Welcome friends, today I am going to talk about book reviews, how to write book reviews and we will see this is not just summarizing the book or just describing the content but it goes beyond just a mere description. And also we are going to talk about the academic book reviews, it is not about the fictions or the book reviews that appear in popular literature but about the reviews that appear in academic journals. So let's start today's discussion. So today we will be discussing about the introduction of the book to begin with and then outlining what are the various aspects of the book and then highlighting certain aspects and providing one's opinion about the book and a general evaluation of the book. So this is what we are going to discuss today. So to begin with the primary audience for a book review is the journal's readership. So the general readership of the journal is looking for these book reviews for certain information and one of the information that they require is information about new books. The books that have appeared have been published recently and readers want to know about them and especially about the innovative and ground breaking books and they also need to be warned about books that are of poor quality and those that may not relate to their area of interest. So the book reviewer is providing that vital information for the readers. So to begin with the book review is an evaluative critique. So there is an evaluation process there and readers are interested in the book reviewer's opinions. They are in fact looking for opinions. So we can't shy away from opinions and also about factual mistakes or shortcomings or weaknesses. They are also there in the book review. But one important part is that the reader wants our opinion as a reviewer. First of all, it has to be a straightforward account of what the book is all about, a candid account of what the book is. A critique of the book's soundness and that is in respect to the context in which it is written and what it sets out to do by itself. So that critique is important evaluating it in its own context and then placing the book in its historical context. What are the other books that have been written before that and where does it place or where can we place this particular book in that context? And this review writing has to be lively. It cannot be regular, turgid writing, so it has to be lively writing. And the reviewer should also provide information about the book's intended audience or what the authors expected the audience to be. So there are various ways or there are various reasons or there are certain criteria for choosing a particular book to review. First of all, it should belong to your particular field. So for example, you are a digital media researcher, then you should be reviewing books which are closer to your area of study or where you have a sound background knowledge of the topic. Because without that background knowledge, you will not be able to place the book in its relevant context and also its contribution to the field. Another important thing or another important criterion for choosing the book is that it must be published in the past two to three years. And generally people look for books from reputable publishers but again that can be quite subjective. So it must belong to your field of study, you must have a sound background knowledge of the topic and it must be a recent publication. A lot of times people regard a book as some kind of an academic syndrome and there are quite a few questions about whether or where is a book review placed as far as one's publication goes. So this is a very, very important contribution that a writer is making when he is writing a book review. Because he is contributing to the professional literature by acting as an entrusted critic. So you are an entrusted critic, you have been entrusted by the journal editors or you have been entrusted by the readers to provide an academic overview of the book itself. So you are contributing to the professional literature. And the reviewer is responsible for informing the readers of seminal works and warning them of inaccurate scholarship. So that is why the book review is a very important component of a journal and there are separate book review editors in standard journals. So that is a major contribution one is making as a writer so one should not feel shy of not writing book reviews more often. And very importantly book review is an exercise in self-education because one can write a book review only after one has written, one has read the book in its entirety and also looked out for context and all. So this is a very important exercise in self-education as well. So as I said these book reviews are invited by the book review editor to conduct the review. So generally in that way it is a commissioned kind of a process where one is invited to conduct the review and generally the book that the person is reviewing is provided for free by the publishers or by the review editors. So this is one very important aspect and being a specialist on an authority in that particular field is generally an asset but it is not a necessity. So you need not be a specialist in that particular field although you must have some knowledge of that field but being a specialist or an authority in that particular field is not a necessity. So this format is quite open, certain journals have specific requirements for example they have to start off with the author, the publisher, the ISBN number, the number of pages or any special characteristics of the book and there are certain word limits also. So it depends on various journals but often the review is between 600 to 2000 words. So as I said generally there might not be a strict specific structure on which people have to write book reviews but certain journals insist on certain structures. But these next two slides are about some general guidelines about how to write a review and then we will go on to specifically talk about those various components of book reviews. So we start off with the title generally with the complete bibliographic citation for the work. So we start off with the title, the author, the place, the publisher, the date of publication, the edition statement, pages, price, ISBN and all those things right at the beginning. And then the introductory paragraph is generally about identifying the thesis or the main argument of the book and whether the author achieves the stated purpose of the book. The author's stated purpose is more important as we'll see later it is not about what he's missed out but what has been written in the book and what was the stated purpose of the book and whether that has been met or not. So there are one or two paragraphs summarizing the book to begin with. Then there is one paragraph on the book's strengths and another paragraph on the book's weaknesses and finally the assessment of the reviewer of the book's strengths and weaknesses. So there is the opening of the reviewer. So generally this is the structure that we go along and we will talk in details about these structures in the next few slides once again. So before we start reviewing it's important to read, scan and make notes about the text as one goes along. So there might be interesting quotations or there might be some interesting observations that as a reader you are reminded about. So it's important to make notes of the text as one goes along. I mean it's not just about scanning the text but at times it might involve a second reading to know more about these observations or these important context that come to mind. Then the reviewer starts with an initial rough draft of the review. So it doesn't just happen at one go. There is an initial rough draft and that goes for all writing including academic writing and then we have the editing and the polishing process. So we read and scan and make notes about the text, we write an initial rough draft, then we edit and polish this initial rough draft several times to produce a final version. So as I said in the beginning the first part is about introducing the book or that introduction part can have these sub-components. So the first is about the general topic of the book. So in the introduction part we might be talking about what is the general topic of the book and what is the readership for which the book is aimed at. So it's not important that we cover all these points but these are just general guidelines about certain kinds of books. Then in certain reviews we also write about the author or about the competence of the author to write about this particular book. Then we talk about the topic generalizations that what are the general topics. We start off with the field itself and then we talk about those sub-fields in the book. And then we place the book in its field. So does it belong to the field of philosophy for example or does it belong to the field of social psychology for example. So that is where we place the book as reviewers. So these are the five things that we can do in the introduction part. And then comes the outlining part and there we provide a general view of the organization of the book. How has the book been organized? Whether it has been organized thematically or whether it has been organized chronologically or whether there is some other way of the narrative structure of the book itself. And then we talk about the topic of each section generally. In book reviews we are not going to talk about all the chapters as I said right at the beginning. We are not about summarizing but generally all these major sections are summarized in the outlining part. And we might even be citing extra textual material or we might be talking about other arguments or other evidence of the argument which has been put in the book. For example if the book talks about public sphere and Indian democracy so we might be talking about other elements of public sphere or other books which have dealt with these kind of things. This is an important part of the review process and here we provide this specific evaluation. So one's evaluation and that is why this personal touch is so very important that the writer or the reviewer is expected to provide his specific evaluation or his opinion about the book itself. So that highlighting part is one very important part of the book review process. In the general evaluation which is generally the last part of the book review writing process we can be recommending the book for all readers or for certain kinds of readers. Or we can be recommending despite of the shortcomings that we've identified or we neither recommend or neither we disqualify the book. We might be disqualifying the book despite the positive aspects. We might be suggesting that the book is not contributing much to the field or we might be definitely disqualifying the book. So it depends and we'll see that later on that it's very very important to not be overly critical. So we have to be constructive in the criticism. So we'll talk about that. So these are the evaluations that we might provide in the book review process. So these are the things that we start off with. When we start off writing the book review we have to capture the reader's attention and also outline the aims and scope of the book that is being reviewed. And then we will talk about the central ideas of the book. We have also discussed about this being as the general topic of the book. So what is the central argument or what are the central ideas of the book and what are the key arguments of the book itself so that we can review those key arguments. So it's important for us to provide our views on those key arguments. And then as we said earlier to talk about these strengths and weaknesses and most importantly to talk about how is the book unique in its way. So that highlighting the book's uniqueness is a very important part of the review process. And also the book's contribution to the field. So does it make some original contribution or does it take us further on certain theoretical directions. So that contribution is important. So that will help a reader or it will help the journal readers place the book in its context. And it will as we said it will provide a very important overview of this contribution of this book in the field. So criticism should always be substantiated. And there must be examples and relevant explanations. So unless we provide justification for the criticism we are not being true to the review process. So it's important to first of all make the criticism or make any criticism substantiated with examples or relevant explanations and also to make it constructive. So just be overly negative is not what something is looking at or at least you have to provide the justification for any kind of criticism. And that is a very important part that we must keep in mind because it is filtered through our experiences and through our ideas of that particular field. So it's important for all reviewers to be aware of the problem of this reviewer bias. So there might be certain things that we consider negatively or there might be certain things that we consider positively. But we must ensure that when we are reviewing this book it is done with fairness it's done with accuracy and it's done with objectivity. So that is a problematic issue because different people might have different ideas about those issues at hand and certain reviewers might be overly negative about certain context as I just said. So that reviewer bias has to be kept in mind both by the journal editors and by the people reviewing the book. So in the next few slides I'll talk about what is a good review or what should be there in a good book review and what should not be there. So first of all it has to be written in a professional and constructive manner. So that professionalism has to be very clear in the writing part as well. And it should have an incisive pin pointing of the strengths and weaknesses of the book. So I've spoken about the strengths and weaknesses at quite a few places but it must have that incisive pin pointing. So it must not be in generality. So what are the exact strengths and what are the exact weaknesses of the book. So as we've seen earlier it has to be within 600 to 2000 words. So it has to be very succinct but at the same time it must provide a very comprehensive account. So that is why this choice of words or the choice of review structure is very important. And we regard it as a good review when there is a good critique of the theory in the field and the place of the book within it. So the place of the book within the theory in the field that we are talking about. So where is its place and whether we are able to provide a critique of the book itself and of the theory if required and how is the book addressing those theories. And as we saw in the last slide the criticism must be substantiated and it must be constructive. So it goes as we said beyond criticisms to draw conclusions of much broader importance. And we keep on repeating that we are talking about the contribution of the book in the particular field in which it is written. And we are also supposed to provide some kind of a judgment of the book against its competitors. So there might be similar books so how do we as reviewers or how do we personally see this particular book as compared to those competing books that have been published recently or maybe even earlier. So whether the book readers needs are addressed by the book reviewer. So whatever information that the reader might require whether they are available in the review. It should also indicate if possible how the reviewer's views changed as a result of reading the text. And this is very common to all readers when we start reading a book we think that the book is going in a particular direction but as the argument goes along or as the book goes along our views change. So how do those views change. And then finally of course whether the book that is being reviewed or whether the review that we have written whether that follows the journal's guide and whether it follows the house style and whether it follows all the requirements of structure and words and all that. And if there is any conflict of interest. So as we said many of these books are provided free of cost by the publishers. In certain cases journals want to make this very upfront that this was this is a possible conflict of interest. It is undesirable that the reviewer has minimal knowledge of the subject. So if the reviewer is not very knowledgeable of the subject then it's not very often the journal editors will not be commissioning the book review to that particular author. So a sound knowledge of the field is important. If there are incorrect or insubstantial claims or references that then it's not a good review and the review editor might not see this very kindly. So these things can be avoided. So a review of the book's content but no critique. So it's just a review of the content and there is no critique. As I said that critique of the context or the theoretical context in which the book is placed and how does it address that or how does it not address that or what is it contributing to the field. So that critique is very important. If that critique is not there then it's not a good book review. If the reviewer fails to discuss the book's argument and words then the reviewer has not done his job properly. The written and unprofessional style where the reviewer is trying to show his or her superiority in the field or in the language then that is not a good review. And also if it's just a chapter by chapter summary it's not a very good review. If the reviewer is just extolling his or her own ideas or philosophy without any reference to the content of the book itself. So your opinion is regarding the content of the book not your own ideas or philosophy. So it can be your own ideas or philosophy relating to what the book intends to say or is saying. So your own ideas or philosophy if they are extolled to the exclusion of the content then that is undesirable. And if you are using over word to non-original cliched statements then that is also not a good review and that is undesirable. If and that is very important that if we keep on concentrating on what the author should have written rather than what he has written then that is very undesirable because it's practically impossible for the author to include everything in the short space of the book that he has written. So if one describes about what should have been written then that is probably not a good review. And if the author or the reviewer fails to tell the reader about how the book fits into the larger body of literature then that is not a good review. So we just discussed the do's and don'ts of reviews by talking first of all about what is desirable in a good review and what is undesirable in a good review or what we should avoid in a good review. So we have to as I said just in the next two slides I am just going to talk about just summarizing the review part so we have to evaluate the text not just summarize it. So that evaluation or providing your opinion is what is required in the review. And do not cover everything in the book it is impossible or it is not good to cover whatever is there in the book. So we cannot just use the table of contents as a structuring principle. So whatever is there in the table of content and I just follow that structure in the book review process so probably that is not a good idea. We have to as I said provide all the other important inputs in the structure that we have just spoken about. So covering everything from the table of contents or structuring it just like that is not the right way of writing a book review. So another very important suggestion is to judge the book by its intentions what the book intended to set out to do or what was the readership that it was addressing. So we must not judge the book by our intentions but about what the author intended to do. So we cannot criticize the author for failing to write the book that we as a reviewer should have written. So it is not based on that particular criterion. It is absolutely based on the criterion about what the author intended to write about. What is the readership that he was addressing and where do we place this particular work in the larger theoretical field. And very important not to spend too much time focusing on gaps because as I said a book can be about 200 to 500 words. So it cannot in any number of pages 200 to 500 pages. So in 200 to 500 pages a book cannot possibly address the richness of any topic. So if there is any topic the book in so many pages cannot address all the aspects of the topic. So it's impossible for an author to address all the different aspects and perspectives of a topic. So if we as reviewers focus too much on these gaps then we are being unkind to the author and also to the readers of the review. Also we are asked not to use too many quotes from the book. It's better to paraphrase or use short telling quotes within the sentences. So not to use the longer quotes from the book to emphasize our points. We can just use short telling quotes and paraphrase it in our own words. And finally in this particular slide we are and this is from Hartley's work. A lot of what I presented is from various journal articles by Hartley. So for example when the reviewer says this is a surprising book. What the reviewer means is this is much better than expected. So that's how a reviewer writes a mixed bag. So here the reviewer wants to suggest that not much in this one but one or two chapters was worth thinking about. So that's not too much so when somebody writes a mixed bag so that is just about one or two chapters which might be interesting. A useful book for the library that means it's not a very exciting book. The discussion is somewhat abstruse. So here the reviewer probably didn't understand much of the discussion as we said. For the most part this is a thorough lucid and well argued book but a few weaknesses can be noted. So here that's where the criticism will start. In my view more scholarly reference would be better for the readers of this text than the powerball information referred to on websites. So this is a lightweight text. This is what the reviewer intends to say. This is a useful account of an astonishing work. So everyone has to make his or her own ideas about that. So thank you very much for your patience. So we'll come back with another recorded lecture soon. Thank you so much.


You enjoyed? You had fun? You went For us Easter We spent most of our Easter practicing Because this coming week We are planning for Some live performances So this weekend We have just been practicing Where are these live performances That you were talking about? People should follow us On our social media Tell them on social media On Instagram It's at Leziki In between the letters Like L underscore E underscore We are like that People should not write underscore It's just there The underscore Alright I don't know how many you have But maybe you could just Introduce your Just say who Okay, so my name is Colin Ramsey Colin Ramsey The lead singer This is Kevin Okumo We call him Umuami Ya, he's our songwriter We're both good Ya, we're both kids We hire Jenna Then this is Aiko Tieno Aiko Tieno Do the viewers know Why there is a particular background For him? Him So he's a Kenyan Nigerian Kenyan Nigerian Oh, that's a I have never heard of that one We hear about Kenyan African Americans But Kenyan Nigeria Kenyan Nigeria Good and bad of both worlds That's nice Ya, so that is Andy Muduma Muduma, our guitarist Guitarist, yes And he's great He's also our music director Perfect Ya, one of us is missing He's called Gene He sucks the one who plays the saxophone Should we search for him?  What do you want people to hear from your music? So our music It's basically for true stories When you hear lots of our songs Those are things that have happened to us So we write our songs to things that are relevant To the things that are happening Like this song that you've just performed Ya It's for ya It's for you For me? No, not for you This song is called for you This song is called for you This song is called for you This song is called for you So we wrote this song It was for my for you Ya So basically, I was just talking to her Telling her that You know, whatever the circumstances I'm going to fight for us No, and something that has just come to mind When you say that Whatever the circumstances I'm going to fight for us Now, we have issues where men Instead of fighting for us This relationship They are fighting them Ya So, you are a bunch of men What will you take for those men Who are like, if you don't love me You know, that is really wrong For you to take someone's life Ya So, it's not right It's not right But I understand that you may have the anger That is appointment But you should learn how to suppress Awesome Ya Because when, what do you gain When someone dies So, but at the same time We need to be better as men Isn't it? Ya, we need to be better We can do better What do you think, man? I can see you have a mic Tigers As for me, I think just That we as men We accept it Ya Avoid to react Because for me personally I said in my life I will never lay a finger on a lady Because these are precious people Giving Precious creatures given by God And For God to give you such A figure in your life We should ensure that you Just take care of her And make sure she is safe So, the issue of like Killing her Or doing no Ah, it's not good Ya, there's a lady in the house She's like, yes! Ya, so she We should respect them by the way Because if we don't respect them We don't expect them now to give us Ya I think you are by the end of this show You know it will be singled Ya, I'm not singled So, you have a mic Yes Mudama Muduma Muduma, ya Muduma It's nice to have you in the show Thanks So, have you ever laid a hand On the woman yourself? I know You know You may pray for her That was what I wanted to say That's what you are referring to Mudama I'll be talking to you During the second performance A little bit more Mudama Yes You are very many men I am Kelvin Please hold your mic close I'm Kelvin Kevo Alright I also do sing high ten That's what you said Ya I'm the composer I'm hearing from the viewers From the composer You are the composer Ya So, now particularly for you Do you think there is hope For the music industry in Kenya? I think there is hope Because as you can see There are more talents So, like Like sisi kwenye Kukwage We can see We can see that there are people Which wakipewa space And wakipewa and me We can do Now We're going to take a break We're going to pause for a while So, I have a word with Amos And then you can come back Is that alright? So, ladies and gentlemen You are going to Now I'm going to welcome The second guest That is the legend Amos He is here And before I have a conversation With him, please remember What I have requested you to do Please go to social media pages Facebook There is already a post there And you can comment If you want to say something You can share with me How you've celebrated your Easter What faith means for you Feel free Go there, comment And I'm going to be reading Out your comments in a few Right now, Amos Welcome to the show Thank you Thank you for having me It's good to have you I thought you'd come with Josh But he is missing also He is somewhere walking That's good It's nice to have you here Thanks for having me Mary Easter Mary Easter to you too It's a new way of saying Instead of Happy Easter Brightly It's the first time I've heard it Mary Easter It sounds cool, right? Sounds cool Now, how long have you been doing music? I started singing when I was eight years old Eight years old And now you're nine years old That's good I mean, it's been long time That's like one year of hard work You know But it's been a journey It's been a journey Just walking with different people here and there Learning things And just encounter The whole encounter that I've had Because of music has really transformed The person that I am The gift itself has taken me to places My academics have not been able to take me It's actually true when they say That your gift will bring you before kings Because I have been able to travel Places outside this country I've been able to do a lot because of music And I appreciate God for the gift And yeah, I think it's something that He's called me to do and I'll do it until He calls me to He calls you to himself You're going to perform a song for us in a few Yes, sir What's coming up? This song is called Mungaza The song itself It came from a passage of scripture That Jesus actually said That do unto others you expect them to do unto you Because actually that's exactly What really happens Because it's a written law That governs the way we live That if you do good things to people They will do good things back It's the law of seed and harvest We call it cause and effect And if you allow yourself To live your life being a peaceful person Then the day that you There's turmoil around you God will ensure that your life in itself has peace If you're a person of peace One of the bad attitudes of Jesus is Blessed are the masifum For they shall obtain masi Because that's exactly what happens If you are a person who is compassionate To other people When you need that compassion To be there for you If you're a forgiving person The day that you will need forgiveness It will be there for you And I think that is the message that I say I communicate through the strong Through us A very interesting writing style I'm a storyteller And it's the way that I've actually written the song I tell stories through songs So I hope I hope guys have appreciated it And I think it's the first time I'm performing it Acoustic In this way And it's going to be interesting Acoustic actually Lezik is going to really help me with that They are an amazing band I'm going to ask you a little This question of I'm sure in people's minds Increasingly people may be looking at The ghost pearl singers With a huge Not just a pinch of salt but a huge bag of it Because of the scandals and all that What should we expect from the ghost pearl industry? People want to hear music that helps them To go to God And at the same time they are expecting the people who are singing They are singing because they have experienced God And so they have better moral Living it's not because they have realized Oh, there is a market for ghost pearl If I go and brand myself as a ghost pearl singer I'm going to have a huge market Because Kenyans are mostly religious What's your take? I think as a ghost pearl artist your moral compass Is to point to the cross And I believe that everybody is There's nobody who's perfect Being in the ghost pearl industry does not mean That we have become perfect And I think that is the attitude That people actually take ghost pearl artists as They start looking at them in a way That they actually should set an example Which is actually true Paul tells Timothy To be a good example in wad Indeed, in love, in charity And it's something that is land You see every fruit is a product of maturity There's no fruit that comes out of nowhere It means that a seed went to the ground It grew up, somebody prundit Somebody watered that Until it became And you need to understand that every human being Is in the process of becoming I'll interrupt you a little bit Because there is your ghost pearl So there is sin and there is crime Those are two different things There is a sin and there is a criminal And we cannot put the same level So nobody is perfect Everybody is a sinner But not everybody is a criminal And those are two different things Should we expect in the name of not judging artists? Am I putting on the spot? No, I love the question In regards to criminal When you're talking about the ghost pearl The ghost pearl is true Truth cannot be Truth is in itself In a state that cannot be altered Facts can actually change depending On what happens around it But truth is actually what it is It's people who believe that truth That are actually set free Now we have a mandate If you call yourself a ghost pearl artist You have a mandate to preach that gospel It means that it's also working on you yourself It's also exactly And as I've just conveyed the whole thing You're also in the process of becoming So in God's eyes we are all criminals We are sinners We commit crime In regards to him Because this is actually he calls it the law Means if you're breaking the law what have you done? No, see, look My argument is this There is being a sinner So someone who sins, say for example Commits fornication It's a sin, adultery It's a sin, right? You see, in the laws of the land Wait, wait, wait, yeah But one who rapes a kid is not just a sinner That's a criminal You see And that's not just a criminal law This is what I'm saying The standards of moral authority are where In regards to Christianity They're in the scriptures Yeah, who determines the bar of what righteousness is They're in the scriptures, right? Exactly, right So if the Bible says do not steal Okay, do not kill Yes Okay, do not And Christ even in regards to adultery He said if you look at a woman to lust after her You committed adultery Means that you have already broken that law Now, if you break any law of the land What have you become? You've become a sinner Not really You're using the scriptures Don't use Oh, you've become a criminal, yes Yes, because you've broken the law of the land You've become a suspect first, though Exactly And in the kingdom, not really Until proven guilty Yeah, you are a suspect If you break because the kingdom of God Is a kingdom, it's a government Okay And the laws have already been set So if you break the laws of the kingdom What have you become? You've become a sinner, in my opinion Alright, so I'm going to allow you first to perform And then we're going to continue with this Alright, so muangaza, right?  There are many couples out there who actually have been married for years and they're trying to get babies and they don't have. And if you have a womb that God has allowed that can actually carry a child to full term, it's actually a blessing. And I think you should just allow it to go full term. If you're not ready to take care of the kid, regardless of the situation or circumstance the kid came with, just allow it to go full term and give it up for adoption. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you for that. So right now we're going to take a short break. We're going to take a short break and we'll be back. Leziki will be performing. So don't go away. We'll be back in a bit. Merry Easter.


Save Nigeria with your business. I made a serious blunder last year. A senior executive in my office advised that I start saving my money in dollars. I thought it was ridiculous. I mean, to break my investment, go to black market, buy dollars, then keep the dollars in an account. I thought it was very redundant, so I ignored the advice. Less than four months later, I was filled with regrets, because the NARA was devalued again. He made money just by saving his money in dollars. A friend of mine also faced the same type of misfortune. He delayed the completion of his building project because he didn't have the time to supervise it. By June, when he finally decided to continue the building project, the prices of cement, sand, granite, iron runs, and all the building materials had risen by at least 30% when you compare to the prices in January. We are all experiencing the rising cost of everything. It is frustrating and quite alarming. I don't see it getting better because our dependence on the dollar is humorgous. From food to fashion, health, education, recreation, everything is imported. As a Nigerian entrepreneur, how can you help? The short answer is in doing international business. This means selling your goods and services to other countries. If importation is putting pressure on the value of the NARA and diminishing our standard of living, then exportation will have a contrary effect. It will help our NARA and there are so many advantages to international business as an entrepreneur. You have the opportunity to earn in forex, which I find interesting. There is an opportunity for growth and partnerships. International business will increase your sales volume and therefore result in higher profits. There is increased competitive advantage for your brand and this is very important for every Nigerian. You will serve your country by helping to appreciate the value of our NARA. Do you think this strategy will work and help our country? I think yes. The direct answer is yes. It is an obvious response. But unfortunately, it hasn't been the traded path. One tells you that an important country like ours is facing the kind of challenges that we face right now with forex and dollar fluctuation. So yes, businesses should be able to export. But I feel as much as I try not to depend on problems, I would like to look for solutions. What I have come to see is that a lot of Nigerian entrepreneurs tend not to be aware of the international opportunities that are available to them. First of all, we have a lot of Nigerians that are really catering abroad. So it means that those Nigerians, their needs, their want has not changed. Especially when it comes to the kind of food they eat, they still want to be able to eat the kind of Nigerian meals that they had and they've been eating for 40 years of their lives. It's going to be very difficult for them to start eating bogey every single day. They wear the dress as well. They still want to wear the same Nigerian kind of brands because our clothing and our brands make sense. So you have a market that has moved to another destination and those guys are not earning hard currency. So this could be your market first and first. But there are also other opportunities. If you're in agriculture, if you're in agriculture for instance, I remember there was a time someone approached me and said he knew a certain entrepreneur that wanted to start exporting moringa seeds. Because he had seen opportunities to export it in large volumes. So it means that there's opportunity for that and many much more. But the problem is that we are not looking for it. We are not researching. We are not asking questions. We are not thinking. So we are stuck within our same old ways and then we complain that everything is not going well. But I think we could do better. It's a new year. Let's do better. Let's do better. Well, so for me, of course I agree with what has been said. Our staff has pointed out that it's quite depressing that you are in a country where you advise to save your money in a different currency. It's a total inductment on the system we find ourselves. It's so embarrassing. If I imagine an American trying to save money in a currency, so that puts in context the problem we are faced with. Fortunately, we have to find a way to just get ourselves out of it. And I agree with you. Trying to make forays, exploring the international market is also an option. Thankfully, recently, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement has been signed, which makes Africa one market, takes off tariffs and trade barriers and all of that. And Nigeria being the largest economy in the continent, I think we must have a lot more to gain by leveraging the opportunity of that trade area. But again, as much as I don't like to be fixated on the problems, you can't wish them away. Now, how do Nigeria, how do young Nigerian entrepreneurs take advantage of this evolving trade area? The 12-pot policy we have. Someone says it takes longer time, it takes longer time to take your goods from China to the Nigerian pot, than it takes to take it from the pot. Thus, autumn, Apapa to Lagos, it takes longer time. So it's crazy. So I think we have to actually address some of this. These are structural issues that are affecting young Nigerian entrepreneurs who want to actually make impact but are faced with these structural issues. And something I think government will also have to look into so that we can begin to take full opportunity of the markets outside there. Victor, before you come in, I want to say something to what we have just said. And I think I understand where you're coming from because when we think of international business, we just think of exporting. Going to NACO, using DHL and exporting. But there are so many ways to do international business. The start point is we set what foreign companies do. How do they do business in Nigeria? Besides the traditional exporting, you could do licensing where you have a license to be the sole distributor of a product that is being done abroad. You could do franchising. We all know the franchising but I don't have to explain. You could do your joint venture where you partner with an organisation abroad to do business here. There are so many ways to bring it forward without necessarily going through the port and the export. I mean, what do you think? Well, I mean, you guys have spoken well, intellectual stuff. But if the policy is always a demon, do we have policies? I'm still a big advocate for creating enabling environment. How is the government? As long as we mention business and we just take out the government policy from it, then you want to do small business. You don't want to do large scale stuff or something really huge. Anything huge. You can see with the advent of how they claim that most of these things are platforms. So anything that's booming, I mean, no disrespect to the government, but I just feel that there's always this averse to once something is succeeding or booming. So they go into that. That's why I'm watching on the paper. Tech is a new oil because they see unicorns begin to spring up from there. So I think it's about we asking ourselves, does the government policies support these things? And that's where I'm coming from really. Are we creating the right policies, the right enabling environment to support Nigerians and intelligent people? Yeah, so we have to find a way. So how do we even get the government to sign off these things to give us a full backing, right? And it's really what that's always the question on my heart whenever things like this is being discussed. So I'm glad that what everybody has said today. And it is really, really enthralling to see that Nigerians are more intelligent, like you said, and we're willing to try new things. But most of us focus on what Nigeria can do for us. We feel headless when it comes to helping the giant of Africa restore her glory. The truth remains that we can help our economy as entrepreneurs by exporting our goods, our services, our intelligence to all the countries of the world. When we come back, Raymond will tackle council, culture, disclosure. Don't go away.


Today we are going to talk about group talks and lectures. Group talk is a form of a communication that involves sharing thoughts, feelings and ideas with multiple people. Group talk is less stressful as comparative to one-on-one communication because when you are talking in a group, the attention is divided between different people. There are certain skills that are required to talk in a group. The first one is that you need an ability to share your ideas and you need an ability to share your ideas openly yet in a very non-threatening way. You also need to have this ability to listen to others carefully because when you are in a group and talking to each other and you are not paying attention and you are not listening to others, it gives an idea that you are not paying attention to what others has to say. You also need to have this ability to ask questions in order to clarify if something is not easy to understand for you. Other than that, you also need to be more empathetic towards others and to see their body language and their body cues if they are giving another idea through their body language. Apart from that, you need this ability and initiative that you can start a conversation and more in a conversational way. On the other hand, public talk is also a form of communication which requires communicating between different organization, groups or individuals in order to share information. Public talks are more center focused as compared to group talks because group talks are more conversational. They are more in a dialogue form where two or more than two people are required to talk to each other. But on the other hand, public talk is only center focused because there is only one person who is talking. The next one is lecture. Lecture is a form of an oral presentation in which the intention is to impart knowledge or information to a larger audience and it is mostly given by college professors but sometimes it can also be given by public ministers or politicians or some businessmen. The idea of a lecture is to convey critical information or background or history or some critical information required on a certain subject. When it comes to group talks and lectures, there is a difference between both in terms of its audience, its purpose, level of interactivity. Now we are going to see the difference between group talk and lectures in terms of all these parameters. When it comes to audience, there is a difference between group and lectures. In group talks, the audience number is limited and it can happen in a more informal setting. On the other hand, the audience for lectures are greater in number. The group talks and the audience number can be from handful people to the dozens and on the other hand when it comes to lectures, we can conduct lectures in halls, in conference halls where greater number of people can sit and just listen to the speaker. When it comes to the purpose, group talks are more interactive in nature. On the other hand, lectures are more structured and it has a proper aim to deliver. The intention of a group talk maybe is to convey or to share experience or to talk about on a subject that is interest for mutual people, for a smaller community. On the other hand, lecture is delivered by experts on a subject either to inform or to persuade their readers or to entertain them and it has a proper agenda and aim at end and it is in a proper structured format that follows a presentation style. When it comes to the format, there is a difference between group talks and lectures. Group talks are more informal and they allows a conversational tone. On the other hand, lectures are more closely and structured and they require a proper presentation with proper beginning, middle and end. Both requires you can use visual aids in both public talks and group talks and lectures but group talks are happened in more smaller setting where you are sitting in a workshop or in a round table conference. You can use visual aids to enhance your point of view but in public talk, in lectures, you need to use proper presentation style with proper visual aids. You can allow question and answer but this is going to happen at the end of the lecture. When it comes to interactivity, both are different in their respective fields. Group talks allows more interaction and they encourage participants to engage with each other and to talk with each other to discuss things and to question an answer but on the other hand, when it comes to the lectures, it is more speaker focused because the intention is to give or impart knowledge rather than to engage in a discussion. So, they allow for a little bit question and answer session at the end but the focus is on the speaker. When it comes to settings, group talks can occur in various settings. For example, in smaller conference rooms, it can happen in workshops. On the other hand, when it comes to lectures, we require larger audience. So, we need lecture theaters, auditoriums or bigger conference hall to conduct a lecture. If we summarize what we have gone so far, then we can say that group talk is more informal in nature. The number of audience is smaller. It is more interactive and engaging and in which the audience has to interact with each other and openly involve in the discussion. On the other hand, the lectures, they are more formal and they are structured presentation. The number of audience is larger and it is one communication in which the only person is there to speak and the purpose is to impart information or to convey or to give knowledge. There are few tips that you can keep in mind when you are talking in a group. The first thing is that you need to know your audience. What does it mean is that you can try to understand what, from what background they are coming, what kind of a belief set they have, from which culture they are coming from because it will help you to understand their perspective, their point of view and their perceptions. Other than this, try to be interactive and try to be conversational with each other because the purpose of a group talk is to indulge in a conversation where you impart the ideas and share ideas. Conversational means that you need to use a language that is easy to understand and do not use jargons, which makes it difficult for others. Try to use visual aids because when you are making a point and if you use visual aid, it makes a striking impact on the listeners. Time management is very important when you are talking in a group and encourage participant because there are people in front of you and if you encourage them to participate, there are few people who are introvert, who are not very comfortable with speaking. So, if you encourage them, they can share or they can indulge in a conversation that is helpful for everyone. There are few tips when you are going to conduct a lecture. The first one is that it should have to be proper structured, which means you have to practice it before delivering, which means that it must have a proper beginning, middle and end. Other than this, the beginning of your lecture is very important. It should be very engaging and it makes a striking point of view. Your delivery should be very confident, so you need to practice beforehand. Apart from this, what you can do is you can relate your personal experiences with the topic you are talking about. You need to show empathy towards your listeners and you can also encourage participant by asking question and answer at the end of a lecture. So, from all this which we talked about today, we can say that to summarize it up, we can say that group talks in public lectures are forms of oral communication, but both are different in terms when it comes to the format, in terms of audience, in terms of setting and in terms of level of interactivity. But there are few things which are similar to both, which means when you are a speaker, when you are in a mode of communication, you need to be more concerned towards your listeners and give what always makes a positive impact in a greater community.


The federal government has managed to have a rethink about its plan to remove fuel subsidy early next year. Founder of the one-love family, Sat Gurum Haraji, who made the appeal believes the plan is not only ultimately or untimely rather an insensitive but will bring more hardship on Nigerians. He also argued that the withdrawal will inadvertently plunge the nation into avoidable crisis. Now consent groups including the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, PFN, North and Elders from NEFN National Association of Nigerians to the Nuns, among others, have urged the government to rescind its decision. As a mother, we must make sure that our... We must remove our subsidy. We need to go ahead. We have to subsidize food, transportation, health, education, water gain, security. Why must they say in the National Assembly they would reduce the funding for security? We have to go and give them Kobokodeo. They cannot say security is not okay and then they reduce the funding. Why they should not sign it? Just like the direct primaries bill, let Robbie, he should sign it. He's going to make history. We are behind him. He did not try it otherwise looking for a hala. As a mother, we must make sure that our children are having enough care in all land. And then obey their father. To promote unity, family stability and most importantly to be there for the kids and also for the husband.   Show love, be there, no rebellion. No, treat the husband with utmost love, care and respect.


I'm Rusty Komori, and this is Beyond the Lines. We broadcast live on Mondays from the beautiful Think Tech Hawaii TV studio in the Pioneer Plaza in downtown Honolulu. This show is based on my book, which is also titled Beyond the Lines, and it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership, achieving greater success, and sustaining that greater success, and finding greatness. Today's special guest is Corey Correa. He is the president and executive chairman of Landmark Logistics Corporation, which is a hugely successful and very popular shipping company here in Hawaii. Corey's story of success will inspire hope in everyone searching for their greatness. Today, we are going beyond shipping. Hey, Corey. Hey, Rusty. Thank you for having me. Oh, awesome to have you here, Corey. I'm excited to be here. We've been friends for a while, and I know that you grew up in Waimanalo, but I don't really know about your early years growing up. Can you share with me about that? Sure. I was born to two 16-year-old parents. Great. Yeah, so I grew up very poor in Waimanalo. We grew up in Waimanalo Village. And the tough part about that was, I don't think we really understood how poor we were. We grew up in a welfare system. And during that time, we always had food on the table. It wasn't until I got to about seventh grade, where you kind of start getting into your youth and playing with your friends, where you kind of knew you were a little more poor than everyone else. But yeah, I wouldn't change it. It was a fun, growing up experience. So were you on food stamps? We were on food stamps. Yeah, so we had welfare assistance since I could remember. My mom never really held a full-time job, because at 21, she had three kids, 21 years old. So she raised me. She was a single mother, by the way, raised me and my two younger sisters at such a young age. And I think without the welfare system, at that time, we couldn't have gotten by. Wow, that's impressive. That's admirable about your mom. Now, what elementary school did you attend? I went to Waimanalo Elementary in Intermediate. And during that time, we had band and music class. I played youth sports in the PALE at Waimanalo Gym. And so I got to play basketball, football, baseball, soccer. And did you get into the ocean at all? I did. At such a young age, you know, that was kind of the, it's free to go to the beach, right? So my parents would be taking me to the beach every weekend. And so I started getting into bodyboarding at about seven or eight years old and entered my first bodyboarding contest in Waimanalo at around 10 years old. And you became a great bodyboarder, right, about, I mean, entering more competition. Yeah, so I did a lot of national and state events and then started doing some events on a pro tour later on in life as a teenager. And what ended up stopping that pursuit? So I ended up hurting my knee at 21 years old. So I had knee surgery and I got some bone fragments taken out. And at that point, it was the end of bodyboarding for me. So after attending elementary in Waimanalo, what high school did you attend? I went to Kailua High School. So all the kids from Waimanalo went to Kailua High School and all the kids from Kailua went to private school. So it was basically Waimanalo High School there. So all my friends I grew up with went to Kailua High School. And what kind of activities did you do at Kailua? So during my time at Kailua High School, I got more active in bodyboarding. So I never did any school activities. It was more so going to the beach. So I grew up going to Makapu and Sandy Beach with some of my older friends who were already professional body boards at the time. So I had some guys that were able to show me the way and started going to the North Shore about 16 or 17 years old and got introduced to the waves there. What college did you attend? So at about 19 years old, I think it was 19 or 20, I took a year off of going to school and after going through my bodyboarding years, I decided to put myself through college. And at that time, the only thing I could afford was working full time, which I worked at the Star Bulletin. And then they had University of Phoenix, it was an online school. First of its kind in Hawaii at that time. And so I started taking night classes to get my degree in business management. Great. After University of Phoenix, you actually said that your first job was working for the Honlu Advertiser. Yeah. How did you like that? I loved it. So I worked my way through that company. It was right when they separated from the, was Star Bulletin at the time. And they were the afternoon newspaper. So I started with, well, they merged with the midweek at that time. So I worked in the roll room where all the newspapers came out. So I started as a newspaper route person there and then kind of got into the sales portion of it and started working in their sales department in classified sales. And that's kind of where I hone my sales skills a little bit. Corey, let's talk about your family. You are the father of a new baby Harlem. So you have three kids. And can you tell me about your family, your wife, Derricka, and your three kids? Yeah. So my wife is fantastic. She's such a great mother and I work a lot and she gives me the time and makes sure that the family is taken care of so I can do my stuff at work. But yeah, she's, I've got a seven-year-old, Regan, who's my oldest, is a boy. And then I've got Victoria, who's five. And then our new addition, Harlem, who's five months now. Congratulations. You're such a beautiful family. You have to be so proud. Thank you. I'm very lucky. Great kids and working on getting more sleep now that Harlem's around, but I'm very lucky and fortunate. Derricka is such a great mother and she does well with the kids. Let's talk about your incredibly successful company, Landmark Logistics Corporation. I want to know, Corey, how did Landmark begin? So Landmark began, we just made our five years on August 12th. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. But I've been in the shipping industry since 2000. And so I kind of went through several companies and five years ago decided to take a leap and do it on my own, which isn't the easiest thing to do. Fortunately, I had good business partners and we were able to put it together in the beginning with very little and kind of took it to where we are today. One of your key partners was Seiji Aspengren. Aspengren, yeah. So can you tell me about your relationship with him? So Seiji and I have been friends for 10 plus years and he had a local trucking company called Courier Corporation of Hawaii, which his dad started about 30 years ago. So Seiji took that company over from his dad in 2010, 2011 and during that time he kind of built it up. He had the local infrastructure. So he had warehousing, trucking, and the local staff. And I told him one day we would be doing business together and lo and behold, in 2013 we came together and started Landmark Logistics Corporation.  Can you explain more about that dynamic that makes you guys successful? Yeah, so Noah came to work with me at the company I was with previous in sales and fantastic sales guy. And when we started Landmark, he kind of came over from that other company four days later after we started Landmark with Seiji and I. And we all kind of had all different hats on. So we individually had our own skill, but effortlessly I think we kind of migrated into our own roles. And so I kind of took control of the sales department side. Noah did our operations and Seiji handled our financial and he was both of them instrumental in getting to us where we're at today. Yeah, I mean individually you guys have so much strength but collectively it's just a winning combination with you three. Yeah, people talk about business partnerships, how tough it is and knock on wood for the first five years of this, it's been pretty good. The first year or two was tough just because this industry you need a lot of money and we didn't have much money to start the company. I mean, we were David in a room of Goliaths, right?  The fact that we got out of our first two years the way we did is amazing in itself. We started with a few hundred thousand dollars, which normally doesn't work. And the tough part is we maxed every credit card we had. No banks would touch us. We're a new company and so we kind of went through the first couple of years learning so much about business and I really thank God we're here five years later. Can you share what services you guys offer at Landmark? Yeah, so we're a domestic freight forwarding company and what that means is we ship products from the mainland into Hawaii. So as you know, Hawaii, there's not much products made in Hawaii. So 98% of our goods are brought in from the mainland or internationally. So what we do is we ship hundreds of items from the mainland into Hawaii. We do 30 plus containers a week with both Pasha and Madsen. Some months ago we had the devastating flooding on Kauai and East Honolulu and you and your company stepped up to really help the flooding victims on Kauai. Can you share with me what compelled you to do that and what happened? Yeah, it's a funny story, Rusty. So my wife was in a hospital giving birth, all right? So she was in labor for 30 hours, about 29 hours and one evening we're watching the evening news. This is before she gave birth. We're sitting in the hospital and she has her contractions. We watched the evening news and they showed that devastation flood in Kauai. I mean we were blown away. At that moment I started talking to local leaders and local organizers to see if we could do something for them. And what we came up with was an idea to do a collection at our facility and ship everything to Kauai Free of Charge. I saw that on our local news channels that Landmark and Corey Correa were doing that. That is just amazing that you guys step up in times of need like that. And right now you're also doing a thing with the Honolulu Food Bank. Can you share about the Honolulu Food Bank? Yes, so you know with us we try to give back every month to a worthy cause. And being that the University of Hawaii is doing so well this year in football and I decided to tie that in with the University of Hawaii. So I talked to Ron Mizutani, the head of the Hawaii Food Bank last week and I'm like Ron, we're going to donate $1,000 to the Hawaii Food Bank for every win you each does this year. With a minimum at the very least of $10,000. Awesome. And my goal with this is to hopefully get other companies involved doing the same thing. The Hawaii Food Bank when we went last week Friday, they have 10 days worth of food at the warehouse, meaning in 10 days if it's not replenished, we're gone. They have no other food. So they work 100% on donations, right? And they supply so much organizations with food. Being that we have so much natural disasters, a lot of their food has gone out. So I'm hoping that what we do here will inspire other companies to do the same thing and we can kind of help out the food bank in that way. I'm just impressed that you guys are stepping up to do that and you're inspiring other businesses to do the same. Can you also tell me about cooling cancer? So cooling cancer was a non-profit a friend of mine started six years ago. He unfortunately lost his dad to cancer. I think everyone has a cancer story. He owns a local company that some of his employees, they lost family members to cancer. So six years ago, he decided to start this foundation called Cooling Cancer. And what he does is one big event every year, which is a golf tournament, a charity golf tournament. And they give back 100% of the profits to the UH Cancer Center for cancer research. So in the last six years, he's given back as a non-profit over $250,000 to the UH Cancer Center. Oh, that's very significant. It's amazing. I love that. And you also, you're giving back to Waimanalo in your give back events. Can you share with me about those? So there's a couple of events in Waimanalo which really touches me. There's a cakey contest, a boogie boarding contest that's run by a local professional body boarder, Jeff Hubbard. And he was a world champion body boarder. So this event has been around for 30 plus years. I mean, it was the event I grew up boogie boarding in and what got me into the sport. So he kind of took it over years ago and grew it to what it is today. It's a free event for all the cakeies. They get free food, free prizes. You get a lot of local professional body boarders there. So we give back to that event. Obviously, it's something that really touches me. And there's another one called, it's a Thanksgiving event that my friend Kaui, Kaui Kaui, from Waimanalo that he started this 12 years ago. And it started with some friends chipping in and giving out food to the homeless that live in Waimanalo. Fast forward 12 years from then, he's got, I mean, thousands and thousands of dollars worth of giveaways. I mean, this past year, we had over 200 bikes. He gave away free to the kids. He had music by Landon McNamara. There was boogie boards given away, skateboards, balls, school supplies. It's fantastic.  And he doesn't want any credit for it, which is amazing. The news cameras came down and he's, you know, he doesn't want to take credit for it, but he, you know, he did such a great job there. I love hearing about all of these things. Corey, we're going to take a quick break. And then when we come back, I want to talk to you about success and leadership. Okay. Great. You are watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii with my special guest, Corey Correa. We will be back in a quick 60 seconds. Hello, and welcome to Out of the Comfort Zone. I am your villainous host, RB Kelly.  Truth number one, this is a real mustache. Truth number two, I want you to watch my show on Tuesdays at 1 PM. So tune in and let me know which is the truth and which is the lie. I'm RB Kelly with Out of the Comfort Zone and show up next Tuesday to see my mustache live. Aloha. My name is Mark Shklav. I am the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea. Law Across the Sea is on Think Tech Hawaii every other Monday at 11 AM. Please join me where my guests talk about law topics and ideas and music and Hawaii and all across the sea from Hawaii and back again. Aloha. Welcome back to Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. My special guest today is Corey Correa, the president and executive chairman of the hugely popular shipping company here in Hawaii, Landmark Logistics Corporation, and today we are going beyond shipping. Corey, you guys have been giving back so much to the community and you appreciate all your customers and you value them greatly. To the point where you actually do a customer appreciation event, can you tell me about that? We do a few events. We did one for 4th of July. We rented out the modern hotel, the penthouse of the modern hotel, where they have a 1,500 square foot deck outside where you can kind of see the fireworks up front. We brought in some musical artists, Terrence Cunningham from The Voice. He came in and played music for us. We had a prime rib dinner and everyone got to see the 4th of July fireworks right in the 50 yard line. That sounds like a first class event and every customer, they just must have felt the love. It was a great event. We got one more coming up next month. So we rented out the Hawaii Glass Bottom boat. We chartered that and we take some of our customers out. We're going to go watch the fireworks, sunset cruise, food and drinks and entertainment. Great. Now I know you have my book Beyond the Lines and I know you're still working on it. I'm working on it. How do you like it so far? It's an amazing book, Rusty. It's a good read, very easy read. I think anyone from kids to CEOs of companies can take something away from it. Amazing. Well, you got to finish it and then let me know really how you like everything about it. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to it. I want to ask you about success. Corey, you're very successful. How do you define success? I think success for me, being the way that I grew up, is being able to give back. So if I'm able to give back to charitable organizations and make a difference when I leave this earth, that makes me feel like I'm successful. Yeah, I totally agree and that's what you're doing right now. That's the goal. I got to ask you, Corey, knowing that, why are you successful? I had this innate drive in me as a kid. I was very competitive and I think that really propelled me in many ways to achieve what I have today. This isn't the end of the book. For me, I think we're going to continue to push and push but I think being able to be competitive really helps you in that world. Now, anyone that's successful, they have to overcome certain obstacles on their way to becoming successful. What do you think has been your greatest obstacle in achieving your success and how did you overcome that? I think with Landmark as a company, the start of the company was tough because no banks would touch us. We had very little resources. We had connections in the know-how to get things done but we really didn't have the financial ability to drive the company the way we wanted to. So we had to pick and choose our customers in the beginning because you basically bankroll all your customers. They don't pay you right away. So you've got to be able to financially afford that. So that part of it was probably the toughest part for us and then the learning lessons of being a business owner at the time and everything that comes along with it. So going through that, I think that was probably the hardest part for us. The first two years, I never thought we would make it through it. There were some mistakes made, financial mistakes and some of those things helped us become better to where we are today. And I think the potential for Landmark is limitless. It's amazing. I think for us, we're still on the smaller end of the spectrum. I mean, we're competing with the big boys and companies that's been around for 30 plus years that have roots in Hawaii, none of them are locally owned. We're one of two locally owned freight forwarding companies. Most of them are hedge fund people from the mainland today. So we're lucky to be able to compete against them at such a high level. What do you think sets Landmark apart from your competitors? I think because we're young, we take advantage of technology and that's basically what helped us to become a little better than our competitors. We all ship in on the same boats, but our technology helps our customers identify where their products at at all time. And this is something that we started with. Before we got one piece of freight on our dock, we figured out how to use technology as a catalyst to this company. And I think that's what helped us kind of persevere. I like how you shared with me, I think last week, about you receiving a note, a thank you note from Miss Hawaii, Miss Universe, Brooke Lee. Can you tell me about how that made you feel? The cool thing about shipping is you touch every industry, everything from hotel, food and beverage, automotive, construction. I got to get to know Brooke from Lanai, a local entertainer, and she needed to move some stuff back and jump through hoops to help her move her family back into vehicles. And she didn't have to, you know, handwrite a personal thank you note to me, but she did. And I thought that was really nice. Yeah, I love hearing those stories about those personal touches. And you're all about attention to details and personal touches too. I want to ask you, Corey, what, you know, you're so successful already, but what do you hope to aspire to achieve in your future? My goal for me is to have my kids be able to take over the company one day. And work within the company and, you know, have a platform or have a job. Growing up, I didn't know what I wanted to do or where I was going to be. So if I can give my kids that ability to, you know, come into a company and run a company or at least learn from it, I think that's something that, you know, that's the goal for me. That's future. I like hearing that. And, you know, in terms of leaders, there's so many different kinds of leaders in the world. What kind of leader are you? I think I'm a lead by example kind of a leader. I think for our employees, the fact that we give back so much, I mean, my business partners are on board just like me and they want to give back. So our employees see that and I think it gives them pride to work for a company that gives back so much. So I think we lead by example. I think that's the kind of leader I want to be and the leader I'm trying to be. And that kind of leadership, it becomes contagious, you know, that positive energy doing the right thing out of, you know, in any circumstance. Yeah, I agree. I agree. You know, next year we've got some things lined up for our employees that that's going to be exciting for them. That's going to help our company give back to charities that they're interested in. So we're always looking at ways to give back and being innovative in what we do. Love hearing that. Now, Corey, obviously, you want to try to outdo what you've done. You're not taking anything for granted. What are you doing right now to improve your company at this moment? So I think some probably the most important thing that we're doing right now that I love is we created a nonprofit organization called Landmark Share 360. And so we set money aside and we're going to start giving back to a bunch of different charities every month, month after month after month. And I think our ability to touch the community in that way supersedes what we do as a company, right? So we deal with high up execs, big corporations, but we don't necessarily deal with the mom and dad or the or someone you see at the youth softball games and stuff. And so I want my company to be involved in that type of stuff where our focus is giving back to the kids and youth leagues, youth sports leagues, local charity organizations and stuff like that. So I think that will kind of set us apart from our competitors or just give us that feel good of doing right by your community. Yeah. Do you think that's what adds to your happiness and your self fulfillment? Absolutely. To me, giving is amazing. And I enjoy seeing the smiles on the kids' faces or any charities that we give to. So yeah, that's something that makes me happy. Now, every successful team, they have to keep innovating and they have to forecast certain challenges and predict certain things. What are you guys doing right now to really think about that innovations for your company? So moving forward, what we're trying to do is make sure that we have the operational part of our company to continue the growth. I mean, we've gone double the growth of our company every year. And that's really hard to sustain in a small business. So we brought in some people from the mainland to help us just work through some of the kinks that we've gotten because our sales are going through the roof. But operationally, we're still trying to catch up. And when we catch up operationally, then we can look at doubling again. So year after year, we're just looking to better ourselves in every aspect of the company.  That's amazing that you're self-taught. Who is someone that you admire in terms of their success? Well, there's so much. It's hard to pinpoint one single person. I take from a bunch of different people. But I think, I mean, success comes from different people, different things that happen throughout your life. So I don't think I have one person that I look to. Every day there's somebody I could take something away from. Kind of inspires you. Yeah. I mean, you inspire me a lot. I do. You do. Hey, you just gave me a tickling feeling inside right there. What you're able to do with the tennis and the amount of championships you won and the humility that you have, I think that's a great story. Well, Corey, I really appreciate you sharing these insights and really going in depth with you being on welfare food stamps and then becoming president and executive chairman of Landmark Logistics Corporation and how you and Seiji and Noah work so well together. I really want to thank you for your time and being on the show today. Thank you, Rusty. I appreciate the platform you've given me and my company. And thank you for having me on. Thank you, Corey. Thanks. And thank you for watching Beyond the Lines on Think Tech Hawaii. I'm Rusty Komori, encouraging you to check out my website, RustyKomori.com, and follow me on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. I also want to encourage you to constantly strive for a superior standard of excellence every day and to find your greatness and help others find theirs. Aloha.