said, you know, please give this out to whoever you feel necessary to students, teachers, coaches or administrators. Because ultimately we want the books going home with them to their family so the whole family unit gets impacted and it just multiplies right there. And so the impact that we're making, it's huge. So I did that. And then I've also donated to many other organizations. And then when people would ask me again, hey, co-trustee, you know, we love your book, how can we help? And I'm like, do you want to donate books to a school? And they said, yes, yes, we do. And so I had checked with two of my CPA friends. I said, I think I just found a way to do new charitable gift donations. And they said, yes, it is 100% tax-deductible and you did find a way to do it. And so it's incredible because our purpose is to inspire excellence, hope and leadership with every family in our community. And I feel so grateful to you and so many others that have really helped with our purpose. And, you know, we are making splashes in the community. I think we just need to make a big tidal wave because I want to move the needle in society in the right direction to bring back words and actions like honor, integrity, trust and respect. Oh, that's incredible, Rusty. Keep up that initiative because the more the merrier and to get to 30 schools so far. I mean, I remember when you first started this and you just keep going, man. Good for you. Congratulations. The book got into the hands of our favorite band. And you made it happen. Actually, you got it into Def Leppard's hands twice or you saw them twice but the first time when, you know, we love Def Leppard they played here in Honolulu. So the first night you went you gave him the book and then when I went with you to the concert on the second night they're like they recognize like Rusty. Yeah, you know Justin, you know, we know Def Leppard is our favorite band of all time and I have to thank my close buddy Pat Koo. He's the owner of Rima Sound Services and he knows that that's my favorite band and they had two concerts at the Blaisdell and he set up a meet and greet on that first night. I brought my first book and I signed it all to them and they were just so excited about it. And we, you know, the lead singer Joe Elliott says, oh, trust me, let's take a picture with your book and I'm like, Yes. Okay. Yeah, let's do it. And then the next night when I brought you, it was funny when we went into the back area to meet them and the first thing they said was Rusty, you're back and you're like telling me, dude, they know you and I'm thinking to myself, man, that is extraordinary. This is, this is crazy because we grew up listening to them. And now, well, you've seen them in person twice and I got to meet them because of you and Pat. So definitely props to you and Pat for that. And you know what, okay, Def Leppard, if you really think about it, this band is a quality character band. All right, they're not sloppy. You know, some rock bands are just sloppy. And they are the kind of people that inspire other people and that's what you write about in your book. They do everything top notch. There's nothing that they cut corners on. So this is, it's good to have a rock band that you adore that also has good characteristics that we both love that you write about in your book. Your 200 episodes, I mean, that's enormous amount of work and just finding people and coordinating everything. Just give us some highlights about these last 200 episodes, things that stick out in your mind memorable moments and and what do you remember about these 200 episodes. I, every guest that I've had is just extraordinary and one way or the other and, you know, somebody having olympic gold medalist Christie amiguchi on the show. I mean, I, I remember watching the Olympics where she won the gold medal and she is the greatest ice skater in the world at that moment. And then to be able to feature her on my show and to really hear her insights and that she likes the book and it's extraordinary and and then to really connect with Super Bowl champion head coach Dick Vermeel and to feature him on the show. I mean, I remember watching him coach and then winning the Super Bowl for the St. Louis Rams and to really hear his insights about excellence and greatness and and for him to really like my books. I'm thinking oh my gosh this is this is crazy. You know the people, the quality I mean these extraordinary people that I'm meeting, whether it's on the show or just just, you know, every week I'm it seems like I'm meeting just so many terrific people so. Yeah, I feel like, man I can't believe it's 200 episodes. And I'm excuse me and rusty you know these episodes are, they're not just like you'll watch it one time and it's over if you need you know if you ever want, just a little bit inspiration or if you ever want. Like, I think, okay you've had teachers you've had educators you've had CEOs I'm sure other CEOs watch the the television show just to get a little bit just get pumped up you know what I mean. It's very relatable to everyone but it's a great resource thank goodness it's always online so you can just, you know, go watch any episode that you want and I've done that. But with a lot of your episodes I've rewatched them because I was like blown away and I want to try to keep that information in my head, but you. You talked to a lot of CEOs and a lot of leaders right. Speaker and executive coach and when an organization fails, or doesn't meet expectations, whose fault is that or is it the coach, is it the team, is it the owner, I mean, give us your insight on that because, especially with sports. There's always firing and hiring and then what's your thought on that. Yeah, I know I do meet with a ton of CEOs and and I always say everything starts with the CEO or head coach, and it's up to them to really create that culture of excellence and to really build their team but to also adapt and adjust I mean there's no longer blockbuster video or tower records or radio shack. I mean, why is that I mean they failed to really adapt and adjust or to be proactive versus reactive to try to look and forecast certain things that can and will happen. And then to really create in that culture and open an honest communication with you and your team members because your team members are a reflection of you and you're a reflection of them. So there's a lot of moving pieces but it's up to the head coach or the CEO to really be in touch with the vibe and pulse of their team their organization. Great, great answer and I think, I think for the most part, at least in sports teams that I'm not very knowledgeable about sports but it does fall with the top it starts from the top and make sure the top is good. And, well, you've won, you've won so many championships. What great inspiration is that. So let's talk about your time at Creighton University of. Did you ever think you'd go to Creighton and then all of a sudden boom you're inducted into the Creighton Sports Hall of Fame. Tell us about that. Bob's is, you know, one of my mentors I mean he he had recruited me well, you know I was at Damien and and the phone calls that I had with him I mean it was just, it feels good to be wanted and you, and for me I knew that he really cared about the team that he was building and I could really sense his passion and excitement that he had for tennis and for building his team, and then you know to really be inducted into the Hall of Fame I mean I didn't realize how big of a deal that was I they flew me up there and, and I was speaking in front of literally 1000 people in this big ballroom and coach Ed Hubs was there, and I felt so happy to really acknowledge him in the crowd to have him stand and be recognized and, and he started crying and I, the speeches on YouTube and I almost started crying right there but, you know, as a, as a coach you never know what kind of impact you'll have on your players or your team members, until maybe years or decades later. And so it, I just really wanted to thank him in that way so that he knew what kind of big positive impact he made with me and the big positive impact that I'm trying to inspire with my teams and with countless others in the in the business community right now. Rusty you as as a coach, like the people that you've trained and the people that you've, you know, been a coach to they love you man, I mean there's they. The phrase always comes up we love you coach rusty and you're so you're so fair and you're, you're, you're firm, and you manage these expectations from these players so they know exactly what needs to be done. It's just, it's good excellence man, I mean, whether it's in sports or in business. You're, you're a great, great person. When it comes to just being a leader. You have a third book are you thinking about a third book or is that in the plants. Well, you know I, I am working on book number three right now but writing one book is super hard let alone two books but yeah I'm currently working on a third book and that you know deals with greatness and. I'm in the mood, and I have time. That's kind of when I'm, I'm working on it. So, by the end of the year, maybe, or. Well, hopefully, hopefully, by the end of this year or maybe the beginning of next year that's that's my target. Okay. I'm looking forward to that. You talk about a lot about greatness right and people that have achieved greatness how do you define greatness. I think when you do something special or when people look at you because of your character, and then they feel inspired. That's greatness because what what happens there is now they're able to inspire their people, and then their people are able to inspire their people and it's, it causes a chain reaction. And I really think that that is how I would define greatness it's, you know something special that you did or something that you know who you are as a person that other people would admire and then really want to emulate. Great definition of greatness and I think it's something that we should not fear of doing over and over and over again it's not a one time shot if you can be great and and repeat that. That's something very special as well so let's let's talk about taking risks though. Just in general, it's very important to take risks and you address this in your book and please go into why it's important to take that leap of faith at times. So, what a big example for me was I took a big risk of retiring as head coach and then huge risk, huge risk trying, you know, to do something new, but I felt passionate about it so I want people to really find their passion but then to pursue their passion. And I know that you cannot be complacent. I mean, if you're complacent you're not going to achieve anything in life you're not you're definitely not going to achieve greatness. So risk promotes growth and I always encourage people to take calculated risks and you know to really go out there and pursue what you feel is important to you find your purpose you know and, and just go ahead and do it and I promise you will not have any regrets. Risk promotes growth. You address that in the book that is so important. But yes, don't, don't go crazy don't take, you know, bad risks but I think risk is very big part of life and again you address that in that book, or in the books. Talk about your famous quotes. One of the most famous quote of the day. Give me one of your world famous quotes. Well, you know, my players I would always give my what I call my world famous quote of the day after every practice or after a match because I wanted them leaving thinking about something. I'll give you a quote right now. The impossible is what nobody can do until somebody does it. So, that's a good quote. I think that's, that's what I want to try to inspire people to really go above, go beyond the lines go beyond the parameters of what they think is possible. Going beyond the lines and beyond the game those those are risk taking abilities I mean so yeah you got to you got to almost push yourself a lot. And this book is kind of the kind of the roadmap to it. And so all these all these stories that you have in the book so good by the way, and the real people stories. Did you have to like get permission to use these stories, and you know some of them, some of them are heart heartbreaking but they're all turned out good in the end. So how did you get these people to like, agree to have this really personal story included in these books. Well, yeah, the stories, every story is positive in there there's not one negative story and, and it really shows how these players really dealt with challenging situations or adversities or really growth with their character and so. They're because there's no negative stories I mean that's the thing but all of them were so happy so grateful that they were included in the books. Yeah, you know, I especially with with the first book, some of these players you know they were like, you were butting heads you know and and and some were very very of strong character but very competitive and I remember. It's not it's not if you you, you don't want to win the wrong way you want to win with character. And that's the biggest takeaway I got from from the first book. It's, it's, if you win in a bad way, it's not a win, because you're just not a good. Well, you're not doing the right thing. Yeah, and you know you want to represent yourself your team your family in the greatest possible way so I would share that if, if, if one of my guys want a state championship let's say with bad character I would be so embarrassed so ashamed of their behavior. And so I but I would be so proud if somebody were to lose with extreme character so those are examples that I would share with my teams just to let them know what we're about what we are striving for every single day. So true rusty, if, if, if you don't win honorably, like rest coach rusty is not going to be happy. But that's what you instill man it's so inspiring and I just want to thank you for doing that. We're going to wrap up I just want to ask you any kind of final thoughts now that you've done 200 episodes, two books, speaking engagements, third book coming up. Tell us what's up and what's next. Well, yeah, it seems like I'm going to be doing a lot of keynote speaking and leadership trainings for some big companies on the mainland and globally. So I'm excited for that. And yeah, I just, I just feel like I'm making a big positive impact through my books through my speaking through the executive coaching and through the TV shows so I feel great about that and I really want to thank you for being my guest host on the show today. Thank you for having me rusty it's it's an honor we always want it we always talk rusty and I about switching, you know switching roles because I've been a guest twice on your show and I've always wanted to interview you so thank you for this opportunity and congratulations man when when you first started to I mean when you first told me you're going to retire I'm like what are you crazy. And then he's like, I'm going to write a book and I'm like what are you crazy. And then he's like, I'm going to do a TV show I'm like what. So I'm excited, I'm excited to see your future man you, you take good calculated risks, and out of so many people. I am proud to be your friend because you are that you're you're a good guy you're a great coach and you. Everything is about quality and character and just keep it up man keep up what you're doing. Everyone's proud of you. Thank you for having me. Thank you Justin. And thank you for tuning in. Think Tech Hawaii and beyond the lines and of course beyond the game with coach rusty Kamori, who is going to keep coming up with incredible guests and incredible inspiration, and just keep following him because you're going to get inspired. So thank you for having me and thank you for think Tech Hawaii for having me as well.