 I'm Rusty Komori and this is Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. I was the head coach of the Punahou Boys Varsity tennis team for 22 years, and we were fortunate to win 22 consecutive state championships. My books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game are about leadership, personal growth, and creating a superior culture of excellence, which is what this show is all about. My special guest today is the very popular newscaster and radio host of 94.7 Kumu. She is Esme Infante, and today we are going Beyond Radio. Esme, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Hey, how's it going? Hi, Rusty. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited. Now I know that you and I both grew up in Mililani, but I want to know about your background and what you did when those early years growing up in Mililani. Oh, gosh. So actually, before I grew up in Mililani, the first few years, of course, my family comes from Kalihi area, Kalihi Palama, Puneuli area, but then we moved to Mililani when I was about six, and we lived here and that Mililani is pretty much my hometown. For anybody who's familiar with Mililani, Mililani what and all, and then I'm of the age that we got bus to. Wheeler Intermediate back in the day. So that was my intermediate school. And then Mililani High School is my alma mater. And at Mililani High School, I, Gali, I loved going there. That is the school that my siblings also attended, that my children have attended. My son goes there now as a sophomore. My daughter is just graduated last year, but I loved it at Mililani High School. At Mililani I was involved in a whole bunch of clubs. I also played softball, but mostly I was a band geek. I was a major band geek. I was the queen of the band geeks, in fact. I was a drum major. I was also yearbook editor, which was the beginning of my journalism career. And yeah, that was the beginning of incredible series of adventures at Mililani High School. And from there I went to the University of Hawaii. And that is where I majored and graduated at Distinction in Journalism, and that launched my career. So Esmi, outside of family, what was the first job that you ever had that you got paid money for? Oh gosh. Okay, the distinction is got paid money for, right? Okay, because actually my family runs, we used to, my mom had a business running, it's like a seamstress business. So for 25 years, our whole family did that. I don't know if that's considered being paid, because when your mom says you gotta do it, you gotta do it right, no more choice. So that was really technically my first job. We learned to be salespeople, customer service. From the time we were toddlers and grew up in that business. But if you're talking about the first job outside of that, where I actually got a paycheck in my hands, I guess that would be McDonald's in our hometown, Rusty, here in Mililani. I was a crew member at McDonald's on Kamehameha Highway up across from the golf course. And oh my gosh, the lessons that I learned there. It is a humbling job. Props to anybody who's watching was worked at McDonald's or is working at McDonald's right now. Because it is hard work. I learned so many lessons there. I find when I think back that definitely my work at McDonald's reinforced the lessons that I, my parents initially taught me, but it really was something that was profound to learn and have reinforced the work ethic that they reinforce at McDonald's. So things like you are always working, there's always something to do. Oh, you don't have a customer right now? Go stock the condiments. Oh, condiments already done? Go check the coffee maker, go make coffee. Oh, the coffee maker's done? Go check the fry station. You know what I mean? Like there's always something that needs to be done. And so shout out to everybody at McDonald's for teaching me some fantastic life lessons. Well, as me, I know that McDonald's very well. I mean, I've been there many times and you know, your kids right now, I mean, they're all grown up. How are they doing? Good, good. So as I mentioned, my daughter graduated from Midland High School last year, 2020, which was a pandemic year. By the way, also shout out to Midland High School for doing an amazing job in a pandemic year of continuing to educate our kids and doing an amazing job with graduation last year, which I'm sure they will do again this year. Now my daughter is studying culinary with UH and loving it. And I am reaping the benefits because my house is filled with food every single night. Terrible for my diet though, I have to say, but yummy for the taste buds. My son is at Midland High School. Of course, during this pandemic, they're doing mostly distance learning, but my son has been very involved in the band as well. My daughter was very involved in the band too. So that is another like Mililani slash Infante family, kind of a thing we all, my siblings also got into band. So yeah, we love the program over there. And it's shaped, I think it's shaped the characters of people in my family, my kids, and so they just do an amazing job there. So yeah, all those particular experiences all were formative, I think, to character. Go Trojans. Yes. So Esmi, a lot of people know you, just they know your voice through radio, but some of them, they don't get to see you. So I think this is a great opportunity. And I wanna ask you, looking back on your life so far, what's a big adversity that you had to deal with? Oh gosh, adversity. Life is adversity, right? I mean, to be honest, perfectly honest. I think one of the things that comes to mind when you asked me about that is, so as I mentioned earlier, I graduated from the University of Hawaii in journalism. And I imagined in my head, because I graduated in print journalism. Print journalism, meaning an emphasis on newspapers, magazines, et cetera. That was my area of emphasis. I actually, when I started at UH, I meant to focus on broadcast journalism. I wanted to become a news anchor. And one of my very awesome professors, Beverly Keever, advised me. She said, you know, you can learn on camera later, get into print journalism so that you can learn the research, the media law, the editing, the really tight writing and research, civics, ethics, all the things that go into really heavy duty investigative journalism. That was what they were emphasizing that particular program at that time. And so I did. I majored in print journalism instead. When you ask about adversity, I think in a nutshell, the first one that pops to mind for me is having to pivot after I work at the Honolulu Advertiser. So I started at UH and came, I was one of the Honolulu, back when it was the Honolulu Advertiser, not the Star Advertiser. And we were a two newspaper town. I was one of their youngest hires ever. I was hired when I was still a senior at UH and became one of their youngest ever full-time hires. And I worked there for, I'm gonna date myself, I'm gonna age myself, but decades. I was there a good long while. I thought that was going to be, like I thought I was gonna be a lifer, just there were a lot of people who had worked decades at particular news agencies. What no one could really see coming was the way digital and all the other evolutions in the media industry would change the way we do our work, would change the industry, would upend so many media organizations. So the biggest adversity at that point that I faced was in 2010, the Honolulu Advertiser closed, closed and even though people, I think believed that the two newspapers were merging, they actually did not necessarily merge. They did not kick everybody. There were hundreds of us who one minute we thought we were lifers in the newspaper industry, the next minute hundreds of us were on the street with no job and Hawaii being so small, no job prospects, what were you going to do? Where were you gonna find another newspaper job? It was stunning, especially for people who had defined themselves by their work in journalism. That was really difficult. There were many people who, to be perfectly honest, like really crashed and burned, had a really hard time with that transition. The challenge for me was, I mean, I had kids, I had to figure out a way to keep going. And so in, between the paper closing in 2010 and over the ensuing, let's say eight years, I went through, I think four or five career reinventions. So from going to leaving the Honolulu advertiser behind, I began my own company. I learned to become an entrepreneur. I founded and began a company called Moms in Hawaii. That was a social media and promotions and PR company. I ran that for three years. And man, when you are an entrepreneur, you are everything from CEO to janitor, man. Like you just, ooh, that is baptism by fire, fire. So that was, and I did that for three years. I came out of that and I became communications director for Congress, Ben Takai. He asked me to come on board when he was elected to Congress. Suddenly it was flying between here in Washington, DC, learning how to be on the PR side of the media equation of communication. From there, I went to become, I needed to, I got divorced about that time. So I had to reinvent myself again cause I needed to find work closer to home. I had full custody of my kids. So I needed to find work that kept me here at home. So I got a job at Middle Island High School, God bless Fred Murphy who's the principal there. He hired me to start the broadcast journalism program there. I had never been a classroom teacher. I had to get my certification and teach in the classroom and handle 180 students and learn to teach journalism and English and health all at the same time. And I'm not saying that in a bragging way, I'm saying that in a, oh my gosh, that was so overwhelming. There were many days that I came home at the end of my first year teaching, I would come home and go up in the bathroom and go, huh, what am I doing? Like just, you know, like that was just a crazy, crazy time. I taught at Middle Island High School for three years, really proud of what we did with the journalism program there. And turned out some fabulous students and fabulous products. At the same time, I was working part-time at Kumu, 947 Kumu, because somewhere in the back of my mind, it was always a dream to do morning radio. And I can't tell you why that always was a dream that I had just kind of stuck in on the backboarder for many, many years. But after I had worked, I was almost gonna quit. I was like four years working part-time on the weekends and evenings at 947 Kumu. And then one day I got the call, Devon called me and he goes, you know what? We have an opening. Do you wanna join the morning show? And I went, oh my God. So that was the journey. That was the adversity. And I made it sound like a cheerful story just to make it entertaining. But there was so much, so much struggle along that path to learn new skills. I had to learn new skills on the fly. OTJ training, right? On the job training, just learning as I go, trying to quiet the voices in my head going, are you crazy? You don't know how to do this. You're gonna have to learn it as you go. And that was really a challenge. I can't tell you how many days I lay in bed with my eyes open. Going, oh, what am I doing? For real, what am I doing? But so I, you know, and like I said, in the midst of all that, the divorce happened in the midst of all of that, you know, changing jobs so many times and that added an extra layer. My parents also got older. My father went through a number of illnesses and then finally passed a couple of years ago. There was a lot of adversity happening all at the same time. Some days I'm surprised I'm still breathing. I'll be really honest. Well, you know, as me, I mean, that's so admirable how, you know, you really have to reinvent yourself. You have to adjust and adapt. And then, you know, and being a single mom, I mean, very admirable. And, you know, you mentioned Devin Nacoba and you guys make such a great team. Why is it that you guys make such a great team? I'm laughing because, so, okay, so let me just clear up some, a very common misconception about Devin and I first. Devin and I are dear friends. We are not a married couple. I can't tell you how many times we're out in public and people go, you guys not married, no! That's like, if somebody said you were, asked if you were married to your sister or your brother or something, you're like, ew, that's so gross. The thing that Devin and I is that we have known each other more than 20 years. So outside of my professional journalism slash PR slash Promotions Marketing and Seeing Life, the other thing that I do is performing arts. So I've done a lot of community theater. I've been a dance director, choreographer and teacher. I know Devin from the performing arts world. When Lisa Matsumoto's plays, the Pigeon English comedy plays were running at Diamond Hill Theater, he was one that I was in in the 90s and that was where we first met. We did a number of shows together since then. So we have not only decades of history together, but we have a common set of friends and I know his family, he knows my family. That means we have black male material. So we can draw on a lot of that and I think a lot of the chemistry between you and I is from that. It's from just years of a common group of friends, a common family, a common language. Also, I think, this is true if I think anybody, whether you're talking about Good Morning America or local daily shows, like Hawaii News Now's awesome sunrise show, everybody who works a show where they have to be on screen, on camera every single day or like with Devin and I, we're on the mic every single day, five hours a day, sitting across each other in a studio where we only have each other to depend on but also irritate each other. You learn really quickly. I think you have to be, you learn the concept of grace. You learn the concept of forgiving each other and knowing the distinction between what's a small little irritation or something that it's gonna pass in a minute. It's not worth getting hung up on versus big rocks, big things that you need to spend time talking about later is a big issue. There are very few, Devin and I have been doing the morning show together just me and him now for I think two years. I think we've talked about everything. Any big rocks, any big issues. But that's not to say that it's not challenging. It is challenging, I think. But I know that he has extended to me as much forgiveness and grace as I have had to extend to him. So it's a mutual forgiveness thing, I think. So I think that it's chemistry and history together with grace and forgiveness. I think that's what keeps us going. Well, I love listening to you guys on the radio and I wanna ask you as me, is one of the best, most favorite things of your job meeting celebrities? Oh gosh. Yeah, that, you know, I didn't get into journalism to meet celebrities. My, and a little bit later in this talk story, we'll talk about like purpose. But meeting celebrities is definitely a nice, fun side perk of, you know, doing journalism and being in touch with the community and just being out there. I know you've shown some pictures there of meeting, you know, people like Jack Johnson and Janet Jackson and Kelly Ho. I think one of the most fascinating things about interviewing celebrities and other people have interviewed Harrison Ford, the actor, Margaret Cho, the comedian, Lance Bass from NSYNC, a number of people and politicians and like the late Senator Inoue, Daniel Inoue. The thing that I love the most about interviewing people of import is as soon as you, the interviewer, get over your butterflies and you're kind of like, you know, like your sparkles in the eyes kind of stage and you just start talking as humans, there's so much to learn. There's so, so much to learn from people. And for example, like I love, like that was the picture you showed of meeting Jack Johnson that was actually the second time that I had met him. He has, he carries himself with so much grace, like a certain humility. And he has, he has the world at his feet. His music is so popular, he does so much good work in the community. But he carries himself with so much humility and just that example is something to learn from. Janet Jackson, it was such an interesting story with her, she, when I got to meet her, was it last, well, the previous year, just before the pandemic hit. I think every woman who is of petite stature might be able to relate to this story. So Janet Jackson, I had heard was a petite woman. And I'm five feet tall. People are surprised I say I'm five feet tall because I usually wear heels. So they think I'm like five, five, five, six. I'm actually five feet tall. But here's the thing. So I walk in to go meet Janet Jackson and I had heard that she's tight. She really is physically this very, very petite woman, but the presence, the presence of that woman, like you walk into the room and you know who is in charge of that room. You know she knows exactly what needs to be done, what she wants to be done, what is her mission in life, her purpose for being. And that is powerful. So I think I didn't, I didn't mean that it's the story only pertains to Asian women. I mean, anybody who has ever felt either physically or emotionally or cognitively, quote unquote, smaller in stature, you need not be. If you know what your purpose is, you can command a room. It's powerful. It is so powerful. So anyway, going back to the question about meeting celebrities. I think every time I meet one of them, once again, once that sort of like that, you know, that, oh my God, moment wears off. The opportunity to learn from them is tremendous. Well, Esme, I like hearing those insights about that and you're so right. And I know that you read my first book and did you like it? Of course. And I'm not saying that just because we're friends. I really, you know what I love about the book is and I'm looking for, I have to say I have not read the second one yet. I'm excited to get it. And I'm waiting also because I know Russi's going to sign me one. Yes, for sure. But the first book, what I love about it is the way that you bring really important concepts that can apply, that come from real life and can be applied in the corporate setting, but also can be applied in your family, can be applied in your interpersonal relationships. Love that very much. I am particular, as you can guess from, you know, the topics that we've talked about so far. My favorite, you laid out these, you know, these eight keys for leadership and building a team. I think my favorite chapter is the chapter, I think it's chapter seven, the one about not only overcoming adversity, but like embracing it, like expecting adversity. That's something that I didn't grow up hearing a lot. Like expect that things are going to go wrong. Expect that you're going to have a challenge. That's something that I learned as I've gone again on the job training, right? So I appreciated that in your book that you devoted a chapter to saying, expect that there is going to be adversity. And then I really like the way, like I feel like there's a theme in there in the book about, it's like, it's what you tell yourself about the adversity. You know, you can change the narrative. I think there's a story in that chapter about adversity where you talked about a particular student that you had coached and he was feeling a lot of nerves because he was feeling a lot of pressure to win. And you flipped the script for him. You helped him understand that he didn't have to feel pressured out. It's what he was telling himself in his head about the challenge he was facing. You can flip the script for yourself, tell yourself a different story. And for him, he was pressuring up because he was like, oh, I feel so much pressure to win. And coach Rusty told him, that's not what's happening here. What's happening here is you haven't won anything yet. You have only to go up, you know what I mean? And all of a sudden he went, that's right. I didn't win anything yet. I have nothing to lose, everything to gain basically. And that changed this whole confidence game, right? So that is one of my favorite parts of the book is just learning how to see it in a different light. Yeah, it's a mindset and it's recognizing necessary pressure versus unnecessary pressure is what you mentioned there. And I know as me that you guys are in the studio a lot but you love going outside the studio where Kuma goes into the community. What do you love about that the most? Oh gosh, I think that is another thing that when I thought about what it would be like to be a radio morning show newscaster and host. I did not realize that such a big chunk of, well, I'm sorry, take it back. During the pandemic, it's been a little bit different but previous to that, a big chunk of our job is going out into the community to host events. And the great majority of them are in support of really worthy causes. I think that is one of the things that I'm most proud of. The great alum, you saw me interviewing Cheryl Kai there. She has done an amazing. She's another celebrity who I've learned so much just from interacting with her and learning from her example. But supporting the Great Aloha Run, Make-A-Wish Foundation is another organization that 947 Kumu has been in partnership with a lot. And we have hosted their telethon every year, their radio thon. We've been the host, one of their hosts, I'm sorry, the host station for their Jingle Rock Run. We have been out in the community doing school supply drives to support the school tools initiative. So many different things that we've been able to help make happen in the community worthwhile causes. And that is definitely one of my favorite things to do. And 947 Kumu, it's not one of those things that you would see in a job description. I don't know if you could write a job description for radio host, but that was something that I unexpectedly love and derive so much satisfaction from doing. Esme, what's the biggest thing that you see that has evolved in radio over the past few years? That is a good question. I'd have to draw a larger picture and talk about the evolution of media in general and then come real specific to radio. So I think anyone knows, the evolution of digital, the internet changed everything about the way that we consume information. So all of my journalism colleagues in print and broadcast, et cetera, have all had to evolve to learn how to embrace that digital mode of conveying information. In the end, good journalists are not only do we, we don't just report facts, we are storytellers. And so learning how to do that effectively through multiple channels. It's not enough for a radio host to talk on the radio anymore. You have to be able to shoot your own video and edit. You have to be able to get on social media and talk live like this. You have to be able to do your own PR and represent a brand, because branding is so much of what happens in social media as well as all the other channels. You have to understand promotions and marketing. So there are so many ways and you have to be able to write because they expect you to blog, they expect you to post. So you have to be, I think anybody who is in media these days, whether your primary job is radio or TV or print or digital, you really are what we call an MMJ. And an MMJ is a multimedia journalist. You have to be ready and able to do any of those things, move in any of those types, those genres of media to get your story across, to get the facts across. I think that is one of the major ways that it's evolved. The other thing that I think about is that I think media in general, unfortunately over the past four years or so, unfortunately has been under attack. And with the evolution of the internet as well, one of the problems is that, God bless, I love that the internet makes storytelling and fact communication more accessible. Anybody can jump on the internet. Anybody can tell a message, tell a story, shoot a video, et cetera. What's missing and what's unfortunately been under attack in recent years is trained, curated, reliable, fact-based journalism. There is a need for that still. Yes, we need bloggers. Yes, we need citizen journalists, but we also need trained journalists to be able to help the public discern fact from fiction, investigate problems, tell the stories of things that are good things that are happening in the community. And that responsibility falls on journalists in every genre, whether you are in radio, TV, digital, broadcast, whatever it is. So that's another challenge that we've had to face. That's another way that has changed over the years. And so I think there's an extra level of scrutiny with journalists these days. That's a good thing. That's a good thing. That lights a fire under our qualities to make sure that we are reporting the facts accurately and fairly. As me, I got to say I had a great time talking with you and hearing your insights. And I just really want to thank you for taking time to join me on the show today. Oh, it's been an honor to see it has been an honor. And I hope if nothing else, I hope your viewers take away that, you know, that they can whatever the adversity, you can rise above it, you can be buoyant, you can be resilient, find your voice, find your purpose. And that's going to carry you through. Holy agree. Thank you, Esme. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKamori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I hope that Esme and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.