Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 2020 release 32 Milisana Street, and it's a shutter exclusive and it hits shutter on Thursday, October 22nd When I'm putting up this review it is ahead of that release date So because of that reason and because of the fact that it's a 2020 film there will be no spoilers in this review So feel free to watch this and get and let it give you a good idea of if you want to watch this film But I will say up front this is one of the shutter exclusives that I think you definitely should see Especially if you're into the subgenre of haunting films now, I will say that I am not into that subgenre I usually don't find it that interesting for me personally Usually doesn't suck me in but the fact that it actually Sucked me into this film and I feel like it's really well done for a subgenre that I don't like that much It's a good film. I mean it's more than a good film So anyway, you'll get my rating at the end, but just know this you should check it out It's directed by Albert Pinto Who did films killing God and one that's gonna be coming out? Asylum twisted horror and fantasy tales, which I assume is an anthology It was written by and this is what gave me pause about the film It's written by four separate people and usually when you have more people involved with writing a script It gets more convoluted. It's not as strong as a story of a story But not the case with this written by Ramon Campos and Gemma Arnira who had written lots and lots and lots of TV shows episodes of TV shows Spanish language As well as David. I'm sorry David Orea and Salvador Esmalina It is in Spanish this film.  So that's fine But if you don't like reading subtitles because just like well, I just don't like reading when I'm watching a movie Get over it because you're missing so many good films out there So many good films out there and this being a good film out there that you should be checking out Anyway, the synopsis of this something really quick. It's basically about a family who moves to the city and They are kind of trying to get a fresh start They move from a more rural area to more city area and it's kind of just about them trying to adjust Meanwhile where they've moved Some things start to happen. Like I said, it's kind of a haunting Subgenre film so you can kind of figure out where it goes from there without giving spoilers From the beginning scene, you're already getting a very good Sense of what Pinto's style is as a director and it's a really great style in my opinion a really great style It's It's dark the lighting It looks mainly like they use a lot of natural lighting in the film Which I really really like because in the setting of the apartment that they're in In within the city this family It looks kind of dark. It looks a little creepy It looks a little dingy and that really helps with the atmosphere and that is one of the big things with the film Is I feel like the atmosphere that is created from the get-go from the first scene that's in the past by the way And then they skip forward a while It's so good It just sets you up and I think they do a good job of staying Within that environment within that atmosphere the whole time It just has the same feel throughout which is a really great creepy dingy dark feeling Which is perfect because when you stay in that it it creates this tense feeling of you never know when something's gonna happen So you're kind of always on edge to some degree and that's how I kind of felt with this film the overwhelming majority of it Happens in that apartment and because of the way it looks because of the way the lighting is because of the directing the cinematography and The acting is really good too. It just it immerses you And it keeps you there and and that's one of the biggest things that I really enjoyed about the film Is that you're there and you don't really get much of any reprieve from this feeling of Something does happen and then feeling like something else is going to happen kind of in any moment in the film So that's really well done now the natural lighting I was talking about that them it looks like they're mainly using natural lighting That works really well because it casts a lot of interesting shadows in addition to not Lighting the rooms in the apartment too much to the point where they wouldn't look creepy. They wouldn't look dingy It wouldn't look dark Keeping it lower light helps where you can actually see the actors and see what's going on and the it's actually lit but you're not taking too much away from the actual atmosphere of it, so and Pinto's style is really good. It just looks great This film looks Outstanding and that really helps to add to those creepy scary moments, which by the way they do have jump scares in this I know that's not a big surprise because a lot of horror does But effective jump scares good jump scares that got me a few times and good jump scares that when you experience them You're not like, oh, that was a stupid jump scare. You're like, ooh, that was that was a legitimately well-placed good-looking jump scare, so I Quite enjoy that aspect of it the shooting location is kind of it's got this interesting kind of like Classic feel to it the apartment, but it also like I was saying is like dark and creepy at the same time So I really like the shooting location. It works very well for the story The family dynamic and the individual relationships in this I think are set up pretty well And that's done very early on which is where it's obviously the most important because you're gonna need to know These characters you're gonna need to know the family dynamic and not just the family dynamic as a whole But the family dynamic as in, you know, how these two characters interact or how these two characters interact or you know Those types of dynamics, so it's it's very good So you get a very nice sense of who these people are and what kind of drives them now There are some things that you don't know You don't know everything from the get-go and there are things that you learn later That have a part in the story which are quite interesting and revealing and good There are some like I said, they're good jump scares and the music the music ends up being used to great effect with the jump scares Now one of the things that I talk about a lot is when the music becomes too much in a horror film it kind of like Knocks what's going on the screen kind of the side and you focus just so much and on the music Because it's so loud because it's so over-the-top now This film doesn't do that. There's always kind of this low level of like a creepy Interesting music going on with the film, but when the jump scares happen it gets much louder and it gets more intense and Normally I would complain about that, but Here's the difference a lot what a lot of films do is they start that music before the jump scare happens this film they do that very loud very over-the-top intense music as The jump scare happens and that's fine because that's an enhancement To the jump scare as opposed to giving you an idea that the jump scares coming and Then when it actually hits it's not as effective because the music was already telling you that that's happening So it's done effectively. They did they did a nice job. I Already talked about that. There's a callback from the beginning of the film that gives you a very uh-oh moment in this film and I think maybe it's about half an hour in or so Maybe a little bit before that There's something in particular in the very beginning portion, which isn't set in the past that then happens about a half an hour Ish I might be wrong on that into the film. It's a particular There's a particular item that comes into play and as soon as you see that you're just like oh, no For for the sake of the characters, you're like, oh, no, here we go But for the sake of you that's when the stuff starts really getting good. So yeah, the CG in this looks good I like the computer graphics And they're smart about the computer graphics too from what I could tell they look good on their own But additionally they do what I like which is you don't get to focus on it too long It's kind of like quickly used in shots. So that's the best way to effectively use CG in my opinion I Already talked about the the atmosphere that keeps things tense There is a good reveal at the end that ties a lot together And It creates some interesting parallels in the film as well. That's the other thing there are there are parallels in the film You don't see it until there's a an interesting idea Or reveal really at the end like I was saying there's some things you don't really know about Not necessarily the family there are things you don't know about the family that you end up finding out later But there are also things that you don't know about the apartment and the Situation with that apartment that ends up being revealed and once that is revealed That is where you start to see some parallels play out in the film that you're not Aware of up until that point and it makes you kind of think back and say okay because now when this is like this I see how that's a parallel earlier on in the film and yeah So think a bit harder once once you're done with this film and you you'll see what I'm talking about It doesn't seem like there's a lot going on as far as story But there is it seems very straightforward It seems very simplistic as you're going but then once the reveals of some information end up happening then you realize Oh, this is way more complicated. I don't want to say complicated because it makes it sound like it's a bad thing There's just way more to it There's a lot more to the story once you hit the reveal and then you're just like okay I thought we were dealing with something very simple and straightforward Not the case and I like that I like that the sound design in this is excellent. I love the way it sounds It's very very good. It really helps with creating and maintaining that tension It's just like little noises of certain things that the characters do or you know noises that happen You know not not tied to anything the characters do just happen in the apartment that are meant to be done for effect They just sound great amazing sound design. Like I said, the acting is really good, too. We really enjoyed the acting There is a theme in this of trying to start a new chapter in life and the unknowns that end up coming up Across that journey when you're kind of going across it Obviously, it's in the context of his family kind of trying to start a new because they move to the city and They don't have jobs or anything. So they're they really have to try to get their footing immediately. So The challenges of caring for an elderly family member ends up coming up on this. It's not a huge theme It's not like the main theme of it. It's not a big theme, but it is a theme that comes up and I know that this is It's not something that comes up all that much in like American films Because we don't have a society where we live with our elders typically sometimes that happens But in a lot of other cultures a lot of other countries You know elders will will live with the younger generations and for that reason there is this constant Aspect to the family dynamic of having to take care of an older person in the same work in you know in the same house so You know me being an American born in America and always lived in America Seeing something like that it doesn't it doesn't jive with my family situation But I can see How it plays into a family situation. So just saying The pressure is placed on young the younger generation within a family unit who are trying to kind of forge a secure future Ends up being a big part of this too like you see a lot of pressure on on the younger people within the family and I I Understand that that kinds that also plays into the whole idea of like, you know three generations really living within one house And this concept of you know going to a new place and really trying to get your footing and have a new start everyone's got a pitch in if you want to have the best life that you can as a family and That doesn't necessarily afford The younger people in the family to just have a carefree childhood or to grow up Maybe the way they want to or a lot of people see that they should So that's kind of at play in the film as well And then the ultimate theme is how issues within a family can infect all the members and Negatively affect their lives making it hard to get away from the effects of those issues basically that if there's something if There's a situation created within the family that is so bad or becomes so toxic That it follows the members no matter what so I'm trying to be as vague about it as I can but if you hear me say that and then you watch the film You'll you'll know what I'm talking about or if you've already watched the film and you're hearing this You probably know what I'm talking about you should So anyway, what am I gonna rate 32 miles on the street? Obviously you've heard me say a lot of good things about it. I I do think maybe it's a little bit too long In length. I would have liked it to be cut down too much, but that's kind of a little thing I know some people would probably like it even more than I liked it, but out of five stars with half stars in play I'm giving it a very solid four star rating I would say definitely check it out and like I said, I'm not even into like the whole Ghost haunting subgenre. I really typically don't like that But this film really pulled me in and I enjoyed it quite a bit. So this is one to catch for sure Thanks for checking this out real quick Thanks for checking this out though really really quick put some comments down there We can talk about this film and spoilers totally fine in the comments So everyone know when you look at the comments there may very very well be spoilers. We can talk about this film Do me a favor real quick hit that subscribe button That's your best way to repay me It literally takes you a second and it is very very painless and I really do appreciate it Honestly, every time I see I get an email that says I have a new subscriber. It really makes me happy It drives me to keep doing these videos because I've been doing this for a while and I don't get paid or anything but It's fun as long as I know people are are taking it in and and really internalizing it and enjoying the videos So please hit that subscribe and if you do, please also hit the notification bell Because then that way, you know when I'm putting up a new review or an unboxing or doing a live stream But regardless, I do appreciate you checking this out and until next time keep it brutal


To Leadership in Hawai'i on ThinkTech, I'm your host, Caroline Lee. On our show today, we're going to talk about how CBRE grew to become the largest commercial real estate company in Hawai'i and one person's unique leadership style. If you want to ask a question or participate in the discussion, you can tweet us at ThinkTech HI or call us at<PHONE_NUMBER>. Our guest for today's show is Joe House of Cheney Brooks, my old friend. Welcome to the show, Joe. Hi, Carol. Thanks for having me. It's great to see you again. We've known each other almost 40 years. I know. Yeah. I know. It's been a long time. And then when I knew you, you were doing sales, right? Yes. I was a commercial real estate broker and I worked for several companies when we were friends. Right. And then we became the president of CBRE, which stands for Coldwell Banker. Now it's just an acronym. It doesn't have actually words, but it's Coldwell Banker, Richard Ellis, CB Richard Ellis. They took hold of it for a while and now it morphed into CBRE. It's kind of an interesting story. It began in 2001, 2001 in business in Hawai'i and around the world was a very bad year because the 9-11 and the dot-com bubble burst on the stock market. So it was a very difficult year for business. So our company wasn't doing very well. We owned it at the time, me and 10 or 11 partners, and we needed to make a change. So two of the partners started lobbying me that I should become the managing director of the firm. Had you had any interest at all in that side of the business? None whatsoever. I had never managed before in any level, in any capacity, never. So you were doing sales and brokerage? Yeah.  But I wasn't managing people for sure, and nor had I ever. And you've never been trained in management skills? No. Oh, no. Academically or on the job? No. No. So I still know. Anyway, so these two of my partners approached me and said, listen, we'd like you to replace the current co-managing directors running the firm. And they wanted me to replace them both. And I was reluctant to say the least. I was saying, no, not me. I didn't actually have that much admiration for managers in my career. So I didn't think I could make a manager, be a good manager.  And I had a bit of an epiphany. I went to Thanksgiving dinner at one of the broker's house, one of my partners' house. And we were, and I was sitting there and a vote for whether who's going to be the next manager or the firm was going to happen to follow in Monday after Thanksgiving. And I finally allowed myself to think about what if I became the manager? What would be the first thing I do? And if you don't want to be a manager, if you don't want to do a job, that's a bad thing to ask yourself because the idea popped in my head. We had a senior sales staff at CBRA and we hadn't hired a new rookie salesman or an entry-level position in over five years. And so all these senior brokers didn't feel that it was worth their time to do small real estate transactions. So in a year when we're having difficulty generating any revenue, we're turning away small business. To me, that seemed like a mistake and a bad idea. So I thought about it and I said, well, the first thing I would do is I would hire some entry-level people so that we can then do every deal. To cover an area that had been overlooked for years. Yes, exactly. And it's a different kind of a thing. So excuse me, if we hired people that was a whole train of thought led to my actually accepting the job, if we then hired new people, then we had to think about training those people. So who would do the training? I guess I could do the training, right? So in fact, our model, our number one model for the time I was manager at CBRRE was make every deal. Make every deal. So as a philosophy, we wouldn't turn any business away anymore. Which was very different than the preceding. Yeah, we were concentrating on the larger deals because we're a very large company. CBRRE, if you don't know, is a publicly traded company. Even though we were locally owned, we were part of this giant network. And so make every deal became our mantra. And so if we hired new people, then they had to be trained. And then who was going to train them? And then there was a whole lot of things that, you know, where they're going to sit, you know, and how are we going to take care of these people? And how are we going to make them productive? And it all felt to me, I was saying I'm the only one that would really volunteer to do that. I thought it was going to be productive. Take the other managers out of the way from being productive to do this. So I thought about it and I said, well... Because you were moving out of sales now onto the managers side. You were willing to do that. Well, the vote was coming. And up until then I had said no. And then I thought about it and I said, well, if that's the right thing to do, to hire junior people and to make every deal, would that happen if I don't accept a job? And the answer I came up with is no. So then I had to do it. I had no choice. So on Monday, the following after Thanksgiving, the Monday after Thanksgiving, I told these two partners who were lobbying me to take this job that I would indeed take it if I was elected by my partners. And I was. And you were... So from 2001 until the time you left, which was last year, how big did the company grow under your leadership? Yeah. It was... I took over the reins of the firm in 2002. And I was the leader until the end of 2011, 10-year period, okay? So in 2001, that very bad year, we had a difficult year. Again, we owned a company and at that level of production, the company would have to make changes. We'd have to lay off people. We'd have to downsize. We'd have to make sacrifices that we didn't want to make. And if we continued to work at that level, we might well have gone out of business. So I went on my first month of the job, I had to put together a business plan. We needed to get a line of credit to operate, you know. So if... There hadn't been one up to that point? There had been one that was with the parent company who sold the company to us. We had a line of credit with them for a period of time. But it would have expired and we needed a new one and we were in a difficult situation as well. So it was more important than ever that we have it. So I put together a business plan. And so my first board meeting with our partners was, okay, in the first... I have a five-year goal. My five-year goal is to be earning... And I don't want to use specific numbers because, you know, I don't work there anymore and it may embarrass the people that do. So I said it would be, we need to roughly in five years grow three and a half times bigger than we currently are in 2001. If we were successful, that would be more successful than any commercial real estate in Hawaii had ever been. My partners dissuaded me from that notion by arguing with me that, you know, if we go to a bank and we ask for a line of credit and we say, we're going to do that level of performance. When no one's ever done it before, they're going to think we're idiots. And they're going to think we're foolish. And we'll never get that line of credit. So we negotiated, we were mostly old partners and brokers mostly, and we negotiated. So they wanted it to be half that. And so we settled on three-fourths of that. And you made it. Well, yeah, we went and not only did we get the line of credit, it turns out in two years time, we were three and a half times more successful than we were in 2000. And one, and then in three years later, we doubled that. So we were roughly, we ended up being like 700% more revenue than we generated. We just, we did, what we did was great. I mean, everything happened. So in ten years, you increased revenue by 700%? Over 700. And how many employees did you grow by? Oh, we were, when we began the process, we had 40 employees.  And by the peak of our success, we were at 140 employees. And we were, well, our revenue was quite a bit more. It was, like I said, over 700%. So let's dig into how that happened.  Yeah, I gave everybody hugs. That was my first thing. No. Yeah. Well, the business plan was the first thing. Have you ever done one before? No. Okay. No, I just made that up as, and sort of, it's sort of, you know, if I had a book about this and we go, making it up as you go along, because I had no experience as a manager, as I said. But unbeknownst to me, I apparently was paying attention to all the managers I had leading up to my taking this position. And unbeknownst to you, your managers were looking at you, seeing the potential. Yeah, I don't know about that. Maybe, but they didn't share that with me if that's what they were doing. These were my partners you might be referring to. My partners, maybe. So let's talk about some of the different tools that you're used to. Yeah, so apparently in my work history, I was paying attention to all the managers I had. I had many managers. I used to work at Xerox, which was famous for good management. That's where we met. Yeah, I was still working at Xerox. Wow. That's for her, right? That was about 40 years ago. So I was working at Xerox, and I had lots of managers, and I was paying attention. I didn't realize it, but I must have been paying attention to what things I liked that they did, and what things I didn't like that they did, what I thought was stupid, what I thought was smart. And what did you like? And it was subconscious, because I wasn't focused on it. But when I took over at CBRE, I started to realize that, and I didn't do the things I didn't admire. So you're proud. I did do the things I did admire, and it worked. And tell us some of the things that you admired, because you were a workmanist. It was sort of, well, it's hard to say, specifically, I don't know. Well, some of these, we talked about some of these. Well, let me tell you some things we did, okay, and how that worked, all right? First thing we did was, after the Bird Business Plan, is we did what is known as a SWAT analysis. SWAT. SWOT. SWAT. Yeah, it stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. And so we got all the partners in a room for a day. I think we met off campus, too, so we were in some hotel or something. And we talked about all the strengths of the company. What are we great at? What are we good at? What can we do? Blah, blah, blah. And then what are our weaknesses? You know, what things aren't we good at that we should be good at? What are our opportunities? What potential is out there? And you know, how can we grow? Where can we, where can we do well, you know?  The market might be dealing. It's a very, very important process to go through as a manager. I highly recommend it. I joined Cheney Brooks earlier this year, and it was the first thing I, I had the senior management and we did a SWAT analysis because they knew everything about the company, but I did not. But it brought me up to speed pretty quickly. And in the process of doing it, you get ideas. I mean, Is it something that you do on a regular basis to review how things might have changed through every few years? Well, I'd rather, it depends. I mean, I have a new organization now that I'm working with, and so I don't know if they'd tolerate me doing it every year, but if I could, I would. Okay? I think it's that helpful. Uh-huh. All right? And also, it's important to set big goals, okay? There was a book I read that, that just talked about, uh, big, hairy, aggressive goals. The egg. She's kind of laughing because I didn't write aggressive down on that piece of paper I gave her. So big, hairy, aggressive goals, and you have to be able to dream a little bit. Like that 10, um, I'm sorry, I'm trying not to speak specifically about numbers. About that three and a half times growth of revenue in five years that I described earlier, uh, that was a big goal because nobody believed it was possible. Right. But because we set a big goal. So do you have everybody buy into that goal? Yeah. How do you do that? Well, it, it's a process, uh, you, you know, I slide it up by saying it. And then, and then I said, okay, if that's our goal, how do we get to our goal? And then I divide, and then I come up with, with strategies to achieve the goal. Let me give you an example. Our biggest competitor, uh, at the time, and I think still is Coyers, Coyers. Then, then it might have been Monero, Monero and Freelender, right? Collie's Monero Freelender. They were our biggest competitor. They had years earlier, well, uh, cause I, I know this because I used to work there. They had years earlier opened an office on Maui, uh, and, uh, it had interesting result from that. I'll explain in a minute. Okay, great. On that note, we're going to come back and listen to the rest of this story. This is Karamon Lee, uh, on Tink-Tek, Hawaii with my guest, Joe Hasen. We'll be right back. Aloha. My name is Steven Phillip Katz. I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist, and I'm the host of Shrink Rap Hawaii, where I talk to other shrinks. Did you ever want to get your head shrunk? Well, this is the best place to come to pick one. I've been doing this. We must have 60 shows with a whole bunch of shrinks that you can look at. I'm here on Tuesdays at three o'clock every other Tuesday. I hope you are too. Aloha. Aloha. My name is Raya Salter, and I'm the host of Power Up Hawaii, which you can see live at from one to 130 every Tuesday at thinktecawaii.com and then later on YouTube. I am an energy attorney, clean energy advocate and community outreach specialist. And on Power Up Hawaii, we come together to talk about how can Hawaii walk towards a clean, renewable, and just energy future. To do that, we talk to stakeholders all over the spectrum, from clean energy technology folks to community groups to politicians to regulators to the utility. So please join us Tuesdays at one o'clock for Power Up Hawaii. Welcome back. This is Karaman Lee with my guest, Joe Hasen, talking about leadership in Hawaii and his many years of heading CBRE, making it the largest commercial real estate company in Hawaii. And we were just talking about a great story about you and Coyers Monroe Freeland. Yes. So as an example, as a strategy, a growth strategy for the company, I knew that having worked at Coyers earlier in my career that they had decided they initially opened an office on Maui. And the man who was running that office on Maui left the firm and started his own company on Maui. And I remember Andy Freelander saying, I remember Andy Freelander saying that I will never open up an office on the neighbor islands again. So my strategy was, well, if our biggest competitor is not going to be in the neighbor islands, we're going to be there because we wanted to be a full-service company. We wanted to give the opportunity of all our clients to do business on the neighbor islands using us. So that was a typical strategy. Right. So you paid attention on some random remark. Yeah. So that's an opportunity. I called that strategy to hit them where they ain't strategy. I did really. I had an excellent name for it. So you moved to the neighbor islands. You opened offices in the neighbor islands? Yeah. I didn't move anywhere. We opened offices in Hilo, Kona, Kahului, Lahaina, and Kapa'a on Kauai. So yeah, we were everywhere. Now those offices, they were not big players. They were marginal players, but they did afford us the opportunity to offer services. We have clients, for example, Alexander and Baldwin, who are on most of the neighbor islands, if not all. And we could service their needs everywhere. So it was a good strategy. Yeah, really. Another thing I thought was very important was to question everything. Question everything. Yeah. And it worked great for me because although I was with the firm for a long time, I was only in the broker piece, right? I wasn't in the management side or the administrative side. So I was able to just question, why do you do that like that? You know, what is? So you were naturally interested, curious. Yeah. No, it's not that. I always think I know a better way to do it. I see. I look at it, I go, I think that doesn't seem like a good way to do it. I had a, by the way, in the service, I worked in the clerical side. I was a finance clerk. And before that, I did a accounts receivable and payroll for a fairly mid-sized company. I was responsible for that. So I had a lot of administrative background, plus the sales background. So anyway, so I would question everything. And when you do that, people will tell you why they do it that way. And if you have a better way to do it, sometimes it saves them time and they appreciate it. But mostly, they think you're annoying when you ask them that question. When you ask questions all the time, why do you do that? How are you doing that? Well, that brings up a question of style. So what is your style? Do you like one-on-one? Do you email? Do you phone call? No. Are you team player? Yeah, if it's anyone in the office, the people I now work with, Cheney, as you know, I never send an email internally. I go see them. And unless they're not in the office, I will walk to their desk and speak to them every single time. I think it's good manners. I do. And when they see you and you're there, you're not some mystery person. We were never big enough, except the Naval Islands, obviously, but we travel fairly often to the Naval Islands. So I would, for example, so I think the personal touch is always better. How about technology, though, in general, as it has evolved since 2001, you know, cell phones? Oh, yeah, it sure has. So how have you kept up with that? And how has that helped CBRE?   We had very old versions of, let's say, Excel and Windows, but they worked. And they were uniformed throughout the platform, so they worked with each other very well. So that wasn't a problem. But technology, I mean, you know, obviously cell phones made communications better, and email certainly, the ability to communicate with clients was instantaneous and robust. And it allowed us to have a paper trail for everything we did. So there's a lot less misunderstandings. It was very good for our industry as a whole, not just CBRE specifically. Right, right. So has technology placed the need for more employees? No. No, I didn't know. I didn't, that didn't, we didn't have any of that. Our type of business seems a little resistant to that, I think. I also think, I also noticed that I also tried to make very small changes in our operation. I mean... Like what kind? That's a good question. I'm trying to think of a particular change, but just let me talk about it philosophically a little bit. So I like this analogy. If you're going, you know, back when they were having the moon landings, they talked to, yeah, I know, I'm a little off the subject, but with me, and you have a trajectory to the moon.  If you were off by 1% on your trajectory going to the moon, when you left Earth, it wouldn't be, it wouldn't even be noticeable. But by the time you get to the moon, 186,000 miles away, I think that's the right number. You would have missed the moon. Yeah, tweet us if it's not right. And by the time you get to the moon, you'd be out by 10,000 miles.  And I believe that. So I would look everywhere I could to make little changes in how we do something. So I would get a CD, and we played it for Muzak in the office, you know, or a whole music. Because we had no music before. Yeah. We had speakers, but we had no music. I see. I don't know. Don't ask me why. And things like that, just little changes I would make. I'd change the coffee table book. And then I'd have a contest internally to say, oh, there's been a change in the office. The first person who can tell me what that change is, wins $25. And we'd have like, I get like 25 emails like that. Right. It was very interesting. And so it sort of kept everybody loose and interested, and it sent the message that we were growing. And initially in our business, because when I first started as manager, my main job was standing by the mailbox and waiting for checks to arrive. But once we got past that, it was like people could see things were getting better. Oh, and another thing I did was I'm an ex-Zerox salesman and tech rep, too. So one of the very first things I did was I changed out our copier. Two zeros. I upgraded them. I had the Zerox copy. We had Zerox copiers. We had two, one color, one black and white. And I upgraded them. I went and got better ones. I know, I know how Zerox works, if you get a bigger, more capable copier, and you're releasing it, it's roughly the same price. But you use it more. So you use more supplies, and they make more money, and you get a better product. And of course, you're very paper-driven. At that time. Yes, we are. Yeah. Yeah, we were. And so that there was, there was something that all the employees could see an improvement in everything they did. So it was really good. So, and let's see, let's talk about how your former managers, and how, how did that work out in terms of keeping your senior managers who were now reporting to you? Yeah, that was, that was kind of interesting, you know, it, there were, there were some of them who immediately were okay with that, and some were not. And it wasn't, it wasn't necessary, it wasn't, you know, any rebellion or anything like that. It just was, they were like, yeah, yeah, I'm okay with this, you know, like leave me alone, mostly that. And I'm questioning everything, right? So we had, we had many of the minds there. One of the things I think it's important to be, if you're going to be a manager with no training in particular, is to be yourself. I, I participated when I was at CBRE on what they called a Management 360, it was sort of a psychological evaluation as to what is, what goes into being a good manager. And to do that, they have to have a baseline of where you are. And so I was, I belong to the Executive Committee in the Western United States for CBRE. And we, everybody who was on the Executive Committee participated in this. And then they plotted it on a shard, and it was sort of like an octagon or hexagon, I forget. And on one side, there's like a very strict manager. And the other side was like a cupcake person, right? And so, and then they, and then they gave you a battery test to determine where you fall in this in two areas. One was in your management style or at work and your, and your personal style at home. And so when we got the results, we all shared, everybody could see where everybody else was. On mine, and this is something I'm very proud of. I, I can't tell you how proud I am of this. It's, it's on my chart, it had my, the Joe at work and the Joe at home, we're right next to each other. Everybody else in the, in the group, they were on one side of the other, and they were several inches apart on the plot. So in other words, they're different people at work, but I'm not. I am the same person, like we're sitting here, or I'm sitting at home, or we're, we're out having cocktails or, or whatever. I'm always the same. And so you think that's a really important factor. I do, because people. People sense, if you're insincere, if this isn't really you, they can, they can smell that, you know, it's just this thought of mine. Because I mean, I've worked for people that weren't, you know, and I, and I saw it and I don't admire it. Now I didn't do anything differently. Apparently this is, this is how I worked, how it worked, so. So how about coaching and mentoring and training people to take over, you know, you left, yeah, it turns out. I really enjoyed teaching and you're a former teacher. And I enjoyed, I enjoyed the process of training. We had a lot of fun. It also allowed me as the manager to bond with the new people in, in, you know, on a different level.  Right. So it was a very good exercise. I thought, plus I got to impart hopefully the, how to do the business with them. Well, you know, Joe, this time has gone by so fast and we only have about 30 seconds left. So I'm going to let you look at camera four and give us some closing remarks about leadership. Yeah, well, first of all, I'd like to thank my wife, Karen. I couldn't have done this without Karen. Hi, sweetie. And I'd like to leave you with this. I think, I believe that it's very important that you ask yourself good questions. And if you have problems, problems will pop up in work and in life and it's a very important aspect of everything you do on how you handle and address those problems. And I believe that if you have a problem, if you ask yourself good questions about it, like how to solve the problem, if you ask yourself in the right way, your mind will come up with an answer. That's why people say, let me sleep on that. Because they, they think about a problem and then they sleep on it and hopefully they get an answer.  Don't say, why am I so stupid?  Ask yourself like, well, gee, I got this problem with this client and I'm not sure what to do. And how do I make this okay with the client and still keep their business? That type of a question, your mind will answer it and you will solve some of the most difficult problems you'll face. So with that, thank you for having me, Karen. Well, thank you, Joe. I'm gonna say one last thing that you and I talked about is that street smarts. Oh yes, I thought we went at a time. Okay, street, yeah, I got a PhD at street smarts. I'm a New York City kid. I grew up in the main streets and that has always served me well too because you gotta be real. Real. And on that note, we're gonna thank Joe so much for this fun interview. That was a pleasure, let's do it again. Yeah, thanks, Karen. Okay, well, Aloha from Think Tech Hawaii. We'll see you next time. This is Carol Monley and thanks to our floor manager, Ray Thunelang and our control room engineer, production engineer, Rob McLean. Aloha.


So Jay just said, we were on a, what did you say honey? M&J Adventures. We're on an M&J Travel Adventures. Where are we going? We're going to Rockport, Massachusetts. Rockport, Massachusetts. It's been, I don't know how long it's been since we've been there, if we've even been there. I was gonna say, have we ever been there together? I don't know. We may have driven through, but I mean it's just a little bit away from Gloucester, and I know we've been to Gloucester, so I don't know if we've ridden through Rockport or not. It's going to be interesting because it is a frozen tundra out there. It's 27 degrees, icicles, and snow, and ick. Oh yeah, our car is frozen. Our car was frozen solid. It is sunny, so you know that's kind of good, right? It kind of warm up a little bit. It's sunny, cloudy, overcast-y. But so we have no idea what to expect. We will see. I am dressed in layers. I can barely lift up my legs. I have like thermal pants on, then a pair of pants on top of my thermals. I have a thermal undershirt on, and then I have a heavy sweater on top of that. Then I have a coat, a scarf, and a tight knit headband. I would love to have worn my blue one that Nora Knits made me from Canada to match my scarf, but the knit is lighter, so I don't know how to describe it. Looser, but so this is tight and it'll keep my ears warm. Yeah, especially as we get closer to the ocean. We are going to get close to the ocean, so yeah, so we'll bring you along. We'll see what happens on our M&J adventure. Have you had an M&J adventure? Well, anything that we've called an M&J adventure in a while. You think? Yeah. I don't know how long I'm going to stay over here. I know, huh? So do we know where we are? I don't really know. Is this Cape Ann? Yeah, we're on Cape Ann. I don't know the name of the beach, but definitely low tide. It sure is. It's pretty cool, actually. Yeah. So this would be a good test for my GoPro because I've been walking, now I'm doing the selfie side, put my hood on, my head's cold. But yeah, this is kind of cool. The rivets of the ocean, water, waves.  Yeah, I got some nice pictures of it. How many of mine live in there? I don't know. I think we can live there? No. Can't afford it. I should have done this on the way down, but... So this is what Rocky Point you said? Yeah. Rocky something or other? Rocky neck. What Rocky neck? Let's see what we can see up here at Rocky neck. These guys aren't shy at all, huh? Sure, that risky business. I was going to say. What you're pointing at? Did you bring my leash? I didn't bring your leash. Do you need it? Well, we'll have to be careful. Uh-oh, look at that. We couldn't come with that. Oh, look at this, honey. Good thing you didn't bring your drone. Okay, yeah. No drones. They've added that on as an afterthought. Yeah. And I do. I think I definitely probably want something. I can attach this to if I want to just hang it on my neck. Oh, okay. So, here we are. In Manhattan, Massachusetts. M&J Adventures. Another M&J adventure. Gotcha. Halibut Point State Park is in Rockport, Massachusetts. We'd never visited the park before, but it was really cool. Had lots of walking trails, and it went right out into a point that overlooked the ocean. It was really awesome to do, although it was extremely cold on the day that we went. Off-season parking is free. In-season, you do have to pay for parking. They do have restroom facilities available, and picnic areas as well. So it's really nice. Well, that is really cool. Is that not cool? Oh my gosh. That's unbelievable. It's like a quarry. Is that what you call it? A quarry. A quarry. A quarry. Look at the beetles. Original band they would call the quarry man. Really? That's rather cool. Is this a pat- yeah, it is. Chili. Even at 32. It's chili. Sea root, nuclear, cost all three of these. Hello, Hayley. I'm pretty well doing everything in my GoPro, you know, most all day. A few cell phone picks, but maybe four. You want to come back in season? You know, did you just say if we remember? Yeah. Set up a reminder. Yeah, we always say, oh, we better go back in and do this. Mike gets in the way. Oh, it's like that place would go to the Johnny's staircase. Yeah, main. One of the fingers. I just don't remember which one. Down by Cook's Crossing, maybe. Yeah. Pipping tables, honey. I just don't know how to, I'm sure I could do a self timer, but it's recruiting. We are in Gloucester. Yeah, right by the fishermen. By the fishermen. Just a working pier. There's a sailboat out there. You think it's so cold and there's a sailboat out there and Jay's going to fly? What have you named Mr. Drone? Anything? No, nothing yet. Now I'm into them. So it was a little bit windy, as you can see, by some of the rocky motions of the drone, but flying over Gloucester Harbor was really pretty cool. Gloucester Harbor is a working harbor and it is really popular, you know, obviously with commerce and all that, but it's starting to get really popular with boaters, recreational boaters, located about like 25 miles northeast of Boston and it's in Essex County, Massachusetts. Look at how pretty these buildings are.  It does have several different villages that incorporate the town, so it's awesome. They made movies down here. The Perfect Storm I think was filmed down here. A number of other movies and things of that nature were filmed in this area. And so flying the drone over Gloucester Harbor was a pretty cool descent. And it's so funny. I always love when we have the clips of the drone coming down because this Jay, and the harbor is a mess, isn't it? But and there I am walking up and I'm using my GoPro filming him while this is happening. Oh my gosh, it was so much fun though. So we'd say it's kind of like a foggy, kind of, it is foggy. Yeah, except my eye, you know what, it's I'm always wearing my eyeglasses because the light hurts my eyes. But Jay and I are on our way to go meet my sister and my mother and we're going to Telly's, right? And that's a little local restaurant that's very popular local restaurant in the town of Epic. So we're having a late lunch for a early, early dinner, which means that we'll be home in plenty of time to bedge out in our jammies and be in the living room maybe make you a bottle of wine or something. A drink. Oh my gosh, right? So Christmas is over with babes and New Year is tomorrow. Any parting words of wisdom to 2021? Yeah, bye bye.  Yeah, bye bye 2021. Yeah, it wasn't that bad of a year or things that happened but some things that were kind of tragic too. Yeah, there were a lot of good things that happened to us personally, right? In that sense, we worked hard. We achieved some of our goals but then we had some very, very sad things in 2021.  My brother, you know, I'm talking about my brother obviously it could have been very different his end, you know, so I'm thankful that I perceive he went quick and painless, you know, type of thing but who knows, right? As opposed to having a lingering, because he was such a smoker. Yeah, he went quick and that was a blessing, I think, for him. Yeah, absolutely. His life after Vietnam was just very sad. I always say he never came home from Vietnam. His physically he came home but he was never Billy, he was never the same after Vietnam. That was really sad. But 2021 in retrospect, my mother still has her health, powder health and still is doing good. Oh yeah, 93 years old and just... She's such a pistol. You and I doing good. I think our relationship has always been strong so, you know, you have your moments of your stuff. I have my moments of my stuff but ultimately we're usually on the same page. Yeah. You know, so that's a good thing. And we like to share a lot of things together, you know, which I think is super helpful. We like to do a lot of the same things. Camping, for example, is, you know, one of the things. And golfing. You like golfing and I don't mind that you like golfing. I didn't know that I was... It's the same thing, you know, I was thinking about when we got married, you know, and I wanted you to learn to ski, right? And you wanted me to learn to golf, right? So when we're old, we can do these things together but you can't remake someone in the mold. You want them to be and, you know, they're, they're already molded. You're not going to be a skier. I'm probably not going to be a golfer. I might master riding the golf cart with you. That's about it. But hey, we got the bikes. We have bikes. We ride bikes together. Yeah, we go. We like to walk the beach. We like to explore. So there's lots of different things that we like to do together, which is like super cool. So, yeah.  Yeah. So anyways, happy New Year. Happy New Year.