 Rusty Kamori, 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 leadership, overcoming adversities, and creating a superior culture of excellence. My special guest today is the Lieutenant Governor of our state of Hawaii. She is Sylvia Luke, and today we are going beyond leadership. Hey, Lieutenant Governor Sylvia, welcome back to Beyond the Lines. Aloha, Rusty. It's so good to be back on the show. Sylvia, everybody that watched our previous episode together, they absolutely loved it, especially you talking about the fruit fly story. That was so much fun. But I want to ask you if you can share about your family, because I had the chance to meet Logan, your son, at the Waikiki Cup Tennis professional event, and he's such a nice boy. And obviously, Michael, your husband, what do you admire about Michael, and what does Michael do to really keep you in balance, to have balance in your position right now? A lot of times, people in public service, we tend to be thick-skinned, because people, this is part of our job. You are there to hear some of the criticism, learn from it, and make changes. A lot of times, our family members take it even more personally. But both my husband and my son are terrific in that. They understand the job, and they're in a supportive way. And both my son and their husband, they don't really go to too many of the function. They try to keep it separate and dependent, which gives me a little bit more better grounding, because I get to talk to them about what's important in their lives, and at the same time, ask their opinion from just kind of a layperson's opinion, as opposed to somebody really involved in state government or in politics. I love hearing that background there. And Lieutenant Governor Sylvia, you have built such an incredible staff with you. I mean, I know some of your staff members. What did you do to really build your team? What do you focus on? I think some of the things that I focus on is very similar to what you discuss in your books. It is really about trusting people. It's challenging people, having that theme of belief. And so every time I think about you and the influence that you have, I compare that to, I don't know if you watched the show Ted Lasso, but I compare Ted Lasso to some of the things that you folks do because it makes somebody very special if you have this internal belief that anything is possible and you have to challenge yourself and you have to have that drive to succeed. And going back to my staff, you know one of my staff members really well, Riley Fujisaki, who is my chief of staff. Mom was taking tennis lessons from you for many, many years and they've talked fondly about you all the time, but it helps to have good staff because the staff members are the ones behind the scenes that do all the work, make you look good and then give you all the information that you would need to make the decision that you need. And then if I could just go back to my son. My son, we talked about him right now, he's in Memphis, Tennessee, he's going to school in Memphis, Tennessee and sometimes I worry about it all the time because Memphis is, sometimes, I mean, you're always hearing about active shooters or things in the neighborhood that's happening and you worry about the kids in Memphis and you worry about some of the situations that people have to live under in a different state and different part of this world. And he's graduating this year and so I'm just thinking about him going to school from when he was preschool going into kindergarten and now he's graduating from college. A lot of times, you know, as a parent you just wonder where all the time went, but it really helps to have, for him, he growing up, he had great coaches playing baseball and other sports and I think, you know, when I look at you, the things that you have done for kids and the character building and the values that you place in addition to what the parents can do, I think it makes a huge difference in both their lives and their future. Oh, I completely agree, Lieutenant Governor and no, I'm so, it's amazing to see the journey that, you know, kids do from preschool all the way to graduating college and being a part of that journey and Lieutenant Governor, I wanna ask you about Governor Josh. I mean, it seems like you both work so well together. You guys make such a great team. Since becoming Lieutenant Governor, what have you learned more about Governor Josh? You know, he and I are communicating all the time. Communication is the key and for in any relationship, communication and trust and being forthright with each other to help each other succeed, that is essentially our team. And a lot of times, you know, people come up to me on the, when I'm out in the public, they come up to me and they go, wow, you know, it looks like you guys like each other genuinely like being around each other, work together and work well together. And I think that's the kind of relationship people expect the Governor and Lieutenant Governor to have. I'm very thankful to the Governor because he is allowing me to do work and succeed as Lieutenant Governor more than ever before, where he allows me to do preschool, do projects and then ask for help when he needs assistance. And it's been a really good relationship and Rusty, you know him well. The thing that I have not known before I became Lieutenant Governor is how much of a jokester he is. I mean, he loves to just find humor in all kinds of places and joke around about it. And in this line of work, you need a little bit of that humor and levity and just being, having fun in your job. Yeah, I completely agree with you because Governor Josh is, he has such a great personality and I wish more people could really get to see that part of him because I mean, he's so hilarious. I mean, but sometimes my cheeks hurt because we're just laughing so much together. But Lieutenant Governor, I wanna ask you about John Maurer. John Maurer is the CEO and President of Island Energy Services, Texaco, Hawaii. And we, you and I did like a beyond the lines live together for his leadership management team. How fun was that experience? That was such a great and fun experience and we actually got to banter a little bit in front of his executive team. And it's still terrific that John was able to pull his executive together, executive members together to be better leaders. And I think a lot of the corporations and entities and groups out there need to do that. Bring people together, just have a chance for personal development, professional development and how they can do a better job in their current capacity. I give John a lot of credit. And but it goes without saying that he would not have done it if he wasn't inspired by some of the work that you're doing. And since I've been on the show last time, I think you took it to not just a national but international scene and you're doing a lot of these basically beyond the lines live in some of these organization and I know you also got to do seminars for people in Disney and a lot of the international groups. So I think anytime you have an opportunity to have people thrive in their leadership role and have them believe in what seemed impossible is a positive thing because it's not just about helping Hawaii, it's about helping the world become a better place for a lot of people. Yeah, I mean, it was so much fun with you. I think we might have to take it on the road, Lieutenant Governor, this beyond the lines live. I mean, we can go national and international like you're saying. I wanna ask you Lieutenant Governor about my books and you mentioned it a little earlier. So far since my first book came out, 10 people have come to me sharing their stories about suicide and how after reading my books it changed their mindset and it saved their life. One of the 10 we all know is Crime Stoppers coordinator Sergeant Chris Kim who courageously and bravely came out to really share his story. What are your thoughts about that and the issues of mental health? That was such an incredible show and that was such an incredible. It took a lot of courage for any individual to come out and admit some of the struggles and challenges that they have gone through. And right now coming out of COVID, mental health continues to be a big issue. During COVID people were in isolation and they struggle with either dealing with a lot of the trauma and a lot of the struggles. And when you look at children, the learning loss is so great when you look at kindergartners coming in because they haven't had the interaction, they're not able to interact and know how to deal with each other, know how to interact, take instructions. And so I was talking to a bunch of teacher friends of mine and they all said, yeah, the learning loss from COVID has been significant. And so Lieutenant Governor, what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to change the narrative from mental health to mental fitness because when I'm doing executive coaching for companies, I'm trying to help them with their physical fitness so that they can have peak performance at work and at home and I'm doing the same for them with their mental fitness. And it just seems like mental fitness is the right words to use because all of us need to help improve our mental fitness, right? No, absolutely. And the more people talk about it, the more others will realize, hey, I'm not the only one having and going through some of the struggles myself. There's other folks who are going through the same struggles, there are other folks with same challenges and they can build strength from learning and hearing about others who are suffering from depression or other type of challenges. And I think it's on us and many of us to tell off these stories and just provide comfort and to demonstrate that it's okay. It's okay that you might be going through some of the rough patches, but there are support groups out there. And when you take a look at your books, I mean, your books make it very easy and it talks to people because especially in your second book, you have examples of individuals who discuss what was going through their lives and if they don't believe that success is possible and if they don't believe that things can be different and they don't embrace it, it almost feels like it's an impossible dream or it's an impossible task. And so it's the whole idea of having that belief, having that confidence, challenging yourself and unless people talk about it and have it be immemorial, if we're ever captured in a book, it allows people to go back and just kind of have solace and comfort in knowing that others have gone through the same thing. So, I mean, there are times where I go back and take a look at your first book and think about the four P's and then the three C's in the second book and just kind of as a reminder that, hey, these are the things, these are the lessons that other people went through and it's not unlike some of the challenges that you're going through either. Well, Lieutenant Governor, I'm impressed. You said the four P's and the three C's right there, that's great. And for the first time on my show, I wanna let everybody know that my third book will be coming out, Superior. And you wrote a contributing page in Superior as well as Sergeant Chris Kim and I'm gonna, I have a chapter in there about mental fitness and I'm so excited. I'm so thankful that you wrote a page in there and how excited are we for that upcoming book, Lieutenant Governor? I'm so excited to read it. And I know it's coming out in April and you are going to be having a big signing. I am ready to buy that several books and have you sign everyone because one of the things that we do is when people are struggling and people need, I look for your book and I give them away and just so that they can read it and they can understand what others have gone through and understand what it means to be challenging yourself, to be better challenging yourself, to be a leader. So I know your books have made a huge difference in many, many people's lives. And so I am so excited about very sleek. It's a different cover. It's a very sleek cover. And so looking forward to the book coming out and I think I just did half a page. I don't even think it's a page, but compared to what you wrote, it's like nothing. Well, I have to make you proud, Lieutenant Governor. Now, I want to ask you about Ryan Tanaka. I work super closely with Ryan. You're friends with Ryan Tanaka. He's such a great business leader and community leader and he brought us to the UH football game onto the field there and he's the founder of Brotherhood Grimes, Sisterhood Grimes. What do you admire most about Ryan and his impact in the community? In fact, the two of you, every time I see Ryan, I'm like, okay, where's Rusty? Or every time I see Rusty, oh, where's Ryan? You guys are terrific together because you are the person who is always smiling and giving that extra boost and Ryan is just so generous. The fact that both of you guys, both of you are huge fans of UH athletics and I see you at every event. I just saw you at the spring game and I see you at all kinds of functions to help UH athletics that is just so generous of both of you folks. And the fact that Ryan and several restaurants got together to provide meals for our athletes, I am just so in awe every time you have individuals in the state of Hawaii who are just so generous and philanthropic mind and innovative because who would have even thought that just having this camaraderie and just through food, you can build teamwork and you can have, build this community. And it's such a terrific effort that he thought of and the brotherhood and the sisterhood for grinds, it provides meals that athletes need that a lot of times, whether it's the scholarship or tuition waivers, it's not enough to completely feed some of these kids and we expect them to play for the state of Hawaii, the least we could do is feed them and make sure that they're getting some of the food and nutrition that they really deserve. I completely agree and it's, Ryan does numerous book donations to various schools and organizations and his purpose is to inspire and help Hawaii and my purpose is to potentially inspire the world and so our purpose is completely in alignment and yeah, we're trying to make a huge positive impact in Hawaii every day. Lieutenant Governor, I wanna ask you about the Lahina wildfires. You were with President Biden touring the devastation, seeing everything, the aftermath and talking with the residents and the people that were affected. Tell me about that experience. Yeah, and the governor was there as well and after the wildfires, I mean, this is the most devastating natural disaster that the state has ever faced. The number of individual or loved ones who have passed because of the wildfires, a number of individuals whose homes were lost, individuals who lost their jobs, lost opportunities and even schools, Lahina Luna High School, they were shut down because they were dealing with so many struggles in the community and not just Lahina, even in up country, we continue to struggle with having housing, we continue to struggle to make sure that the people are at the center of what we need to do and the number one thing that we are still focused on is trying to make sure that we have a housing built for our people in Lahina. Those will come in segments, of course, for now we need to build enough temporary housing so they're not just stuck in hotel for the next several years. Being in hotels is kind of a terrible outlook if you think about it, you can't cook on your own. It's not really your home, so we wanna make sure that we transition people into semi-permanent setting and into permanent housing. Lieutenant Governor, I wanna ask you about the Basils Academy, what is it and how are they helping Hawaii? You know, even before the Lahina wildfires, we were working with the contractor, it's Ikaika Ohana and Basils Academy about opening a affordable housing unit in Lahina and part of the affordable housing unit that was so special about this one project, which is called Kukuiya, is that it incorporated a free preschool component, so it's providing 40 seats for the community there. Before the fires, we were on track to have it constructed and have it open. Unfortunately, after the wildfires, one of the things that we worried about was whether the construction and the building was lost. Fortunately, it had very little damage at that point in time, so the contractor and Basils Academy have recommitted their commitment to build affordable housing units. It's about 200 affordable housing units right in Lahina along with free preschool for kids. And the Basils Academy, what's going on is they are opening several free preschools, Montessori style preschool all over the nation and the first one they wanted to do, it just happened, coincidentally happened to be chosen right in Lahina and that will be the first of several we're hoping to open. And this preschool is very unique because it's a full-day preschool from morning to hopefully late into the afternoon and then it provides breakfast, lunch and a free take-home dinner for a child because they understand nutrition is a huge part of kids and their personal development and their growth. So Basils Academy right in Lahina is free for the community, priority is for individuals at the affordable housing unit. So we're very excited about that. Wow, that's absolutely fantastic to hear. I mean, because I've heard about it, but just to hear it more in detail, hearing what you just explained there is just absolutely terrific. And Lieutenant Governor, tell me about the two new preschool classrooms that opened at Nana Cooley. So last year when we first became, I came into this role as Lieutenant Governor. In January of last year, one of the things that the governor assigned me to do and which is something that I asked him if I could take lead in is to make sure that all three and four-year-olds will have access to preschool in 10 years. The unfortunate reality is only half of our kids are going to preschool right now and it's because preschools are just so expensive so it doesn't make sense for some families if they have young ones that you're gonna spend $1,500 a month just to send their youngsters to preschool because they just cannot afford it. What we have done since the launch of the Ready Kiki Initiative in building a lot of free public preschool around the state is after launching it in January, we successfully opened 11 in August. And so I can't underscore the importance of this because when have we in state government say we're gonna do something and we actually end up doing it? In fact, the estimated cost for the initial 11 preschool classrooms ended up initially was about a million dollars per classroom but when we ended up constructing and finishing and opening in August, the price tag ended up as half. So it ended up costing $410,000 as opposed to a million dollars that was estimated and we did it about a year ahead of time. So again, we are just so proud that this initiative not just came in even half the budget but we were able to do it in half the time. And the reason why I talk about this is because it aligns completely with your books and what you believe in, which is if you believe in success, success is contagious and success will breed success. And this is, I mean, the Ready Kiki Initiative and the preschool build out is exactly what you referenced in your books and aligns with everything that you believe and you attribute to. So I'm just very proud that I'm talking about this. And then the reason why Nanakuli was open is because of all the publicity around the 11 classroom opening. Nanakuli already had one classroom for 15 kids and they contacted us and said, you know what, we have a huge wait list. We want to within two months, we were able to build two classrooms and we're able to provide free preschool for 40 kids. So we're just so thankful for all the folks who have helped make this happen. Well, that's absolutely tremendous to hear. And Lieutenant Governor, I wanna ask you one more question before we wrap up. Knowing what you know now as Lieutenant Governor in seeing government, what's your vision for the future of Hawaii? You know, just in our preschool initiative, what my vision for Hawaii is that just because it's the way that things have been done and it's the norm, we almost have to challenge that norm and we have to challenge what it is on a daily to daily basis just to make state government successful. So the whole vision of how I approach aren't my office and the things that we have to do, it is really about success. And as I said, it is about challenging the norm, believing it's possible. And when you believe it's possible, you can't actually get it done. Lieutenant Governor Sylvia, I have to thank you for making such a big positive impact in our community. And I really wanna thank you for taking time to join me on the show today. And I look forward to reading your third book. I'm very excited. Thank you, thank you, Lieutenant Governor. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. For more information, please visit RustyKomori.com and my books are available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. I hope that Lieutenant Governor Sylvia and I will inspire you to create your own superior culture of excellence and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.