Business during hurricane preparation. How to “stay ready” and not stuck getting ready (reacting vs. responding). Is your business future proof?
Transcription:
Rick Hamada: Welcome to the maker of kings radio program and on Facebook live you can see all these handsome fellows you. Wait, let me dodge and then you have all these handsome fellows right over here. Good morning fellows, how’s everybody doing?
Jim Keener: Good morning nice to see you.
Corey Cazares: Brother Rick
Rich Elliot: How’s it going, Rick?
Rick Hamada: Doing great.
Rich Elliot: Feeling good?
Rick Hamada: Well yeah.
Rich Elliot: Seven runs in a row, can’t complain.
Rick Hamada: That W do you see how brighter it is going to do you see how brighter it is today
Rich Elliot: Yeah that blue is looking at fresh.
Rick Hamada: It’s not just the fluorescent triple light that they have brought to the studio.
Jim Keener: I like the lights.
Rick Hamada: I had to bring the shades out here for a little bit.
Jim Keener: The big stage.
Corey Cazares: I like that Rick is so confident in his weight loss, he’s Facebook living his show. He just gave everybody a new opportunity a new medium, Yeah but Daddy has been during [00:48] and we were all, yeah.
Jim Keener: Hurricane treats got you. You found the spam.
Rick Hamada: We bet we have to have it’s going to spoil if the power goes out yeah. we’re going to lose it. Way to be responsible, let’s do that be responsible let’s do that.
Rich Elliot: I’ve seen Rick where that show before and the middle was like a Glorieta and the traffic lanes that go down the sides of the city because [Inaudible 1:11].
Rick Hamada: Sure.
Corey Cazares: Yeah, yeah, it’s man, I love the new Rick body but…
Jim Keener: I wish everybody could see this guy. Yeah, he’s looking great.
Rich Elliot: Oh my Gosh you guys, Muchos gracias. And the fact that we’re together today post lane.
Jim Keener: Sure.
Rick Hamada: We’re going to talk U.S. military in a little bit but if you don’t mind we can kind of start from there. You’re in the business yet I know leading up to it that Wednesday when we were anticipating. Handy Andy and other businesses that you fellows are integral part of through ownership management leadership. Boy, what a period of time that was Jim just ramping up and leading them.
Jim Keener: it was yeah, we did upstaging at different locations around the island, we staged materials individuals we were prepped and ready to rock and roll we got a tremendous amount of calls. We went out and we had the girls from the office were filling sandbags. We had everybody as all call, for everybody 24 hours a day. Thank God we passed and everything moved on and we didn’t get hit too hard but, our main concern what we talked about afterward, was in the event that it did hit we were ready and that it might be a false flag for the next time when they say, hey we were having a Category five hurricane coming through and people’s like hey I was coming here for the Lane and we prepped and it didn’t happen and so I think that the big one is going to hit us because we’re going to be a little shell-shocked.
Rick Hamada: Yeah, I know. Cory, how about you? How did things play out for you?
Corey Cazares: Yeah, we were actually scheduled to go take my mom on a trip to the Big Island we had to call that off but luckily that was the extent of the damage we experienced I know it’s not the same on the big island and I know on Maui as well people are really, really truly affected by the storm it’s not making many headlines around the country. But we feared well you know there’s nothing in the back of our house that’s open in the back, so we were kind of worried about it. I was about to call the boys to come to help me out and I saw how busy they were and there are some people that really needed that. So I think it was an awesome time to showcase to the community what we’re about but for us, we got away scot free and we’re blessed for it.
Rick Hamada: I saw your picture of you taking bananas down.
Corey Cazares: Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
Rich Elliot: Priorities.
Rick Hamada: Save Bananas baby.
Corey Cazares: I’m not going to be the guy who gets blamed for nourishing the storm there’s a lot of potassium in those bananas and it’s all ours so, take that from me.
Rick Hamada: I love it and Rich I know that friends of the big island as Cory alluded to a lot of troubles Maui with flames and fire and all things during a storm like this but we can prepare we can be ready but sometimes the elements, man they can just get you from that
Rich Elliot: You hit it right on the head, you can plan. Plan and I promise you as much planning as you can do there’s always something that’ll surprise you and that’s why we’re here, you know, we’ll get out there. We’ll get there as quick as we can and find a solution of the problem and move forward. At the end of the day, we always find the opportunity of you know proving ourselves and this was you know one of those cases in the community where we were able to prove what we… our capability is and how quickly we can respond when people call upon us. I think it was 6:30 in the morning, on Thursday morning and we had about twenty- five board up requests and the first thing we’re all doing is, all right, all-hands-on-deck, here we go. I drove to Home Depot and the girls like, “I haven’t seen you here in a while.” I got a whole bundle of plywood and everyone was, we were dropping plywood here and there and it’s just showcase of our capability when we put our team together and we what we can produce.
Rick Hamada: Because it’s not just the boarding up it’s the on-boarding.
Rich Elliot: Sure, yeah, it’s everything it’s the preparation right but it’s it was it was a nice cast for everybody and I think we passed with flying colours.
Rick Hamada: Excellent.
Rich Elliot: And build trust with clients too they know they can count on you.
Rick Hamada: See that’s the thing.
Rich Elliot: That’s the big thing.
Rick Hamada: When you and I went to talk with our friends at the local veteran centre.
Rich Elliot: Yes.
Rick Hamada: it was such a dominant part of the conversation with Claire because Handy Andy hadn’t been there to do a project that they had some challenges at OVC and they weren’t quite sure they’d ever get put back into a good top shape. All the effort, everything, the relationships, the attitude of those on the job the number that were there and the result. Our mission was to talk more about connectivity and support. He was dominated by the affection and real praise that OVC had for Handy Andy and the job that was done. I wish more companies could glean that from their clients.
Rich Elliot: I just don’t think that people are looking at the principles that we build the business on, right. Trust that we discussed that he talked about with our customers, trust is predictability that’s really what it is and if you can predict the outcome or predict the behavior of the individuals that are participating, it gives you a better insight and then trustworthiness is the character of our individual. And we hire majority of veterans, we know that these guys are tried and trued and tested, and I think it emulates through our business on why our guys are who they are and why our team is as strong as it is. It’s through the individuals that we employ.
Rick Hamada: Well, one thing, if you don’t mind I’m going to turn to Cory for a moment and we’re going to talk more about veterans and military as Jim just alluded to. As a veteran, can you share with us that preparedness? Is it that real, that tangible when you join the United States military execute your duty and then you transition out, does that stay with… that stays with you that life is part of your life. It is transition out of the responsibility of the discipline.
Cory Cazares: No and it’s not so much maybe you didn’t even have a combat experience or life-threatening experience which obviously the bond there grows, that goes without saying, but I mean think about in your case Rick. Think about a group of people that you share a common denominator with. What’s the largest group you can think of in your head? And to think of what’s our common denominator? Why am I, why do I consider myself a part of that group and for a lot of us who serve it’s not necessarily what we did while we served but it’s our common denominator that we could look at somebody and go, “Okay your base of experience is relative to my base of experience. When we look at a situation I can kind of understand what you’re thinking and that alludes to what Jim said about trust. I can kind of predict how you’re going to react in a situation, that allows us to feel safe, that becomes our common denominator, that gets us through the door and I’m not… you’re not going to be on my couch because you serve you might be a clown I served with a ton of clowns, but it’s going to get you the conversation. And I think it’s in a lot of ways in this new business world that we’re coming up with, I think it’s not in place of but it’s in lieu of, or not in lieu of but similar to a degree. When you go to interview somebody, you don’t know what college they went to, you don’t know what they learned, you don’t know what their grades were, but if they have that piece of paper that gets the conversation started and for a lot of veterans in life experience, maybe not application to job experience, but life experience, that’s our diploma. We earned that and we know the things we had to go through together to get that. So I think the answer to your question is, yes it does stick with you, you don’t grow out of it because that common denominator can’t be taken away.
Rick Hamada: Interesting.
Jim Keener: And one thing I saw is actually stress conditioning right if you’re depending on your profession and how you’re trained your stress condition and in this situation, stress conditioning has really played well for us. Because our guys understand that when it’s go time, it’s go time and we don’t have a lot of the hiccups that ordinary people would have. These guys execute and they have been stress conditioned so I think that plays into our benefit and of course our customers benefit from that.
Rick Hamada: But is that a teachable. go ahead, Rich.
Rich Elliot: In addition to that is planning I mean very few people I know, it’s sound silly but they’re used to planning, they need a plan once we provide the plan, you can see their comfort like, “Okay, now I just need to know my place, know my role and perform that’s all it is. And a lot of time you, Andrew, myself and a couple other of our key players, we sat down on Wednesday developed a plan for the contingencies and emergencies of everything we’re going to do, we laid it out. We issued it to everyone and you could almost see like, “oh okay now we got this,”
Rick Hamada: We’re good.
Rich Elliot: We’re good, you know, so yeah in a stressful situation it’s just like I know where I’m supposed to be, I know what I’m supposed to be doing and that was developed within the military as well.
Rick Hamada: I just want to give a big amen to that because I can apply that to my own personal. When I find myself if I have projects or things that I need to get done in all of this if I’m not buttoned up, I’m losing my mind.
Rich Elliot: Sure
Rick Hamada: I’m just but what I have and I’m a big list guy, when I’ve got that down I have to do A, B, C, D and E. To get to F. I’m good. Because I know that I can do A B. C. D. E. But if I’m at F, G, L, B then it’s a mess. And unfortunately, I take it that most businesses not intentionally but don’t have that rigor that discipline that kind of a plan and that’s why we see businesses that fall apart.
Rich Elliot: Yeah if you fail to plan, you plan to fail and when we talk about our planning mechanism we put a threefold system in place, so you have your primary, your contingency, and your emergency and then you have an action plan or critical path to success and that’s what you execute and that’s what we focus on. So it’s not just your primary, young businesses they might do a contingency plan but they don’t enact it soon enough they wait for it to be an emergency before they start to convert into transition and what we see with experienced operators is, they transition very quickly. They see that it’s breaking, they see that the plan is not working and they transition into their contingency and if that breaks down, then they readjust and then they work towards their emergency plan. You hear Corey talk about readjusting fire, that’s the same approach, right. You miss, you readjust and you re-engage and that’s the same thing that our guys do.
Rick Hamada: Now and I’m not going to be punitive about this and that’s not my intent. But the differentiation between working with veterans and working with non-veterans, those qualities that we’ve outlined about veterans are they teachable? Are they teachable with those who may not have served? And I ask that only because that’s where coaching and mentorship and instruction comes in.
Corey Cazares: I think they have to be because there’s a ton of people who went to the military and didn’t learn them and then there’s a ton of people out there who never served and have great skills that’s just like that. I would think they would have to be I think the big difference is in the military you’re forced to accept the lessons from a very young age at eighteen, where you wouldn’t have that life experience with a normal life if you weren’t in the military. It’s not intrinsic to an eighteen-year old’s life to catch bullet or see a bullet go by them. But at a very young age, you’re introduced to that so I think that people at a younger age are forced to do critical thinking with disastrous consequences of a wrong decision, quicker than you would be if you were in college or maybe at Old Navy.
You know what I mean, so it’s just different and I don’t think one is greater than the other I think it completely depends on the individual but I’d be very curious to see…
Rich Elliot: I agree, I agree I mean I operated at a young age in a high-stress environment and I learned real quick one bad decision could cost you, your life there’s no room for error and as a result you know, I think I operate my life that way very little room for error.
Rick Hamada: Amazing interesting I love this conversation because it cuts across a lot of different areas but at the end of the day. It has to do about the people that you work with, people that you team with and get back to the very beginning of our conversation the trust that has developed between you, your clients and the people you work with. Makerofkings.com, log on, you’re going to find this as the central location where you can learn more about what, not only what we’ve discussed about how we can get your feedback as well.
Rick Hamada: Maker of Kings Radio right here and I’m glad you’re with us here. Can we just repeat everything you just talked about? Because we were talking about how trauma and all of this and formative years and all of this as you prepare yourself for adult. Life now Chicago, kind of an interesting place to grow up with experiences, right?
Rich Elliot: You could be on one street and it’s fine and then a different street and it’s not so fine.
Rick Hamada: Exactly.
Rich Elliot: At the snap of the finger you can be in a good part of town, even on the south side right now I mean it’s going from ultra-luxury to you know, yeah, a rougher part of the city, very, very, quickly.
Rick Hamada: Yeah, we got lost on the south side when I was a kid my mom was driving
Rich Elliot: Don’t really want to do that.
Rick Hamada: That was no [Inaudible 13:29] out of nowhere a police car shows up and we thought we were so lost in the south side, even the cop car was like trying to find his way. And I’m a kid in the front seat with my mom and I see a flashlight and he’s flashing to the freeway on-ramp and it was like from heaven above. So I understand I get you [laughter]. And then Corey San Diego?
Corey Cazares: Lovely. Just lovely
Rick Hamada: Lover-ly.
Corey Cazares: We’re in the state of San Diego we’re going to get callers in here going. The validity of the show is in question now because they said we’re growing up on the rough streets of San Diego which there are some but yeah.
Rich Elliot: There’s two rough streets [laughter].
Rick Hamada: Just [Inaudible 14:12] out, what if they run out of Tequila?
Corey Cazares: Just fantastic.
Rick Hamada: That’s it. But Jim was sharing with us about your experience …
Jim Keener: That’s in California, in the ninety’s what a place.
Rick Hamada: Not a tourist mecca, at the time.
Jim Keener: No, No, you couldn’t get somebody to go there. It’s just a difficult town it’s a difficult environment and I think that the conditions currently are even, they’re getting back to what they were it’s going the other direction. It’s not going good, it’s going to go bad. Because, I think the largest municipality they ever file for bankruptcy, they just started the universal minimum wage there, the basic wage. They’re doing that six month to who are there, where they’re going to pay people I think eight hundred dollars a month.
Corey Cazares: UBI? is it?
Jim Keener: UBI
Corey Cazares: Yeah, the UBI trial run.
Jim Keener: Yeah, UBI trial.
Rich Elliot: Universal Basic Income
Jim Keener: Yeah, so they’re paying you to stay home. They’re paying you $800 a month and they’re going to they’re going to, they’re testing this out and they believe that this will solve a tremendous poverty issue.
Corey Cazares: We got to get into this we have to hear your opinions on UBI because there are some proponents of UBI who are reputable, industry leading, technology leading, thought-provoking, we would call them modern day philosophers. Elon Musk is a huge proponent of UBI because automated driving is.
Jim Keener: Well it’s the one percent right so the top one-tenth of the one percent has the acquired wealth of the bottom 90% of mind so, that is, pretty much where that argument’s coming from so that the super wealthy are believing it’s in their best interest to participate at an $800 a month stipend to keep these people out of the workforce to put people in the workforce that are more productive and want to be participating at that level. And so that’s really what’s going on that’s my understanding at least of what’s going on right. I don’t know if that number is a good number or a bad number I don’t I’m not I’m not roll versed in that whole aspect, my personal opinion is it’s a terrible decision. I mean even the minimum wage argument of “Raise minimum wage, raise minimum wage” and then you hear other people saying that it’s the market conditions, I think you brought it up on your show the other day. The market decisions create what the value of the product is and so if somebody who is less skilled you have to pay $15 dollars an hour for a less skilled individual to do a job that doesn’t necessarily produce enough revenue to support that fifteen dollars an hour, that’s going to be a problem.
Rick Hamada: Right.
Jim Keener: And so there’s going to be inflation and when inflation goes up then that eight hundred dollars is now worth five and then four and three and pretty soon it’s worth relatively nothing So, It’s back to the analogy that we just don’t know the proper way and we’re trying things, we’re tasting things we’re figuring out what will work and a lot of times we’ll fill figure out what does not work which will take it’s closer to what does work.
Rick Hamada: And that’s a bit of trial and error and we can bring that back home to businesses that are dialled in right now listening and we’re going to pick up on these themes and a whole lot more Makerofkings.com Be sure to log on today find out how you can connect with MOK.
Rick Hamada: Maker of Kings radio and thankful that you are with us and thankful for these gentlemen in the studio. It is a remarkable time, I call it the most compelling hour of radio and for good reason. I want to revisit something that we chatted about off air for just a moment but we left with. And that has to do about technology and the presence of technology and the horizon that we’re facing with this technological advancement that we marvel at things like travel. But no, this is human body replacement by technological robotics, that is a real thing this isn’t some fanciful type of deal. Where are we and where we are we going, Jim?
Jim Keener: Well, I think robotics and automation are going to revolutionize the way we operate. You know it’s been said that over the next ten years we’re going to lose 30-50% of our workforce due to automation and robotics. And in our situation how we build businesses is we start through this process and we get to a situation of optimization and then our final transition goes from optimization after stabilization to automation. So we go and we automate all the systems that we can automate and that’s the next, just the final step the final step and then at that point we go on down the road. So I think that same position is happening around the world and we’re failing to realize that this UBI, the universal basic income these other things are tests in lieu of what we’re going to do with these people when they lose their job? Because we’re going to have a tremendous amount of individuals that are disenfranchised and displaced due to automation and robotics and so and along the lines of what I’m doing building these businesses, none of these services that we’re providing can be automated and a robot can’t replace one of the technicians. So back to our format of employing veterans we had to identify those areas going forward and what’s going to be around for the next twenty years and so that’s one of the main platforms that we discussed, is the inability to automate or use robotics in the services that we’re building.
Rick Hamada: So if we take Hawaii, for example, and we have tourism as our primary economic engine, those that comprise the workforce in the tourist industry, very labour intensive but not exempt from being automated.
Jim Keener: Sure.
Rick Hamada: Could you have automated making of beds, automated cleaning of rooms, automated tours or whatever it might be so you’re saying that the possibility that those who are employed right now in the next ten, maybe even sooner years, are going to be staring out the window with nowhere to go, nothing to do without the training and they’re going to be replaced by a machine.
Jim Keener: Well I’m watching that happen right now I mean why shouldn’t we. We talked about Zoom pizza, you know, we talked about the restaurant industry and how these, these robotic companies are making all these different things and they’re eliminating jobs. And as we continue to raise wages they’re more inclined to provide more automation, more robotics and so there’s the downside to that as well. So we’re looking at that, I’m not aware of a robot currently that can do the things that the service sector can do such as make beds, but we know that there’s a vacuum that vacuums themself and they use all the radar and sonar to keep himself away from things. So there will be tools available I don’t know if they’ll ever, ever be replaced but certainly, they’ll be tools available to enhance what we currently have.
Corey Cazares: You just hit on something that caught my ear I’ve never actually thought about that. The correlation between raising minimum wage which is such a just a welcomed with open arms topic for so many people but it’s… it’s a self-eating ice cream cone. You’re going to raise minimum wage which is going to incentivize employers to man or to automate more process is to escape the mandatory minimum wage but they put on them to increase the lifestyle quality or life quality of those people you’re trying to protect it. It’s circular thinking man that is, that’s some heavy stuff, I never really put those two together.
Rick Hamada: It was actually one of the primary arguments when this was all brought up and we can go back years I got three letters for you A.T.M. Yeah and that was like the entrée to say, “Here we go guys.”
Rich Elliot: Yeah, well look at what McDonald’s and Subway are doing. They’re rolling out this automation of ordering and they’re spending. Every single McDonald’s in Hawaii is getting renovated to be able to take on, you know, guy going up to the monitor and putting it in order and moving on. So, the amount of value that they’re putting into that renovation is being offset by Labour obviously corporate has figured that out, they’ve run the numbers, they’ve done that they’re an educated brand, think of it.
Corey Cazares: It’s refined though, in most cases that’s refinement of business.
Rich Elliot: it’s yeah it’s truly is you know automation is the refinement stages of it but also to what’s work as a society are causing this to happen because of all of you know we’re always like minimum wage we’re raising minimum wage we’re doing this well at the end of the day it’s going to go back to the consumer but then people are trying to be innovative in saying how can we remove that from going back to the consumer to get that next level to be able to be more competitive in the market space.
Corey Cazares: We talked about it on your show too before, if society was a cart motor less cart on a track, there are three types of American in this modern, safe, well-fed community of America we live in. There’s really three types of people, those people who are pushing the cart forward advancing us as a society, those people who are in front of the cart slowing it down, leeching off the society and those people who are kind of indifferent just riding the wave of goodness that this last hundred years has given us, right. And I think that this refinement and this automation will end up weeding the people out. Well not weeding the people out, this is going to sound rough but eliminating some of the people that are holding the cart from progressing a little bit more. The people who are writing and leeching off the good wealth the fatness of this country the programs and all that stuff that we’re talking about off air. I think a lot of that’s going to get eliminated by the efficiency of the system.
Rick Hamada: But at some point, as you mentioned before there are fundamentals that people must have in order to exist, not thrive but just to survive in this whole UBI business here of that being that, kind of like, thanks for being with us but here’s a couple of dollars, just be sure you feed yourself and have a roof and leave the rest of us alone as we pursue but we’ve had education as part of the conversation in past show. So if folks are listening right now, what is the importance of education but is really education the cornerstone of being prepared and being invaluable in the upcoming change in markets?
Rich Elliot: Why I think education certainly is a tool but it’s just a tool. I think that we’ve kind of lost our way in the fact that if education was the solution. I mean we have a highly educated society currently that a lot of people aren’t thriving there’s a lot of educated individuals who are not successful. So if you’re educated that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to be successful. It means that you have a good opportunity with knowledge and information but how you apply that is going to separate you from everybody else and if you look at the top wage earners, a lot of them aren’t educated. They’re you know you look at the realtors you look at mortgage brokers you look at salespeople. You look at who is out there actually winning. If you remove the lawyers and the doctors and you start looking at everybody else, is it education? Or is it an opportunity or is it a combination.
I believe it’s perseverance I think it’s resourcefulness, not just resources. I think that if you understand that it’s resourcefulness then you apply that differently that thought process differently than just if I had the right resources because you can have the proper resources and not use them effectively and still not get the desired outcome. So education is very expensive and even though free education is still expensive but like my dad said, “If you think education expenses is expensive try being stupid” that’s twice as expensive. And so I’ve had to experience that my whole life [laughter]. Cause I used to say why do I need an education, he’s like because the cost is stupidity is far more, you know.
Jim Keener: Something Juro and I always talk about when we go in interviews and we’re talking with a lot of people and the only thing we truly look at when we’re speaking with someone, because the first time we meet him is the best time we’re ever going to actually sit down, it’s the best person we’re going to get so we look at it A, if they have a college education. Awesome, cool, that’s great that that to us means you can probably problem solve. That’s what we look at secondly, can they talk right talking can’t be taught in college, in school and this, having a personality the application of that, because still to this day. In business a lot of business is relationships connecting people, putting people together, creating value, creating trust in the market.
Rick Hamada: Communication
Jim Keener: and it’s crazy because there’s so many people you hear read something on paper and you’re like “Oh man I can’t wait to meet this guy” and you get there and you’re like “Oh man, I’m ready to leave [laughter].”
Rick Hamada: They can tax though, they might not be able to talk but they can swipe right and tax.
Jim Keener: Or they went to Stanford, Oh my God. They don’t practice actively listening. Some are good at talking they just don’t listen but it’s just very interesting how you can have every breath of life because we truly have every breath of life in our shop. And when we put them together and it works because we play to their strengths, we understand you know the positions they should be in and allow them to thrive in that we had to its education is still …. my brother called me the other day and he’s like “Hey I need to talk to you now and I was like “Oh man something happen” and he’s like, “should I go to get my master’s degree and I was like, “What! What are you going to do like, what do you want to learn he’s like, “I don’t know yet that’s why I’m asking you,” This is like society, you know, you don’t know what you should do, so what are you going to do?
Rick Hamada: Go to school
Jim Keener: Go to school again I’m going to go and I’m going to get my PhD and I told him I was like you haven’t experienced anything go out there experience something fail at something get better at something teach yourself something and then if you feel that education is the way to make you become a better problem solver, a better communicator, a better understanding of that space, then go for it. But I promise you it’s probably not going to happen.
Rick Hamada: You know and that’s why I’m glad you guys are bringing that because this is one of the frustrating things that I see with analytical data that if you are a… if you have a GED, this is what you’ll learn. If you have a high school diploma this is… if you have a bachelor’s this, if you have a master.
Rich Elliot: All lies, all lies.
Rick Hamada: Who the hell Comes up with this stuff. Astounding
Rich Elliot: This is funny so Jim is our mentor our leader in the forefront of our company but right below him would be Andrew and I I’m Andrew Sorry buddy but he hasn’t graduated yet but he’s still a college kid and I always make fun of him. You’re my college buddy and while. You know he had a very successful military career hence why he is now going to college but I just like to give him a little shot from time to time. And then myself who I went to school for architecture and really everyone’s like oh did you minor in business I was like “No, well then how are you running a business and it’s like well because it’s not taught in the book. Everything that was taught in the book. I can probably learn in six months in operations, in running a business and having a mentor to be like, “Yeah that’s how it’s stated in the book but that’s not really how it actually…” yeah.
And I’m actually the worst student in history I have the lowest grade point average of any anybody I know absolutely worst student ever. We’re looking at that and looking at the success we’re creating So it doesn’t really matter if you have a Ph D. If you have I mean we’re living proof of the fact that that’s not what you’re required to be successful.
Rick Hamada: But it’s almost like there’s places and pockets where that is your definition especially within families if you’re not a degree holder if you haven’t done or haven’t accomplished this but if you have, oh well we’re going to have a parade and we’re going to –
Rich Elliot: But, it’s feeding egos and ego is the enemy I mean if you have the ego you got to feed that ego that’s just reality and that’s what people are feeding their ego it’s all how they’re perceived by somebody rather than going out making a difference, rather than going out and living up to your full potential you’re out there to prove something to somebody else, you want to show them your diploma you know. And I’ve said this before you’ve got a wall of diplomas, why can’t you figure it out I barely got through sixth-grade math [laughter].
Rick Hamada: And that’s true
Rich Elliot: So, it’s just the reality
Rick Hamada: But it is that it’s that conditioning. It is that if you don’t then you won’t share and that’s the kind of thing I bring that up all right. Because Zack is contemplating school and about what to do, where to go and how to do it. It is a little bit of a different approach that I have than others that are expressing to him, and so I know it goes on, cause it’s going on in our own family. So I’m glad we’re having this discussion for folks who are dialled in right now learn more with Maker of Kings you’re going to learn more you’ll be exposed to more and come to makerofkings.com. Maker of kings we usually start the program with that Jim but how about a repeat again the mission.
Rich Elliot: The mission of Maker of Kings is to promote conscious capitalism with these three entrepreneurs and explain conscious capitalism is be good, do good, do no harm to yourself or others or the environment and kick some butt. that’s our focus it’s documenting this journey amongst these young men and the trials and tribulations of starting and running small businesses in Hawaii and how to help them reach their full potential and help our listeners overcome some of the hurdles associated with small business.
Rick Hamada: How does that play out Cory you’re living this now what is?
Corey Cazares: So funny you’d ask today. Today was an eye opener for me I knew a veteran from before, who had worked for us a couple times doing a few jobs for us, and I was able to bring him into a group of people that I’ve come to trust and admire and offer him an opportunity that wasn’t mine to offer but I’ve been given the ability to offer that opportunity. You don’t offer him a job, you don’t offer him a pay check, you don’t offer him a position, you offer them an opportunity. And it’s bigger than ever this morning for me. Because you know we have this is an opportunity for myself and the fruition of it was this morning being able to bring somebody in that’s gigantic, that’s the reason I’m here that’s the whole point of being here. So for this morning was a close circle it was awesome and that’s what it is for me. Ground level veteran getting out of the service seven days had somewhat of a plan has a way better plan coming down the pipe if everything goes well and it’s being able to present those opportunities to other veterans just like myself. That’s what gets me stoked and that’s where it is today.
Rick Hamada: Love that, love that Rich how about you?
Rich Elliot: Well, I mean the journey for me has been amazing and fun and it’s been surreal at times and it’s been tough at times but I think that’s the biggest thing for everyone to understand, is that, it’s going to have a roller coaster, you just want to make sure you have the people in place that you know you’re the roller coaster is the first the journey as well as the growth. Without the roller coaster you’re going to I mean if you’re stagnant if you’re just going in one direction obviously you’re not me growing and the whole purpose of this whole thing it is to grow, it is to become better in business better in the community better family, better friend and that and that’s the most fun right now for us. It’s because it’s all about the journey. At the very end it’s probably going to be one of those things where we look at each other and be like, oh man, the and goal is great but the journey is what you have to enjoy so that’s probably something I’m learning to think about more and more along the process because man, it’s fun. But you’ve got to make sure you keep that mindset throughout the process.
Rick Hamada: Green and growing or ripe and rotting.
Rick Hamada: Oh man yeah embrace the challenge.
Jim Keener: There are challenges every day and it’s whether you want to take them on, is going to make or break you if you want to take them on you want to problem solve them, you want to get after them and find the solution I mean that’s the goal at the end of this whole process because that you can’t remove that from someone.
Rick Hamada: Because Jim, I mean there really isn’t an end.
Jim Keener: No, it’s infinity, that’s the legacy part yeah live, love learn, leave a legacy that’s it.
Rick Hamada: All of that and more we’ve been talking about makerofkings.com And this is the location where we are with all of our friends to come enjoy. Before we go and we have just about a minute and a half or so all of the different companies all the different services Handy Andy has been just top of mind with… I call it when we’re not on the air when I talk as it’s a manifestation of what we talked about on MOK. it is living breathing and it is actual representation of what you espouse and what would you teach us while we’re here on the air.
I’d like for folks to do this go to makerofkings.com put it into your own minds where you are with your business, your plan, your thoughts, your and see what the parallels are of what we discuss on a regular basis and what is being lived every day with of course Handy Andy and other companies. Maybe the next time we get together we can maybe do a little bit of an update with folks of where they are and where Handy Andy is and see what those parallels are. Cause they love to see people have a similar if not same experience.
Jim Keener: We would too we would love participate.
Rick Hamada: So that’d be great yeah gentlemen I can’t thank you enough thank you so, so very much.
Jim Keener: Thank you, Rick.
Rick Hamada: Enjoy and we’ll see you soon all right you’re.
Behind the Mic:
Jim Keener, Rick Hamada, Andrew Compean, Rich Elliott, Corey Cazares
About the Maker of Kings:
The Maker of Kings is documenting the journey of these young entrepreneurs through the trials and tribulations of starting and running small companies and growing from small businesses into large businesses and teaching the tricks of the trade along the way.