 Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou School Boys Varsity Tennis Team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, and it's about inspiration, welcoming adversity, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the president of Aloha Boats here in Hawaii. She is Fario Savio, and today we are going Beyond Waikiki Beach. Hey, Fario, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Aloha, Rusty. What an honor it is to be on your show. Thank you so much for inviting me. Fario, you, your husband, John Savio, and I, we've been friends for many years. We lived at the same condo, and you both are super fun, super cool people. I love you both. And I want to ask you if you can first share with us about how your husband, John, started his boat business just over 50 years ago now. Yeah, it's hard to believe 50 years have gone by so fast, right? First of all, we love you, and we are just honored to be on this show. So with John, it was interesting, you know, he had finished high school, and he was told to go down to the Hilton to see if there was any jobs available at housekeeping. So he headed over to housekeeping, and they steered him towards the watersport where he met two pretty influential men in his life, and that was Tsukicho and Clark. And he began working on the catamaran, had no experience whatsoever, but within a couple of weeks, both Tsukicho and Clark noticed, this kid is a little special, he, you know, he has a little feel for this boat, and, you know, he definitely should progress really quickly. And they noticed he had the love and the passion for sailing right away, you know, something brand new like that. And right away they decided, okay, we are going to work with this kid because he is got a talent and his sailors are born, they're not made. So this was his beginning. Within a couple of years of him working with both Tsukicho and Clark, he became really, really interested in starting, you know, his own business almost, and they saw this right away. So at this time, they decided that, okay, we're going to get John a six passenger boat, let's see what he can do. So, and of course tourism was booming at the time, so he took his first six passenger boat over to Waikiki Beach and right away people flocked to this boat. He started taking people out six passengers back and forth every hour on the hour. It was full all the time. And Kirk Clark is the one that built this six passenger boat. So it was like, wow, what are we going to do next, you know? So within a couple of years, both Tsuki and Kirk talked about it and they built or Kirk built a 32 footer. Now it was time for John to see what he could do with a 32 footer and it held 30 passengers. So off he went back to the beach and again, people flocked to the boat. And again, he was going, this is insane. I'm going to be very successful with this business. So once again, he worked on this second boat and shortly after, as tourism started booming in Hawaii in the 70s and early 80s, John knew it was time to build another vessel. At this time, he decided, okay, what am I going to name this vessel? And I want to build my own vessel. So he had met a young man who worked at the Moana Surfrider handing out towels. And Jesse Nihoku Crawford was his name and John adored him, decided to name his first boat after him, which was Nihoku one, of course, and brought that to the beach. And again, being super successful, people flocking to it. There's tourism and tourism just flourished at that time. And then in the late 80s, he actually designed Nihoku two, which he built over in San Diego. And him and five others actually sailed that vessel back to Honolulu in 17 days. Hard to believe. And then the rest is just crazy history, right? Yeah, Ferriero, it's amazing because there was no boats on Waikiki Beach during that time. It was the first and to be like, go from six passengers to 30 and to build his own boat. Now Ferriero, I want to know, how did you and John first meet? John and I first met actually in 1988, my first trip ever to Hawaii. I'd never been to Hawaii before. I was 20 years old. And there was, at that time when I came, there was a few boats on the beach. One of them was Herbesa's and one of them was Woody Brown, which are two other influential men in John's life that taught him how to sail. And I noticed John's boat right away because it was yellow. And I thought, look at this catamaran. I got to go on this catamaran, right? I walked up there, I met John. John was the first person I met. And with his Aloha spirit and just so compassionate and welcoming, I hopped on the boat and never looked back. I thought, this is incredible. Every day I would go on this boat, every day I'd go sailing. And as time grew on, we became quite close friends, both of our children learned how to sail from him and he just taught them everything about being on the, they became boat rats. Let's put it that way. And the rest is, you know, history. We just, we just hit it off and it was families getting together all the time and he has such a good spirit about him. The one thing that I could say is as soon as any guest comes towards his boat, the first thing he wishes them is Aloha. People feel comfortable right away. They want to go on this boat. They can't wait to experience it. And it's just a wonderful, wonderful feeling. Yeah. You know, I definitely agree. I mean, John, John really cares about Hawaii. I mean, he really exemplifies Aloha. He's a hard worker. I mean, he's an inspiration to every business owner. Just hard work, you know, how do you achieve success? And now it's, you guys have four boats and I want to know, Fariel, what, what do you, what services do you offer your guests? So currently we had, so I'm going to go back a little bit. So we had Nohoku too. And I just want to tell you a little bit about Manukai, the blue and yellow boat. So one of our competitors, Herb Bessa, who John admires and, and learned a lot from, called him up in the late 2000s, so I think of leave it was 2009, called him up and was selling his business and had several offers. And he called him up and said, John, Savio, you're the only one that I know can make this business flourish. I've had offers and I know these people are from the mainland. They don't have the same Aloha spirit. They don't have what it takes. And I really want to sell this vessel to you. And one of the main reasons Herb told him he wanted to sell the vessel is he knew he would keep the business going. But also Herb said, I want to look out my window every day and see my boat sail back and forth to Waikiki Beach, knowing that you're running it until the day I die. And Herb recently passed away and he watched that boat every day until the day he died. But that was pretty, pretty influential, right? But going back to our two new vessels, Nahoku three and Kekai were both sailed from, one was sailed from San Diego, Nahoku three was sailed from San Diego in May and Kekai was sailed from Newport Beach in August. Both of them are on Waikiki Beach now replacing our, our older vessels and they operate daily without fail unless of course there's high surf, et cetera. We offer all kinds of sail from one hour sun and sail to an hour and a half snorkel to sunset sails to fireworks. We offer everything for adults to children. And the one thing that John always wanted for all of our vessels is to always be affordable for every guest that came on. And that's my, the other point I want to make is they were never customers. They were always guests. It was an honor to have anyone come on our boats. And that's something John really wants to emboce and, you know, to everybody. And I get that when I'm talking with you and John, I mean, you, you welcome locals, you welcome visitors and you address everyone as guests and, and everybody just feels awesome. I mean, it's such a fun experience. I love going on your boats. I mean, it's such a fun thing. I want every local person to go out there and do it. And I want every visitor to come and do that. And Farah, I want to ask you when you really look at how, how John built the business and what you are doing now to really move it forward. I mean, it's thriving, but why, why are you able to sustain success? I think the number one thing is just focusing on Aloha, making every single person feel important. We're the first people that they meet when they come to Waikiki Beach. We're located in front of Duke's restaurant and the other one is located in front of the Moana. We meet millions of people and I mean that millions of people regularly. It's really important to make them feel the Aloha spirit. And when they come on that boat, it's theirs for an hour and a half or an hour or whatever the sale that they pick, it's super important to welcome them. That's so, so important. Yeah. And you know, your business is so integral for Hawaii. I mean, it really helps our community because you employ a number of team members to really help with your business. And Farah, I want to ask you if you can tell us about your daughter, Chrissy and her role as the general manager and vice president now. Of course, Chrissy started, actually, it's quite funny. She started at the beach, you know, talking to every guest and, you know, whether they came on our boat or not, anyone that walked by our lines or our boat, it was always Aloha, how are you, welcome, etc. So she started from being at the beach initially and she's worked her way very quickly and she's now our VP and general manager. She not only does the hiring, but also incorporates every employee that she takes in into what their expectations are. So from training them with other crew to making sure that they have everything they need, all the tools that they need to be successful and making sure that we all get the same information. You can't become great unless all the same information is shared with everyone on your team. And that to her is so important. She organizes social events for every individual, making them feel super important and heard because like any business, as any coach you would know, is so important for all your athletes, all your employees to be heard. If there's any ideas that they have, let's give it a try. Sky's the limit, right? Yeah, I love Chrissy. I mean, she's so authentic. I mean, she's a great leader and she's also a great singer. I mean, does she get that from you, Fariel? Oh my goodness, no. The only time I sing is in the shower, actually. But the key things with her is she has such an honest, compassionate feeling that she gives to everybody and she makes everybody feel super important. And that's so important in this field as well as any coaching field for that matter. But yes, her music really, she's got a variety of different avenues she goes towards and it's wonderful to see her so well-rounded. I feel really, John and I are both really fortunate to have her. Well, I feel fortunate to know her. And Fariel, you and John have been a big supporter of my books. And I want to ask you, what are two concepts that stood out to you in the books? Two concepts. There's too many concepts. I mean, you know, to me, it's really important to create an environment. And that's something you spoke about, which I thought was super hitting any operation that you look at, whether it's coaching or whether it's our both industry, et cetera. Just the discipline part of, you know, driving performance and always in control. Like there's so many things I can talk about in your book. And it's just every day I'll flip through a page and I'll go, OK, today, what am I reading about? Just to read a page, just to get a little bit refreshed and ready for the day. Your book is fantastic for any organization. Well, Fariel, I'm glad you brought that up about, you know, the environment and always in control. I mean, I love those things. And that's what you do. I mean, that's why you're a great leader, too. And Fariel, you had invited me to come to do a keynote speaking to your team members when they were going to, you know, bring that one of the new boats from California to Hawaii. And during that keynote speaking, what stood out to you in it? I think for me, I had three important parts that stood out. One of them you addressed directly to our captain, who kind of, you know, this was his first voyage and was very important to him to be in control of that leadership group. And I think that that was number one, is to remind him that it's OK to be a leader. You need to be a leader, and it's OK to hand that leadership to someone else at certain times. But at the end of the day, you're in charge of the vessel. That's you. So the leadership part was super important. The aspect of honesty and talking and communicating with your team. If there is an issue that it should never, ever fester in any way, right? So to talk and give open communication was super important. And then finally, the third one is creating that environment where you all succeed. And this team was remarkable. They had so much fun when I spoke to this team, when they arrived. The first thing was, I felt like I was camping with my best friends for 17 days. You know, and it was like it was just astonishing. And I love that. And I think you and your keynote speaking to this group gave them such a step up. And I can't wait for you to speak with the rest of our crew in the near future. Well, I felt I felt honored to really get to know them and to have a really good Q&A with them after the speaking. And wow, I mean, it was so special just being there and then hearing their, you know, their challenges or maybe their anxieties and then kind of really focusing on their mindset. And like you said, I mean, everything that they have control of versus worrying about things beyond their control, but also, you know, expecting the unexpected. And and I want to ask you, Fariel, you're you're Aloha Boats. You're also a sponsor of Bratahood Grines and Cystahood Grines with Ryan Tanaka, and you're going to be doing a cross promotion with Ryan Tanaka's Giovanni Pastrami restaurant. Can you just tell me more about that whole situation? Absolutely. I'm over elated to. First of all, thank you for introducing us to Ryan, because Rusty, it was you that introduced us to Ryan and just being a part of this Brotherhood and Cystahood Grines is so, so opening such like so many doors. It's it's impressive overall. So with Ryan Tanaka, we have two kind of partnerships, one where it's focusing on giving opportunity to the University of Hawaii teams, whether it's the soccer team, the football team, the golf team, all of them, an opportunity to come on our vessel to really build relationships and have some fun and go snorkeling and go swimming and go sailing and really developing a team atmosphere. So that's one part that we play. But the second part that we play is with their employees as well as their guests. And what we do is we offer cross cross kind of activities where they can their employees can come and have a sale with us. We go over there for pizzas. I mean, it's just a win win situation. So between both their guests as well as their employees and ours, it's overall it's been just so positive, so positive. Well, Fariel, I feel great bringing great people together like you, John, Chrissy, Ryan. I mean, Ryan is brilliant. And he was the one to I mean, it's it's amazing how he's grown the Giovanni pastrami restaurant group now to include CJ's and roundtable pizza at the Hilton. But for you guys, I mean, to be together, and it's just going to enhance the community. And you you've seen the Bratahood grind, Sisterhood grinds events that that he's held at Giovanni's and how he invites a lot of the community leaders, including yourself and John. And just to really help the student athletes network and have their maybe lives set for life after sports, right? Of course, of course. And, you know, the the other thing that Ryan and you both are really good at is just constant growth for like a thirst for growth. And I love that. Like I see it every time I'm with the two of you. I try my best to show that to our employees and, you know, never stop learning, right? Just always have that thirst, because if you don't have that thirst, then you might as well stop and move to somewhere else. So I, you know, I my hats go off to both of you because you've taught me that. Oh, thanks, Fariel. And Fariel, I want to ask you, what are some of the challenges that you deal with with your business? I think the number one challenge and I'm going to bring up Maui here, just with the devastation in Maui that has happened. I mean, our hearts are broken, of course. And the hardest part was, of course, with the travel and tourism. It's an industry that we depend upon with our with our profession. And, you know, we really notice like summer months, July and August, December, certain specific months certain specific months are really, really popular and we're very, very busy. July was an excellent month. And then, of course, the devastation in Maui in August really affected us. And like I said, my heart, our hearts are broken. Our hearts go out to the people of Maui. And I mean, they are suffering way more than what we did, but we really noticed a change as well as with the Japanese market. You know, they haven't started coming back yet. We've got a small percentage of that, but still that also affects us. Yeah, so the tourism, I mean, it's I mean, during COVID, I mean, everything shut down. How were you able to navigate just surviving? And what did what did you do with your business, your company, with your team members during that period of time? So, you know, we were really, really fortunate and blessed. Initially, of course, all of us felt the hurt and the shutdown, et cetera, but at the end of the day, we had a really strong following of our local people and they just helped us like you wouldn't believe. I mean, with all the programs that the government had with the PPP programs, et cetera, and once we were allowed to go back to work, it was quite interesting because it was, you know, we hold 49 passengers per vessel and when we reopened, we were only allowed to take seven passengers. And of course, there was no tourists at the time and our local community supported us so much. It was insane, like I couldn't believe it. Every day we were going out on an hour sale over and over and over. I felt like John again, you know, in the early 80s doing his six passenger and I don't think we would have made it without our local following. And of course, all the government programs with the government programs, what happened was because we weren't allowed to work, we were able to do a little bit of sailing. So we were able to take one or two people and teach them how to sail. So that really benefited us and we made sure that all of our employees got at least 80% of what they were making, if not more. So we were really fortunate in a fortunate spot and felt super lucky when, especially when we saw a lot of the restaurants and other businesses, you know, having to close, it was heartbreaking. It's still heartbreaking. I still feel like there's, we're still a few steps behind and catching up with employee retention and all that, but we were extremely fortunate. We lost two employees that moved to the mainland, but other than that, that was it. So we were very fortunate having the local support. No, that's so great to hear. And you know, they, maybe a lot of them, that was their first time, you know, experiencing the boats perhaps and inviting their family or friends going on. And I want to ask you, Farrell, when you hire new team members, what are your priorities? What do you focus on when you're training them? You know, it's funny because a lot of people would think I'm looking for experience on the boat and I'm not. The first thing I'm looking for is this individual is personable, is welcoming and is positive. If you've got those three things, come on in. Let's make you a team member. The sailing part, we can learn it together, right? Together, John right now is currently working with two of our employees that have been with us for several years, Noah who took both voyages and Justin who did one of the voyages. And currently right now, John is working with both of them to become a better captain. And it's really important to be able to learn from many captains, not just one, because at the end of the day, you should never stop learning. Every day, you should learn something new. And learning is very important. So right now between John and all of our other current captains, these two gentlemen have a really great future ahead of them because of what's being provided for them right now. Yeah, plus they get to learn directly from John, the master, I mean, having that legacy. And Farrell, you are a successful leader. And when you look back at how your leadership style has evolved, what would you say are some of the key things that the greatest leaders do? I think overall, the greatest leader, you know, when you're young and you're good at something, I used to be a marathon runner, you were a tennis pro, you think you know it all. When you're young, you think you know it all. And then as time passes on and you get deeper into coaching or deeper into managing people, you learn it's really important that you communicate with everybody and you listen to everybody and you hear everybody. That doesn't mean you have to do what they say, but it's important that you listen, you communicate and you hear them because at the end of the day, you're a team together. You can't make it by yourself. They work with you, not for you. And that's really important to me to keep a positive environment, to have control. That's fine. But to keep a positive environment where everyone feels important. I, you said a whole lot of great things in their burial. I love you that you said about communication and you know, where people, your team members can feel like they can share where, you know, they feel like they're being heard. But because at the end of the day, all of you are a reflection of each other. You know, your reflection of the company and all of your team members are a reflection of you as well. And Farrell, when you look back through these, you know, decades now, how has Waikiki Beach evolved and what's the big positive impact that your business has and these other businesses, because you guys are all, you might be competitors, but you're all literally in the same boat, right? Yes, definitely. That's a great way to put it. We actually are, we communicate with each other, believe it or not. Even though we're competitors, much, much like any professional sport, you respect your competitors, but you also want to be the best, right? That's what life is about when you talk about competition. As far as Waikiki evolving, I think that is exactly it. We've become sort of friends, if you want to call it, not quite friends, but sort of friends, right? Or you respect one another and you respect what you do. Because I always used to say to me, you can be a boat driver from Kuala Basin, for example, you could be a boat driver, but it takes a special person to be a captain and crew of one of the boats in Waikiki Beach. It's almost like a bull rider, you know? You've got, there's so many things going on. You've got the surfers to deal with, the surf to deal with people swimming, other boats, et cetera. So it takes a real special group of people to be able to work Waikiki Beach. And, you know, as far as travel and tourism, as you know, in the 70s, it was like booming. Hawaii was booming, 80s booming, 90s booming, 2000s booming. And then of course COVID hit, and then we had this little hump where we were, it was crazy in 2021 when we were coming in, we were taking 49 passengers every sail. We were doing six sails every day, you know? So definitely the number of people have increased coming here, obviously, from the 70s, et cetera. It's just been really impactful as far as all different people from all different parts of the world have been coming here, as Waikiki is known so well. And, you know, John and I were just talking today and he has met millions of people all over the world. And that's the biggest part of being at this place, at the gathering place, as we are known as. Yeah, I mean, I don't doubt that he's met millions of people. I mean, through those 50 plus years now, and I just find it amazing how he started it with six passengers, then the 30, now it's 49. It's such a, your yellow boats there on Waikiki Beach, it's such an attraction. It's so many guests love it. And Fariel, I wanna really thank you for taking time to join me on the show today. It was an honor, Rusty, you're a special person and we love you and thank you so much for inviting me. And I can't wait to see what the next one holds for us. Thank you, Fariel. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit rustycomory.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Fariel and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.