 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, which is about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership, and finding greatness. Today's special guest is Ted Davenport. He is the franchisor for Subway restaurants in Hawaii and he's the franchisee for Ruby Tuesday, Gyukaku, and Rainbow Drive-In. And today we are going beyond restaurants. Hey, Teddy. Hey, Rusty. Thank you for having me here. Appreciate it. Oh, great having you on the show today. Thank you. You know, you've done so many things in your life, but I want to go back to the beginning. Where did you grow up at? I was born in Washington, D.C., came to Hawaii when I was just sort of five years old, grew up in Hawaii, Kai, my whole life. Wow. So what schools did you attend? I attended Cocoa Head Elementary, Haiheone Elementary, New Valley, Intermediate, and Kaiser High School. Nice. Cougars. Yeah. Did you play any sports or what did you do? I did. I'm an avid sportsman. I played four years of football, two years of basketball, I had three years of track, and one year of baseball, and then I did a lot of outside sports in the community. Cool. Well, I mean, you're tall. I mean, you better be playing those sports. I was a high jumper. And then tell me about your college life. I left the University of Hawaii. I actually had Dick Tomey believe in me and asked me to walk on to the University of Hawaii the first week in practice, but freshman only. I broke my left foot, spent the year I couldn't play because I had to have it rebuilt and a wire it. And they basically told me to stay part-time because I wasn't on scholarship, I was a walk-on. So I went to school part-time, came back the following year, and as a full-time student, I went out, I was on the roster, didn't get to play, wasn't that good. And I went through that first year, and then the next year I took off and went to Merced College. And the class of 1980, and I was a sophomore at that time, did that. After about six months, as I had enough of that, decided to come back, go and roll back into school. So thinking about playing football, I realized, you know what, I wanted to go out in the workforce and try something, see where I wanted to be. So if we backtrack just a little, what was your first job that you got paid for? Paid for? Yeah. It would be a Mugu's pizza or APK. I was the chicken man. Cool. And then you also, after that, you also worked at a florist? Well, I lasted two days at Mugu's, I was 14, I wasn't supposed to be working. And they told me probably best that I don't. And when I was 16, my neighbor owned Hawaii Kai Flores, and his driver ended up in a problem. So they needed a driver for the summer. And I started driving and became a professional laymaker and delivered flowers all throughout the Oahu and picked up flowers from Hilo, you know, coming in the Hawaiian Airlines. It was fun. It was a good learning thing for me. And I did it again the next summer and anytime there was a holidays and my neighbor needed help, I did that. Interesting. Now, you have a beautiful family and your family's growing right now. Tell me about your wife and kids. I met my wife in 1989. And we started dating shortly after that and got married in 1992. And I was a fireman at the time. And I ended up, you know, getting in the subway business and she was a resident manager at a condo in Makiki. And we ended up, you know, developing a subway on Alakea. And she would come down and help me out during lunchtime and then eventually she decided to make it a full-time thing. And to this day, she's a full-time subway owner, operator, and wife, great, and mother. And what about your son and daughter? My son attended Kalani High School. He went to University of Washington, did a year at Wasale University in Japan, graduated University of Washington as it became an engineer for Apple back when he was hired by Steve Jobs. Wow. And he works as an engineer, which he won't tell me what he does. So I never know what he does. I can't visit him in his office, but at this point he lives in Japan. He heads up worldwide testing. Still won't tell me what he does. He ended up getting married to a lovely lady. Her name is Romi. She's from East Berlin. Okay. Grew up on the eastern side of the wall, you know, until 10 years old. It's a very interesting story. But they met at Wasale University, fell in love, and I have two lovely granddaughters now, and they still reside in Japan. Awesome. And what about your daughter? My daughter, Leana, she attended Sacred Hearts School, went on to Northern Arizona for a year and then to University of Oregon where she graduated. And then she went on to Subway University right after that, believe it or not. And at this present time, she's learning how to make baloney. That's interesting. I like how they're all connected somehow. You have such an interesting story, Teddy, that our viewers are just going to be amazed at how you started and what you're doing today. But tell me about the limo service that you started back in the day. When I left college, I was looking for work. I went down to the Hyatt Regency and applied for a security job. My friend was in security, so it was open. Went upstairs to the HR department. Yeah. I liked the security job, which they said just got taken about an hour ago, but how would you like to drive limo? I said, I never had, but yeah, I'd love to. So they said, we have an opening part time if you'd be interested. I said, yeah. They said, well, you're hired. So I ended up driving part time for the Hyatt for about three weeks, and that actually made me full-time. One gentleman left. They actually opened the first Bose retail place in the United States here in Hawaii. And I loved the job. Just dealing with people, driving people, meeting people, I felt this would be something I could probably do. They don't teach that at the University of Hawaii limo driving. So I said, maybe I can learn myself. And I had a few people believe in me, and I did a business plan. And I bought my first limo through Bank of Honolulu at the time. The president, Jack Quarterway, this guy Dave Lewis was a developer, and a couple of his partners helped me out. And put me on the road, and I was able to take that business, sell the business to all these vendors, and realized, man, I got something going here. I went out and got two more limos. I had three limos in about six to eight weeks at the time I got my first one. And we just kept on growing and growing. But not buying more limos, we were doing more contract work with other people so we didn't have to have the liabilities, and I had to pay my bills. So it turned out to be really, really exciting business. It was wearing, but it was exciting. I ended up selling the business, and I ended up as a pursuer for Continental Airlines. And I did that. I was doing both, actually, during the time when I ended my career at Continental, which lasted about six years. I decided I wanted to stay home, because my son was, I remember him 18 months and then six, seven years old. So I spent some time with him. I took the test for the fire department, finished up pretty high. Got in the fire department, then I sold my business. So once you became a firefighter, how long were you a firefighter for? Eleven years, and then one year on disability. OK, and how was that experience for you at the fire department? Oh, it teaches you a lot. It teaches you about life. It doesn't matter how old you are, how rich you are. Life is not your call. So things can happen to you at any time. So you learn to appreciate life, appreciate people. You don't take things for granted. And understand that you're not here forever. And that's what I really learned. I don't care who you are. We just, we go through cycles in life and live it, find out what you like to do and live it. That's really what the fire department taught me. Yeah, and everyone needs to appreciate what the firefighters do, especially with all the latest fires in California. But very impressed that you're a firefighter. Now, I want to ask you, Teddy, how did the whole subway thing begin with you? OK. Well, the first time I went to subway was 1978. My cousin played football for University of North Carolina. There was one on campus that opened up, and he said it's the bomb. OK. So I went there in the lines where it probably 100 deep. It was the first one to open in North Carolina. End up eating the sub called the Italian Express. Meatball sausage, meatball. I probably ate it two weeks. But I had to go in like midnight because there was no lines. So I really liked it. And then when I started flying for the airlines, as we were visiting places, I would see the subway sign. And I started, I wanted to go get that Italian Express, which they didn't have, but they had the meatball. And I started trying different sandwiches. I said, this is the greatest sandwich. I said, we don't have anything like this in Hawaii. Nothing. So when the time came, I was sitting here at the first one opened up by the police, the old police station. And on the napkin, I said, dial 1-888, or 1-800-888-4848, if you're interested in franchising. So I did. That's kind of the start of my career at Subway. Wow. And then you told me about you had a missed opportunity, and then you had another opportunity that presented itself. Absolutely. What happened right there with that second opportunity? Well, the guy that brought Subway to Hawaii, he came to me after I called. I met him in his car, was working out of his car. And he said, you know, we have an opportunity on Pearl Harbor. It'd be the first military base in the world. And I never, to be honest, I grew up here, but never visited Pearl Harbor. And I don't know why, because in elementary school, we did. I might have been sick. You know, we used to, you know, do tours. Our excursions, they would call it. But I ended up, you know, having that opportunity. I looked at it, and I just remember reading the paper, they're laying off, they're laying off. And I thought, oh, the military base is probably not enough. It's closed. I mean, there's not that many people there. So I walked away from the deal. And didn't think twice about it. I said, you know what, I'm a fireman. Worked 10 days a month. I got Kaimana Beach. I got Makapu. I got everything in front of me. And I got, you know, my son, you know. So to me, that was the value at the time. And then I find out that that store was doing, let me, $27,000 a week. This was back in 1989. And $27,000 a week. It cost $57,000 a build. It was paid off in six weeks. And, you know, I love the food business. And I love people. And I thought, gosh, I'm just going to take a hammer at myself in the head because that was probably an opportunity that, you know, until this day, it's still a great store. So I sat there for a couple of years and thought about it. You know, and one day I was cooking. I was at Hawaii Fire Station. I was cooking for the firehouse. And I ran into the guy to develop a subway. And he pretty much pointed in my face and said, you missed out on this great opportunity. You, you know, need to get into this business because, you know, I think you do well. And you did. Well, I went back. I was cooking, thinking about it. So I probably screwed up the stew or something because I, you know, I'm thinking too much. The next day I went to his office and said, I'm in. So let's do it. Wow. And I never looked back. So I opened up Alakea Subway and went on to own 14, 15 different subways, you know, throughout the deal and bought him out, bought the developer out and never looked back. And how many current subways are there in Hawaii right now? 119. Oh, geez. Now after, I mean, so after all that, then how did you start up Ruby Tuesday and your connection with Junior Seau? Okay, well, this actually is a big story because in 1999, before 9-11, I became friends with Chris Naoli who played for the Norton Saints. And my wife and I bought a package out of Juno Diabetes, Gala, that included the airfare, hotel, and we waited to when Chris was gonna play because Chris was our neighbor in Hawaii. So we wanted to see him play. They were playing Minnesota. So we booked our flights, everything happened. You know, 9-11 happened and everybody was scared. But like I told my wife, we're going, I don't care. So we went there and one of Chris's sons, I think it was his son, his family and his son, really liked Ruby Tuesdays. So we got to visit Ruby Tuesdays. And then on our drive around, we stayed two weeks, we drove to Orlando. We found a Ruby Tuesdays on the outskirts of Alabama on the Panhandles of Florida. And just fell in love with it. Got to tour the kitchen, got to find out what they do and it's all fresh food. And they do a lot of fresh stuff and salad bar to making everything in the back which a lot of the competition didn't. Now to digress, the military, because now I'm in the subway, I'm the developer subway and military is looking for a concept for the commissary. They'll build it, we cooperate it. The Admiral at the time wanted Benigans. I actually took a trip towards some Benigans. I said, no, not for me. I just didn't believe in it. But I believed in Ruby Tuesdays. I came back, took it to them. They said, well, honestly, we don't have any money because we're at war. But I still believed in it. And I was talking to the developers out in Mililani at the town center at the time, which was Castle and Cook. And they had a, I love Country Cafe. That was just not doing well. Old buildings, Yum Yum Tree. And they said, why don't you get the guy out? We'll help you build this Ruby Tuesdays. And that was the start of our first Ruby Tuesday. Wow, awesome. And then how did Gyukaku come about? I think I was telling you earlier, I do these walks in Waikiki and we usually try to do them late and go to hit a happy hour or anywhere. And I saw off in one of my employees, Tim Yukis, and I saw Gyukaku on Loors Street pulled in there. I was talking to our waiter, who's actually a teacher at Lei Lihua and worked part-time at Gyukaku. And he said, hey, I know you from somewhere. And I went, let me think about it. Comes back, goes, you're a subway guy. He said, well, we just found out today that Gyukaku is gonna start franchising. He said, you should think about franchising, Gyukaku. And I said, what about yourself? You know, you're a waiter when you went to do the business yourself. He goes, nah, I'm a teacher. I'm a bad teacher at that. So he said, well, here's, I'll get you a card. You can call this guy Toshi in California. That's where the headquarters is. Next day, I did it. So as I was telling you, I learned not to hesitate. If you believe in something, you feel it, you gotta do it. So I called him the next day. I don't waste time. Three days later, I was in California. Signed up to be the first franchise in the United States. Well, I like hearing all about that and how you're just, I mean, you, Carpe Diem, I mean, you seized the moment after that one opportunity with Subway and you had that second chance. So I wanna talk to you more about Beyond Restaurants, but we'll take a quick break, Teddy. Okay? You are watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest, Ted Davenport. We'll be back in 60 seconds. 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, enlighten, educate, entertain, and we hope to empower. Again, maraming, salamat po, mabuhai, and aloha. Hey, aloha, my name is Andrew Lanning. 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 coworkers safe, your family safe, to keep our community safe. We wanna teach you about those things in our industry that may be a little outside of your experience. So please join me because Security Matters, aloha. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My special guest today is Ted Davenport. He is the franchisor for Subway restaurants in Hawaii, and he is the franchisee for Ruby Tuesday, Yukaku, and Rainbow Drive-In, and today we are going beyond restaurants. Teddy, tell me about Rick Nakashima. Oh, Rick and I go back to flag football in Hawaii, with Chargers. Rick moved from California, he's from Seal Beach, California, and this was his, his father was in the military, and the mother was from here, and the father was from California, and they moved back here, I think his father passed away, and the mother wanted to come back home, so they moved here, and he was 11, I was 10 years old, and we became friends at that point. Then we went through intermediate school and high school. Rick was a long jumper and a triple jumper track, and came out and be actually a coach, so he went to Ponoa, coach Ponoa, coached around Coach University of Hawaii, but to go back to school, we were friends in school, hung out a lot together. He went on to Drake University for a year, came back to UH where we actually got back together and hung out, and when he graduated from University of Hawaii, I was at the Hyatt, and he was looking for a job. So I told him, hey, they got this job, security, same thing. He went down to the platform where it was taken, so he ended up as a concierge. It just happened. Rick's got such a good personality, he's a good guy, great heart. His time went by, we always remained friends. He went in his way, stayed at the Hyatt for a while, then started his own landscaping business, and he was doing some big work, even golf courses and so forth and so on, and then the economy collapsed, and he was kind of working job by job. He came to work for me, building out my house, I was building my house up in Hawaii, Kai, and when I came up with this Ruby Tuesday idea, and I sat down, I was telling him about it, I showed him the menu, I said, you know, I really believe in this thing, I said, I just gotta figure it out. He said, well, if I had money, I would love to get involved in this, but I don't have any money. So about three weeks later, he called me up, said, hey, you know what? I just inherited about $120,000. I put 100% into this. I said, well, I don't want you to put 100%. Let's see, you put some of it. I'll make you a partner. You, if you can look over facilities, the construction, and as we grow, and just help me with that and some operational stuff. Well, long story short, he did a great job, became a full partner, you know, and he's built four Gyro Kakus, six Ruby Tuesdays. Yeah. No, it's amazing. And one rainbows. Yeah, it's amazing you guys, business relationship and personal relationship. And yeah, so how did your rainbows drive in Kalihi begin? How did that evolve? Well, one of my buddies, Chip, he's been in the restaurant and bar business for a while and Chip Jewett's his name, and he has republics and he's called Playbar, just opened a Gabby and Wine in El Mwana. Love Chip Jewett. He's actually a good man. So he actually said that he wrote she, chef hero, she wanted to talk to me because he's now vice president of rainbows and they want to franchise and he wants me to get together with the owner and maybe I can help them out in some way. Okay. So Jimmy, who's the family, they have rainbows driving owner, his wife's family, and he's kind of adopted it. I think he had a 40 year career in United before that. So he says they're looking to grow, expand franchising and help them or maybe become a franchisee. So I told him, maybe I can help you put it together and let me think about how I'm interested. Then I went home, I said, no, I'm not interested. Cause I thought it's taking on something when I'm kind of getting older and breaking apart here. So I thought, I got more, I need time. The money's there, I need time. I thought to myself, if I don't do this, who would? And Rick and I grew up, rainbows is our favorite place. Oh yeah. We would go to rainbows. We'd hate to say it's cut out of school at Kaiser. I hope they don't take away my degree and go to rainbows and we would go to rainbows before I went to Wiley Drive-In. You'd go out and boogie board a surf for Waikiki, we'd go to rainbows. I mean, everything's circled around rainbows as we were growing up. Totally. I think a lot of people on the East side and grew up with rainbows driving. So I couldn't sleep one night. And I said, I didn't call Rick. I thought, I'll wait, I want to do it. So I woke up in the morning about six and I said, I'm calling Rick. I called him at 6 AM and said, Rick, I've got this deal. I said, I want to talk to you about it. He said, what do you got? I said, how about rainbows driving? He goes, you got to be kidding me. He learned to say yes real quick. So that's kind of how it started. And we're kind of the test baby because they never, it's a mom and pops operation. And it's a very successful mom and pops. They do a great job, but it's for us to try to adapt to what they're doing and try to put it together and help the rainbows family create this model. So that's kind of a, that was the challenge. Yeah, well, I love that. I go to rainbows at least twice a week. I absolutely love rainbows. And Ted, you know, you, definitely, you go beyond the lines. And I know you have my book, but tell me about what happened with my book so far. Well, you gave me your book. I took it home and I put it on my coffee table. Yeah. And I was going to read it. I was reading another book. And I thought, I'll read this one. Because I actually travel a lot. I like to take a book with me. And so my father-in-law who sold his business in California moved over and said, hey, might if I take a look at that book? So he took the book, he went in his room, and I hardly ever see him in his room. And I was thinking about it, knowing that I'm going to come on your show. I said, you know, I probably should read your book. He said, I'm going to take it with me. So he actually, he's away one month. He's going to Las Vegas, drive around California. And, you know. He stole it. He stole it from you. He took your book. He took the book. Teddy, I want to ask you, I mean, you're so successful at what you do. What do you think the keys are for a successful restaurant? One is passion. Okay. You know, if you don't have passion for it. You know, like to me, when I had subway and I was a fireman, 6 a.m. I was in my subway store, sometimes to 10 p.m. Yeah, I feel like I was working night in because I was passionate about it. In fact, I enjoyed it. Look forward to it. You know, so you have to look forward to, you know, see people think of work. It's not work. It's something, part of your life has to be part of your makeup. And if you can't have passion for something, you're really not going to succeed. Yeah. And the other thing is goals. You know, you've got to have goals. So what kind of goals do you have right now? Well, my, you know, when I was thinking, why am I doing subway and fireman? Why, what am I trying to do? Well, I want to create, I want to live back in Hawaii Kai. You know, I was living in Makiki at the time. I want to move back to Hawaii Kai and I want to build my own home. So I had to go figure out what's going to cost me to do that and what I'm going to need over the next 30 years to pay that mortgage, you know, and also have a family. So there's, there's, there's goal after goal and you got to keep on reassessing your goals. But when you have a goal, you got to figure out how to get there. And that's what I did. Now, why do you think so many restaurants fail? I think lack of passion, people are thinking about the money versus the success of what that restaurant will be. They're thinking about what they need, not what their customers need. See, if you give the customer what they need, figure out exactly what your diet, your demographics of your customer, what they eat, what they need, you know, what they can afford, not what you want. You know, that comes after. Okay. Now, obviously, Teddy, you're very successful. How, how do you define success? Oh, that's a good question. They said, I never look at money. Money's not a thing of success. I think success is when you, when you able to build a customer base, you know, and you have those customers return, that's me success. Okay. Now, looking back at your life, what's been your greatest obstacle that you have to overcome in achieving your success? You know, when you're doing restaurants, you have to rely on landlords and vendors and employees. So those three things, and banking, you have to have a good team. So you have to have good employees that believe in you, come to work. You have to have a good landlord that supports you. You know, he has to be part of your team. You have to have a banking team. That right there, once you can get that, you get that nice round circle of good partners, that's where you're gonna find success. Because when things turn, like economy turns, things turn, they all can work with each other. Yeah. And you know what I'd say, but, you know, the 119 stores, we do have some bad landlords, and they don't, you know, they're not thinking long-term. They think short-term. They need to go beyond the lines. Absolutely. Now, Teddy, what makes you happy? What makes you fulfilled? 32 ounce beer and some chicken wings. And golfing, huh? And golfing, yeah. We put those all together, it's success. No, you know, what makes me happy, you know? I love travel. I love sports. I love people. You know, I, it's really, I'm a really flexible person. Yeah. You know, I kind of just bounce off walls, you know? But, you know, little things make me happy. I'm not a, you know, a big, big picture guy. You know, like, I don't need a jet. I don't need any stuff. I do love travel. Yeah. In fact, I'm taking it off to Ireland tomorrow. Oh, geez. I always wanted to go. I can't keep up with, you know, if you're here or somewhere else on a trip. I mean, you're, I never know where you are. Anybody calls me, they call me everywhere I'm at. Yeah, you're very reachable. Now, through all of these experiences, Teddy, what have you learned about yourself? That, you know what, if you put your mind to it, you can do it. You know, you have to have, you know, I said, you know, you watch the guy watch football. People said, wow, how come this guy's so good? How he's so great? Not because he's natural talents. It's because he put his mind to it. You know, why do some people get drafted? Some don't, some make the NFL because they put their mind to it. You really got to put your mind to something and go forward. I mean, I'd like to say you can be, you know, what they call it, jack of all trades, master of none, but it's good to focus on something and really put your mind to it because you'll get better at it. Yeah, totally. Before we wrap, I want to ask you real quickly, what do you hope to aspire to achieve in your future? Um, you know, I want to keep on taking, like the Subway Avenue, which is really what I focus on and taking the success of the franchise system and make other people successful. I've done that with my sister-in-law, my managers. I like to give people opportunity and to let them know that you don't have to have money and you have to have passion. So I think that's kind of where I'm going, you know? You know, I've made enough baloney in my life. Well, Teddy, I want to thank you for being on the show today. Well, thank you for having me, Rusty. I appreciate the call and, you know, this is great. Yeah, you know, you definitely found your greatness and you're helping others find theirs. So really appreciate, you know, you coming on and sharing your experiences. Absolutely. Anytime. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. For more information, please visit my website, RustyKamori.com. And my book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all Costco stores in Hawaii. I hope that this show inspires you to create a higher culture of excellence for yourself and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.