 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. This show is based on my books Beyond the Lines and Beyond the Game, and it's about leadership, character, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the president of RMY Construction and the owner of the very popular Izakaya Nonbe Restaurant. He is Russell Yamamoto, and today we are going Beyond Construction. Hey Russell, welcome to Beyond the Lines. Hey, thank you for having me, Rusty. Now, Russell, I know that you graduated from Iolani School and now you're on the board of Iolani, but can you tell me what were some of the highlights when you attended Iolani School? Yeah, there's a number of them. When I was going there, it was an all-boys school, so much different than what it is today. But for me, I think the high point was playing for coach Eddie Hamada and learning the one team concept over the years. He was one of my more important mentors growing up in high school, so yeah, I definitely, coach Eddie played a huge part in my life. So, Russell, what was the biggest thing you learned from coach Eddie? Oh, everything was assignment. Everything was based on assignment. Do your job, um, going back, you know, we were playing, I think it was Kalani. And, you know, when you have, there's a running play and I was a defensive end. And my job was to maintain my corner. But, you know, like a, you know, like I didn't do my job and I chased the play because I thought I could make the play, but it turned out to be a reverse. And so, a guy came around me and, you know, coach pulled me out of that, the very next play, grabbed me by my nose guard and said, hey, what about the assignment? It looked straight at me. I'm like, oh, god, you know, because it ended up being a touchdown. So anyway, you know, it's things like that. And, and, and also that, you know, the one team concept which carries on to this day at Ilani school. But, you know, coach, Ed was the one that instilled it. And there are a lot of examples of that. You know, my teammate had a girlfriend that brought him a can of juice after a game and he looked at him and said, hey, you know, is there enough for everybody? And so the kid threw the juice away. And the same thing with Leeds, you know, the guy's girlfriends would bring Leeds to their, their boyfriend players. And he looked at them and said, hey, you got enough for everybody. And, you know, so that's how coach was, you know, he was very honest. He was very fair. And it was always, everyone is included. Yeah. I like hearing that. And that's why he was very successful too. And, and Russell, you have two very successful businesses. But I want to ask you, if you can first tell me about RMY construction. Okay, RMY, it's, it's kind of a long story. But I think it was probably in my size from when I was very young, you know, growing up, I lived on a farm four years old, I'm running a farm tractor. And then during my summers, working in the construction field, you know, to earn a living for the following year, right? Anyway, RMY eventually evolved in 1986 after an unsuccessful partnership with another company, and you probably heard of it, it's called Mega Construction. It's, I started that in 1984. But again, we split up. And, you know, different philosophies, of course. But RMY construction now has been in business in 1986, to current. We do a lot of heavy construction work, which we call an industry site work. And we, we really specialize in sewer, water systems, drainage systems, parking lots, a lot of concrete work, and occasionally subdivision, if it comes by, we'll do it. We can, we're capable of doing it. We have about 27 employees that are the core group. And we, you know, we hire as necessary, got about maybe 40 pieces of heavy equipment. And yeah, we're, you know, we're, we've grown since the, since 1984. And if I take you back to those days, we couldn't, you know, we didn't have any bonding and bonding is the bloodline of any construction company. And so in order to get that, you know, you know, my wife, Patricia, she and I would go, we, we drive down to Pearl Harbor and Hickam Air Force Base, and we go through the bins there and look for jobs to bid under $25,000. Because under $25,000, there was no, no bond requirement. So we'd pick up a bunch of them and I'd bid them and we'd get them and I'd go out and actually do the project with two or three guys and create a track record eventually created one positive enough that the bond companies were willing to bond us, but obviously me having to personally indemnify them. But we've since grown that now RMY stands alone and we don't have to personally indemnify. But that, you know, that comes with trust, you know, an experience. And you know, that's, that's where RMY is today. Now, Russell, I know that, you know, what you guys do really affects all of us because you guys do a lot of infrastructure as well. But can you tell me what one of your most challenging projects in recent years has been? Well, there's a number of them. I think the most recent, the most recent would be, you know, the Capulani and a more early, early water system projects. Those projects, you know, like the Capulani one started from a Cully Street all the way to Kamoku. And you know how busy Capulani Boulevard is. So we had to install a 12 inch water main along that whole route. And as we're laying it, you know, there were obstructions, you know, drainage pipes, electrical. And so we were underwater, you know, a large portion at a time. But the hardest part was, you know, we had to go under this huge concrete box covered on University Avenue, which was down about, you know, minus five below sea level. And we had to bring in specialists and help them with this technology called directional drilling. So what it is is they had to drill under the culvert. And then when they got through drilling, they would pull back that 12 inch, you know, water main under it. And this like about 200 feet long. So that was a challenge. And then of course, the more early, early one, we had to go under the same culvert, but more down by the Alawai Park. And we're down like 18 feet below the road level. And so we had hired some guys into what they call jet grout. And what it is, they shoot concrete, you know, high, high pressure concrete into the soil to solidify it and then go down and dig it down and tunnel under and lay the pipe, you know. So those, you know, those two, the most recent, which is, you know, I'm talking about last two, three years, you know, a year and a half. We're very, very challenging. But for me, you know, I really enjoyed the one in downtown King Street. And that entailed everything. I mean, sewer systems, water systems, gas company, telephone, you know, you name it, everything that possibly go on the ground was involved on that project. And it started from River Street to Bethel. And you gotta imagine that that's where Pearl Harbor originated. So all the things that were there were there in excess of any between 75 to 125 years. And, you know, I think, you know, my man at first, when they saw some of the manuals, they didn't understand what was written on it. It was, you know, it's cast iron manuals. And it said Honolulu, it is Honolulu, Hawaii, it was Honolulu TH, which was the territory of Hawaii. So that's prior, that's, that's pre statehood. And so, you know, I explained to him, I said, you know, this is what this means. And like, they're like, oh, wow, that's a long time ago, boss, you know, it was, you know. And I said, but you know, you got to appreciate what those guys that generation had to go through to install all this stuff without the kind of equipment and technology that we have today. You know, so, you know, as we went through the project, they learned a lot, we all learned a lot, we, we discovered how to do things differently, because, you know, there were a lot of unanticipated you know, issues that came up throughout the project. But in the end, the most important thing was to rehabilitate the roadway and beautify Chinatown, because back then Chinatown was really, really in bad shape and it was dirty. And when you look at it today, you know, it's got a new pavement section, new sidewalks, paver piles. And I'm sure the community is a lot happier now than they were before. But for me, I take a lot of pride in that project. My son actually ran that project. And, you know, every day we, we, we actually discuss what's going on. And a lot of times get into arguments about, you know, what's going to happen. But that's natural in this business. But at the end, you know, I told him today, you know, if you stand here at River Street and look down King Street, don't you feel, you know, that this was a good job? He said, Yeah, you know, it was a good job. We didn't make a whole heck of a lot of money on it, but it was just a satisfaction of seeing something so that difficult, get completed, and upgrade and really enhance part of a component that was really in bad shape. Yeah, so that that's Russell, you know what I find amazing is, you know, the public, you know, they really don't see all of these things that you just explained. I mean, so many things that you do are underground. And, but again, like I said earlier, it affects all of us. And I know that you were also the general contractor for Kahauiki Village. Now, why is that project so special to you? Oh, that's a special one. Dwayne Cariso, he's a huge philanthropist, a really nice guy. Came by my office and said, Hey, you know, show me a brief drawing, you know, a simple drawing, he said, What do you think, you know? And I said, Well, God, I don't know, what do you want to do? He said, Well, I want to build this, you know, can we build this? I said, Well, yeah, sure, we can build it, but you know, everybody's got to be on board, you know, so, you know, so we had a meeting and we got the right people and Dwayne put together a great team of administrators and contractors. And we met one day at the pagoda and the question came up from the engineers that, you know, we need to do a test test pad. But we got to go through the permitting and all that. And so we were kind of sitting there wondering what we're going to do. And so I just said, you know what, let's just pour it. So yeah, but what if they won't accept it? We'll go break it out and remove it. But let's just pour it. We can't just sit here and mull over what can be done. Let's just do it and apologize for it later if we have to, if you know what I mean. So we went and we did it. And then Mayor Calvo came out and he said, yeah, they liked it. And then they started putting up the structure itself, which came from Japan's the refurbished temporary housing for the victims of the March 2011 tsunami. Yeah. And so that's when it got started. And we started the fields. We did everything. And a lot of it, our team, our whole team did a lot of this work pro bono. I'm talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars of pro bono work that they all were willing to jump in and provide for the forgetting people off the streets. I'm going to put a plug in for Randy Hiraki at Commercial Plumbing and Ken Sakurai from Coastal Construction. Coastal Construction being the largest home building contractor in Hawaii. A lot on law for these guys. And of course, our management team, you know, Dwayne and Lloyd Sweater, Mel Kanishige, Gordon, you know. Yeah. And we finally got it done. We got it done in record time because it was a emergency proclamation by Governor Ige. We were able to take what normally would have taken two, two, maybe three years to accomplish. We got it done in six months. So our first tenants moved in in, I believe, was March 12th of 2018. And the biggest satisfaction I had was that morning, the following morning, particularly, I think it was March 12, the following morning, March 13, the infamous mistake siren. Remember that? Anyway, it's like maybe six o'clock in the morning and I would visit the project every day and walk it around the project. And if you've ever delivered newspaper when you're a kid or you're walking in a neighborhood back in the day and you, you know, folks would, you could smell the bacon frying and the coffee brewing. And I'm walking around Carl Heakin and I smell this bacon frying and I smell coffee. And it, it just, it just felt, you know, I wasn't hungry. I just felt so good to know that, that there were 30 families, you know, however long they were displaced, now had a roof over their head, cooking their own meal and using, having their own toiletries and shower, you know, you know, you have to, you have to walk that walk to understanding and really enjoy and savor and take it all in that feeling of accomplishment. Well Russell, you know that vision that Duane Carisu had for there and you know, it's, like you said, it was such a great team effort. But I mean, it is extremely super meaningful for what you guys all did. And can you, can you tell me about how involved you were with the UH football stadium project? Okay, so that's, that's a project that started out with us replacing the, the, at the time we called it Cookfield, it's no longer called Cookfield, but it's Cookfield, the turf that we actually installed a few years earlier. So it was going to be replaced with a new one for the football team who had recently been displaced from the law stadium. During that, you know, right after we started the project, you know, this, this whole, this whole schematic of how they're going to, you know, bring in spectators, you know, was really unanticipated. And, but you know, the school who took it upon themselves and I think they did a wonderful job in, in their vision and, and trying to get this done. And so they, they approached us and asked us if we would be willing to, you know, jump in and start some of the work. And because, you know, all our crews are busy in this, in this particular project, you know, was, was a moving target on a daily basis, you know, because, okay, we forgot, oh, we need to, we need to put this in. We, oh, we don't have part of this score, but we don't have part to this part where the coach is plugging for, you know, to, to watch this video of this players and well, there's a lot of stuff that went on. So I took it, so I decided, you know, this is, this is something that we're not going to have to go through the normal bureaucracy where, you know, my foreman is out there and they tell him to do something. And then he's got to come back to the office and relate to me. And then we've got to send in a price and then get it approved. We just took, I just said, you know, we're going to, we're going to short circuit this whole thing. So I'm going to be out there every day. And if there's any changes, I'll approve it on the, on the spot. So that's what happened basically. So we got to do, okay, we'll do it. We'll deal with the money later. We'll just, let's get it done. And that's basically how it went. And that's probably the only way it was going to get done. So yeah, so I'm proud of that project itself too, because it turned out really nice. I, I'm just hoping that we can get all the fans and fill up the, fill up whatever stands that, you know, that are there. It's not much, but we should fill it up. Yeah. Well, Russell, you know, I mean, it's, it's so amazing how much coordination it takes for you guys to really get these big jobs done. And I want to ask you about one of my favorite restaurants that you own, Isekai Anonbe. You know, when you took over ownership of Isekai Anonbe, what were, what were, what was your biggest goal that you wanted to strive for? Well, the first goal that my priority when we took it over to be direct, you know, about it was to keep the employees working. Okay. Let's, let's go back a few, you know, a few years or whatever. Yeah. And what happened was, you know, I, I, I became a restaurant owner by accident. I was actually the landlord. I bought the property from the original owner. And, and I had no intention of running the restaurant. I bought it. And I had a, I had a tenant who was actually running the restaurant. And he got into some financial difficulty, went back to Japan and he didn't pay his rent. And so, you know, we're dealing with him in Japan from here. And it was, it was very difficult. And meanwhile, you know, I used to go to that restaurant for, you know, for dinner and stuff like that. And, you know, and I knew the service really well. And so one day, one of the get girls as a day, you know, Michelle, why don't you take over the restaurant? I said, you know, I don't, I'm not a Russian guy, you know. But I guess, you know, when, when, you know, my, my tenant got pushed against the wall because he really had no money at that point. Here we had a, we had a restaurant that was running and it was actually going downhill because he couldn't pay his bills and they weren't delivering product. We went to get over, we had to actually, we had to go back and pay all those bills in order to get service from the vendors. And yeah, so, you know, the whole point was to keep them working. And then it evolved to more than that. And today, it is what it is, you know, we, you know, the one thing, there's a few things that I firmly believe in in Russian is one is you got to be consistent in what you produce. And two, you've got to, or just as important as one, you've got to have a clean sanitary place, you know, where people feel comfortable, you know, I don't see cockroaches running around and, you know, and it's not an old, you don't smell that oily, that oldness in a building, you know. So I said, you know what, we're going to renovate this building. So I said, we're going to, we're going to get it and start over. And we did. And during that time, and we did it, and I think it was, our last day was July 20, July 1, 2019. And we rebuilt it and we finished in November, but we kept everybody on payroll, because, you know, they're loyal employees. And kept them on payroll. And then in November, we opened up again. And we were doing quite well. And then three months later, COVID hits us, right? And so we had to pivot. But, but yeah, so, you know, in that so-called pivoting period, you know, we had, we had to learn to do takeout food. And so at a meeting a couple of weeks before the governor shut the, we shut down the state basically. And we decided to go out and procure all the takeout, you know, the plates and the hushies and all that stuff and spoke to the back of the house and the front of the house. And, you know, for the front of the house, it was obviously very hard, because, you know, the girls used to work in every night. Now, there's, you don't need them, because no one's coming in the restaurant. So we figured out a scheduling, adding for them, back of the house, you know, obviously, they weren't cooking dinner anymore. So they had to make lunch and dinner, you know, but all for takeout. So we revamped the menu at that time as well. So, and of course, you know, we had just hired a new manager and he had to walk into this, Bobby, to walk into this. And I say, Bobby, you know, I wish you luck, man. But you got to take the bull butter horn and, but you know, we're here to help you. So, don't worry. So anyway, you know, getting back to the intent of keeping everybody employed. Well, we still have, we have not laid off or fired anyone. You have our same staff that we started with eight years ago. And yeah, we're looking forward to keep on going. Well, Russell, I absolutely love it there. And Bobby's such a great, great leader of that restaurant. And Russell, you have both of my books. And I want to ask you what stood out to you in the books. You know, that's a really loaded question because there's a lot of stuff in your book that, you know, I, I, I, you know, I can relate to. And, you know, I have some, some, just some quotes that I took some notes down. But these little quotes that we live by, and you had this one thing called, you know, you said little things matter. And, and, you know, I keep telling our guys, you know, you got to fix the little things before you can do the big things, you know, because if you can't handle like picking up a piece of rubbish, you know, that we've left or pep or rock that we fill out of our trench, you just leave it on the side of the road. And somebody hits it and gets hurt, you know, or, or if, you know, it damages your automobile, you know, we're in big trouble. So, you know, it's a little things do you start there. And then when you get into the habit of doing it, then, then, then, you know, then everything starts to work out. Yeah. And then of course, your, your quote about, you know, time is lost every second. You know, I keep telling guys that, hey, you know, the sun will rise tomorrow. So no matter if you made a mistake today, you're going to have to face up to it tomorrow, you know, the sun will rise tomorrow. And we're not going to escape this. So, you know, it best you, you, you know, don't, don't leave what you can do for today for tomorrow, because you never know what happens tomorrow might be a rain out there and that trench bees turn into mud. But if you had done it today, it would have been asphalt. So, you know, these little things like that. And, and of course, the, your, your, the main thing is your four piece, as I mentioned earlier, that, you know, the people, the purpose, process, and of course, the performance. Yeah. And you know how that goes. And, and yeah, we, we pretty much try to follow that, that, that those four pieces. It's amazing how I think people in this, in business, all kind of, you know, gravitate towards that, that type of theory and philosophy to be successful. Russell, I absolutely love what you said about the little things and the four P's and the not wasting time. And I want to ask you one more question before we wrap up. Your granddaughter Riley is my tennis protege. What's the biggest thing that impresses you most about her? Well, you know, I'm biased, obviously. She's, she's my, you know, I had three sons, right? So we never had a daughter. So she's like my, the daughter never had. But what impresses me is like, well, you know, she's very diligent and she's very responsible. She works hard, you know, so which makes her really coachable. But you know, I like that she's humble. Yeah. So, you know, I watch her when she's playing matches. And even if she wins, she doesn't show any emotion. You know, she just, okay, tap, tap the racket, smile and walk off the court. You know, and then when she loses, she's same thing, tap, you know, tap racket, smile and walk off the court. Of course, you know, when she's in the privacy of grandma's car, she's like, well, you know, I should have done this or whatever. But, you know, the whole point is that she's very even cute. And I really, I really like that. Yeah. Well, you know me, it's all about character. And you're somebody, you're a man of great character. And I want to thank you for taking time to be on the show today and really share about why your businesses are successful. Well, thank you for having me. You know, if I might just say, you know, a couple of things, you know, you had asked, you know, I saw your questionnaire and it had to do with advice, was the best advice you've received, you know, and I, and a lot of people don't know this, but, you know, like, Coach Amara, you know, of course, his was do your assignment. But in construction, my mentor was Sonny Okada. I'm not sure if you know who he is, but he was a very successful businessman back in the day. I mean, rough, really a rough neck guy. But he told me one day when I was much, much younger, this is goes back in the 70s. And he said, Hey, I want to tell you something. I know at some point in your life, you're going to, you're probably going to start your own construction company. He said, you know what, lose face, save money. I said, yeah, I got it, Sonny. You know, you just got to sometimes you've got to just put your ego away and just get on with it and you'd be better for it in the long run. Yeah. I love that. I love that. Thank you, Russell, for joining me on the show today. Well, thank you for having me again. Take care. 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 Russell and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.