Hawaii Media Collective - Media Company on Maui, Hawaii

On this episode, Bryan is joined by Joshua Martinez, the Founder and Director of Photography at Hawaii Media Collective.
Get Episode Show Notes Here:  --> hawaiisbesttravel.com/episode68 <--

Joshua is an advertising & Commercial Photographer with more than 7 years of professional experience. Known for his product, food, and lifestyle work with some of Puerto Rico & Hawaii's top hospitality brands; these include St. Regis, Ritz Carlton, Marriott, Westin Maui, Grand Wailea a Waldorf Astoria to name a few. With peak attention to detail, Joshua communicates any idea or task at hand.

Get Episode Show Notes Here:  --> hawaiisbesttravel.com/episode68 <--

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Transcript

Hawaii's Best: 0:02

Welcome to Hawaii's Best Podcast, where we help you prepare for your next trip to Hawaii. Discover the experiences, businesses and stories that make Hawaii the Aloha state. And now your host,

Bryan Murphy: 0:16

Brian Murphy. Welcome to another episode of Hawaii's Best where we help prepare you for your trip to Hawaii. I'm Brian Murphy, the owner of Hawaii's Best and I just want to say thank you so much for joining me today on this episode. And whenever you are listening to this episode, I hope that you are having a great day. A lot is changing and has changed in regards to travel to Hawaii. And I'm gonna be unpacking that on a future episode, actually in just a couple days. So the date of this episode is June 30 2021. And in a couple days, I'm going to be releasing another episode. That's just all about travel and how to travel to Hawaii. There's a lot of things happening coming July 8 2021 that you need to be aware of, especially if you live on the mainland of the US. But on this episode, I am joined with Joshua Martinez, who is the founder and director of photography for Hawaii media collective, a media company based on the island of Maui. And in our conversation we talked about Joshua's pivot and vision for starting Hawaii media collective or HMC during the pandemic and what that was like, for him, his wife and his business partner, we also get to hear his heart and helping motivate others to jump in starting their business but also to inspire young entrepreneurs who feel limited because of their age. We also get to learn about Joshua's journey from being born and raised in Puerto Rico to his move to Maui and how it was for him and his wife acclimating to the new culture. And towards the end of my conversation with Joshua, he offers some of his favorite places to eat on Maui, which is always super important, and how to support local when you're there and also the current situation. In regards to travelers on the road to Hana. The biggest thing being the problem with traffic and parking so be sure to stay tuned for that. And also he gives a special offer to Hawaii's best listeners that can be found at Hawaii media collective.com slash Hawaii's Best. So a little bit more about Joshua before we jump in to the conversation, Joshua is an advertising and commercial photographer with more than seven years of professional experience, known for his product, food and lifestyle work with some of Puerto Rico and Hawaii's top hospitality brands, which include St Regis Ritz Carlton, Marriott, Westin, Maui, and Grand Wailea, just to name a few. With a peak attention to detail Joshua communicates any idea or task at hand, I can't wait for you to meet Joshua and hear more about his story as he offers some of his tips to photography and also when visiting the island of Maui. So let's go ahead and head on over and talk story with Joshua from Hawaii media collected. Joshua, thank you so much for coming on Hawaii's Best how are you doing today on this Friday.

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 3:27

So beautiful day out, had my morning run, then took out my middle guy for a walk, had my morning coffee and wherever set for the day.

Bryan Murphy: 3:37

I got my my green juice happening. So we are good to go. So you're on Maui and love to hear a little bit about the story on were you born and raised on Maui. Did you move to Maui? What's the story behind that?

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 3:51

You know, it's interesting. I feel that you know there there are two types of people on Maui and Hawaii in general. There's people who were born and raised there and there are people who landed on the island and stayed and I'm kind of on that boat. I'm born and raised in Puerto Rico. In short, I was working for a photography company there

Bryan Murphy: 4:07

and Puerto Rico

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 4:08

Yeah, I'm Puerto Rico did good things for them. They're the owner is a very good friend of mine. 2017 came and hurricane Maria hit the property. I was completely destroyed. Obviously I didn't have a job. Well, my fiance and I were there. And you know, our wedding got canceled two or three days after the hurricane hit so a lot of stuff happening together. And then my my friend, this is the owner of this studio. He reached out and said hey, Josh, we got a position open on Maui is yours if you want it expenses paid for you and your fiance and there I am 21 year old me and my fiance. I'm like Nina, we don't have any debt. We don't have any responsibilities. Yeah, heck yeah, let's go. It was my first time in Hawaii. But it was my wife's first time traveling. She had done short trips but not be to that scale. So obviously a lot of changes. This all happened within a week and a half since the hurricane hit. And you know, time difference trying to find a place to run. Yeah, not having too much time to speak with people. So anyways, we made it to the island, we have a place to say, not knowing anything, not knowing how the culture is how people are starting fresh. I started with this same photography company, they have branches around the state took care of a branch on the west side of the island, flip that branch around, turn it to what it is today. And then a few years later, I took over their branch I gone one day, and same thing just rebound the spot. And then the dynamic head. And of course, you know, we were only off. I was on that boat too. And that's kind of how we got to HMC today and how we stayed on the island. And from meeting other people, they either arrive to the island and everything goes well, and they stay. And then there's other people who come and they try and the island just kicks them out. Like No, not for you. So thankfully, we were on the boat that we're okay. You know, everything worked in our favor. And you know, almost four years later, we got to Maui born babies. Well, one Maui born baby second babies on the way. Yeah, we're just beyond blessed to be here and call this our home. That's amazing.

Bryan Murphy: 6:23

Going back to 2017 in Puerto Rico. Obviously, family was there. It's still there. Yeah,

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 6:30

yeah, of our family are in Puerto Rico. My wife and I are the only two this far away. So big change, but you know, we have their support. Ultimately, I was number one for us. And they should now have an excuse to come over to this.

Bryan Murphy: 6:46

What was that transition? Like?

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 6:49

For us coming from Puerto Rico? You know, we we have a word used to write beaches. Yeah. Sunshine. He, ultimately we just miss food and people. Yeah, those are the two big

Bryan Murphy: 7:03

things. Right?

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 7:05

Yeah, getting you know, food in Puerto Rico. It's way different. The food here over there is a lot of spices, you know, salty, I'm not a pork fried stuff. So coming to Maui and swishing to fish and, you know, veggies root vegetables. It's a bit of a transitional phase there. But you know, our palates gotten used to it. And now, I can't have a week without having some pulkit or something.

Bryan Murphy: 7:34

He said something interesting. And maybe as we kind of get more into this, we can unpack it a little bit. But moving to Maui, you may mention like, sometimes the island will kick you out, like maybe unpack that a little bit? What, what's kind of behind that?

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 7:50

Yeah. So I guess each person kind of has their own twist of how things went wrong with them. It's just you I you know, right. If doors open, and opportunities come up in a way that positions you to be stable. And also that you're able to connect with the culture by you feel you feel, you know, welcomed by people around to. And then just through the people we met, you know, coming over not knowing the outset about on the island, just having people that were so willing to share more knowledge on Hey, you know, you should really do this. I remember even the first day, when we got here, we ate at a restaurant called chemos. And I went to the bathroom. And I said, well, Hina, Connie, and they are understanding they're confused. Where do I go cuz I didn't have any graphic. It was just a text. And then I go to to one of the service. I'm like, Hey, I'm sorry, I want to go to the bathroom. I just moved here, says this not, you know, where do I go? She's like, Oh, you got a comment. If you're gonna live here, you got to remember all that stuff. And, you know, it's just more things that people are so willing to share, to make things smoother for you. Like, if you move to the island, and you see that people come up, are people you know, come to your life that are so willing to do, you know, those sort of relationships that are gonna really help you stay on the island and austere, you know, open minded to take all these things to adapt to them, and respect of the culture of the island and then things are gonna go smooth your way but if you come and you're not as willing to adapt to change, and adapt how things run online, and that's when it can be a bit more, you know, not so much in your favor.

Bryan Murphy: 9:42

same can be said and as we get into this for people just traveling for, you know, a week or two on vacation or or whatever. So, I'm curious how you even got into photography,

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 9:56

something that not many people last Sunday. Some of my close friends too, but not many people know, in Puerto Rico, there was one pioneer who started the film industry over there. His name is one AV gear. And he's my dad's grandfather. And in short, he basically brought one of the first cameras to Puerto Rico. And he created one of the first film firms in Puerto Rico. And he basically took care of kind of these short commercials in the old movie theaters. But what he's really known for us, he made the first movie with sound. And Puerto Rico produced the movie there. Yeah. Yeah, and runs and runs in the family on my dad's side, a bunch of architecture, landscape. You know, the signers, interior designers, musicians, cinematographers and is always connected to an appeal to that artistic stuff. Being honest, when I was in high school, I wanted to be an engineer, I got accepted to top you know, universities in Puerto Rico, you know, a my MIT the whole thing, but I don't know, I just, I felt that I needed to share how I saw things triggered, you know, camera is going to be the best way to go about it. And having that background in the family that that feel to see things differently. I just decided to do the move. I'm like, Mom, I'm not gonna do engineering, I'm gonna do photography. I went to school for graphic design, with a minor in photography, and then just slowly started taking opportunities, pro bono stuff, she was really polishing my style and how I wanted to approach photography, because it's, it's similar to medicine. And it might sound interesting, but you know, there's a doctor and that one doctor can tackle, you know, ob, ob gyn stuff, cardiovascular stuff, you know, brain surgery, there's each individual specialty. So it translates the same way to photography, you know, real estate, portraiture, families, weddings, commercial stuff. So it's just finding your niche, or in my case, just exploring the different sides of photography to find what I wanted to do. It's what really helped me to position, you know, years forward to today to really position your agency where it is, but that's kind of the backstory of how I was so intrigued by by photography, and weirdly enough, I actually started doing film, you know, it's just short YouTube clips, me and my buddies being goofy in Puerto Rico. And that worked for for a bit, but then I really started getting into photography, and exploring the work of odd photographers. 1836 you know, that was the first official exposure done, and I was an eight hour exposure in France, and just exploring all these pictures and all these pioneers and kind of how they, you know, how they their minds worked, and how they process what they see. And then how they translated that to picture was something that I'm like, Oh my gosh, I want to be able to do the same thing.

Bryan Murphy: 13:05

So then how would you define your niche as you kind of described it?

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 13:10

So my niche as a photographer as a person, you know, not talking too much of agency. me. I enjoyed doing portraiture, you know, headshots, right. The thing that I love the most about headshots is being able to translate the person's story through the headshot, like one fixture I did back in Puerto Rico, I had this musician, friend, you know, he plays piano. And I went to his house, you know, he asked this one room where he goes to kind of detox and think these through and the piano really helps them kind of work with with all that internally, and as a result of it and he creates a new piano piece. And the picture was this a profile view. He's sitting right next to it, just looking out through the window, and then you got just that moment, being able to translate each person's story through the picture where you see it and you know, somewhat what's going on. It's really what makes me want to connect with people and try to capture their story. For AMC, what we aim to do is just help branch share what they do. And it might seem too too wide of a concept. But being a business owner and for hotels, which is the, the the target specifically, we're aiming to share the lifestyle feel of what it would be to arrive to the property. One of the recent photos we did for a Westside property was a drone picture over and looking at the beach and the pools and we took it during sunrise specifically. So you saw the shadows of the palm trees and the sand, just giving you that I feel like I'm there just by being seeing the picture feel is ultimately what we aim to do. So with HMC Hawaii media collective, there's a bit of a gap. That I love to be able to kind of dive into so you're you're working at these resorts love to hear just from your perspective, the pivot to HMC certain things happen for a reason. And when the pandemic hit, you know, I was working with my former employer. And for that entire year, I was wanting to do the jump, and do my own thing, because I knew the potential was there. I knew the market space was there. It shows salaries get conditioned, I saw some benefits. Oh my gosh, how can I make gold on on Maui, it's so expensive here. You guys thought thought as I had my first kid and I get you know, if I do the job, How soon will I start seeing revenue coming in, but the let me go in, I'm on the spot. And I'm like, Okay, I gotta, I gotta figure something out. I got to do something. And I took a few months to decompress. Can I have a creative break, refresh the direction I wanted to go. And during that time, I had connected with a former coworker, his name is Sam tiller, he's awesome. He's kind of my my video guy. He oversees those operations. And one thing that may go, I gave him a call, and I'm gonna KCM it just made me go. Whenever they know you go, give me a call back or something. And it happened. It happened. And we got together early April, May just started brainstorming, how can we create something like obviously, you're good at what you do, which is video production. I'm good. Photography, engaging with people relationship building. It's a good mix, how can we make it work? And June came around, and we're like, okay, Hawaii media collective cool. Let's basically create a space where local creatives can expand their talent and their passion for photo and video, before eyes, we just wanted to create option for people coming out of state to hear for corporate events who are similar to no other Istomin on the island that they can count on. Because during the time I was with hotels, I would see that most companies, you know, they brought people from outside, which is fine. You know, there's no, there's no about in that. But there's so much talent here. Yeah, you know, why not support the island, and we wanted to create the opportunity for them to do to be able to do so. And to be able to promote local economy, we want to help the money stay on the island right? agency started different than how it is now. We started with the initiative of helping local mom and pop shops with content generation. So when the boom hit back, you know that touristic boom, they have content to show. We were you know, are thinking subscription based services and to anyone who's listening the fee if you take in this idea and go for it, do it. Protect me with commission. No, I'm kidding. But but right, we started, we thought okay, it'd be nice to help mom and pop shops. And we launched then we did a pro bono stuff. We got our name out there. But revenue wasn't where we wanted. It is two of us. And I'm not kidding. In the first three months or four months, we made like 200 bucks or something. super low. Yeah. So we're like, okay, obviously, this isn't working. Let's see what else we could do throughout that stressful time. Like, okay, try not to get discouraged. what way can we save this beautiful idea of agency? Like, what can we do? Worse, the market void. And throughout that time, few opportunities arose of working with hotels and helping them but what marketing pieces. So I told my my business partner, Sam, hey, what if we target hotels, because the company we worked with before they target their own property, and they do leisure, family photos, and we're like, I'm not talking being on the hotels and do family because we of course, respect the relationship we have with this other photography company told them, let's do marketing pieces for them. Like social media website, there's a space there for it. The first project Sam and I worked on was a corporate event and we loved it, we connect so well, and we vibed well, too, we made this shift on January 2020, we made the essential shift, rebranded the website, Instagram, then, you know, here we are a beautiful idea, a beautiful concept. We obviously have the content and resources for it. We don't know who to share it with. Because of course, we knew people in hotels, but three fourths of them were kicked out or relocated. So we don't know how to get our name out there. So biggest challenge for us was finding our PLCs you know, or main people have contacts, and then just slowly engaging with them. The biggest tool that I have to be able to do that, and I actually heard this on a podcast, listen, LinkedIn. LinkedIn was my biggest tool I for the first for q1 2020 first three months every day, I would send about 100 connection requests anywhere from 75 to 100, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, same. Nope. Hey, thank you for connecting with me, you know, XYZ, this is what we're doing. We would love to talk more about it with you. And from those 100 people, five got back to me for replied with a thumbs up, and one person replied with the actual texts, and slowly we were able to, to engage with these people. And as conversations grew, you know, opportunities came up. Hey, we would love to see your work. Is there any chance you could do this picture for us? I'm like, absolutely. We'll do it on us. I have a very good friend. Her name is Laura. And actually I think she had an interview with you at one point and Laura Manuel from from the soba.

Bryan Murphy: 20:46

Oh, yeah. She

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 20:47

mentioned she had an interview with Yeah, so she said, she said very good friend. She was actually one of the first person people I think, actually the first who reached out back. And from that moment on, and this can happen to anybody. I think a few days before she connected and he he also gave us a call. You know, I was already about to give up. I'm like, you know, I'm not having any luck. We're not getting on the map as we want to my guest is really going to be worth fighting for. I get shows, when I think about that. She gave me a call. And she's like, hey, Josh, I love your concept. I want to give you the opportunity to show what you can do. And after that we just pivoted, we started meeting people and gigging with other top tier meeting from hv cb. And it just went bananas after that from having an empty calendar. Like now we have so much stuff during the month, which is overwhelming at times it says seminar. It's a two man job, but it's a good problem was a good issue. We're getting stuff our way. And of course, what people don't see is that call came as a result of three months every day, right? messaging, following up is hard work writing long hours, because as a business owner, you do everything you do marketing, you do HR, you connect with people, social media, the whole thing, but it pays off. And if you're strongly suited to an idea, and you think there's the potential and you see the opportunity, just keep trying keep going, you know, all it takes is one call or one note or connecting with the right person.

Bryan Murphy: 22:21

Right? I think what's incredible about that, and this is something that I hope we don't you and I but the collective we, we don't lose a lot of those questions that we were asking ourselves last year, like, what do I really want to do with my life? What am I really passionate about? And a lot of the conversations I was having, and probably you were having to was a lot of people wrestling with? What do I want to do with my life. And I've been working in this job that I felt like was the thing I was supposed to do at that time. And that's probably true. And the benefits are great, and blah, blah, blah, and all that stuff, and the 403 B's and all that. But then a lot of that was taken away for a lot of people during last year, and are still are now. And that question that I just I hope that we can continue to wrestle with that question. Because there's so many creatives and so much left to be done that I hope that people kind of press into exactly what you just said,

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 23:22

yeah, it's just finding that the right opportunity, people are gonna say you got to be realistic, and think through X, Y, and Z. And like all the possibilities of why that won't work. But honestly, everybody has their own vision of what being realistic is right up to an extent it's all made up, but it's made up it tailors to their thoughts. So make your own reality. If you want to do something, just go forward. And if you're sure that you can, obviously tackle the tasks at hand, that's going to bring along with it. The only thing stopping you is yourself. Just you know, you versus you. And I guess my biggest fear is thinking what would have happened if I would have moved forward with it. The worst thing that can happen is you fail and then you try something new 100%

Bryan Murphy: 24:12

I know you have something for Hawaii's Best listeners, and I want to get to that with Hm, see, you guys are doing mainly corporate events, you're partnering with resorts capturing those types of experiences. are you guys doing weddings? Or and are you in that space at all?

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 24:29

weddings is something that we as a company are starting to test the waters on, okay, and this is something I told my my business partner and I'm super open with it, you know, weddings and families, you know, I did them for a long time. But as a company, we're trying to partner with some of our friends who are wedding photographers, you know, we bring them in as contractors, not way we can give them business. So ultimately, that's kind of the way we're kind of fixing the whole wedding spectrum of agency. Cuz again, initiative number one is to be able to provide fun work for our creative friends on the island, right? So whenever me or Sam can tackle anything, you know, we'll just pass it on to them, bring them on board as contractors, whatever, and they do what they love, they get paid and everybody's happy.

Bryan Murphy: 25:19

That's where the collective comes into play. Obviously,

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 25:22

river I love that people move in, and you know, they have I and the town for it, they don't know where to start, hey, it's a good space to to start getting the groove of it on the island, chose being able to provide that face me as a business owner. And this is something that Sam feels to it's just, it's awesome. Because even when we came in, of course, you know, we had our jobs, but we wanted to do something for ourselves before the pandemic hit. And it can be challenging at times to find the right spot, or the right moment, to be able to grow and meet people. So coming to a space where we already have connections and relationships, ultimately, with so many people.

Bryan Murphy: 26:03

I'm sure you've done countless experiences. And I'm sure there's there's tons of stories that stick out as memorable for awesome Miss or for like, oh, my goodness, I hope I never have to do that again.

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 26:19

Oh, my gosh, I guess you know, a recent story is we helped four seasons fall online with a live stream for a client. And this is more of a kind of experience for growth and you know, things we can shift on on the company. And we were doing on my live stream. And similar to how I'm doing right now and all the audience are only going to the they're only going to listen but you're seeing me so you know, we we did the same rig with a camera. And we were gonna have different people present on a zoom call, part of what makes the resort special to all the winners. So we have the mic we have the camera internet was connected. And we did like countless tests before to make sure everything went smoothly. And of course, we connect, everybody jumps on the zoom and the moment I have to turn the camera on. So everybody saw the person in the resort, everything bunks, the computer freezes, the camera freezes, the microphone freezes, I'm connected on the phone, and I'm not good. And I'm there on the back streaming Oh, this is not connected. That's why and everybody's in that city. And I'm looking at the salesperson and you know chasing low key freaking now but keeping it a cool and I'm just rambling back and forth and you know, Murphy's Law, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. And you just got to take that in and take the best out of it. And I'll keep you sharp, I'll help you do things differently in the future. And we did, we recently did a pre recorded live stream for the ohana, then for HTA on Western Maui, and we pre pre recorded the whole thing three cameras set up and then we jumped into the computer Merced it all together and then they showed it on zoom and oh my gosh, perfect. So you know you do something things might go wrong and you learn from it and forward. So just always taking the best out of those moments and having the mindset to grow from them and not being discouraged by them.

Bryan Murphy: 28:14

Recently, we pose a question like what is one thing that you would want someone traveling to Hawaii to know and there's the typical don't Honk your horn don't do this don't hike there and stuff like that. And one of the ones that stuck out and I wanted to get your take on was don't always have a camera strapped to you and always trying to get the shot like you're doing a hike to just get the shot and to just post it on Instagram or whatever social channel so in your opinion, where's the balance for you of capturing a moment versus being fully present and taking in a moment

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 28:54

it's awesome that you mentioned that because you think that me in the field Ahmad? You know I would always be ready to capture everything I go around hikes and honestly I feel the same way just taking the moment Enjoy your surroundings. Sure you get to you just snap a picture to show friends and family but ultimately yes you in nature in the space and just enjoy the sun of the wind going through the trees you know the birds shipping the water. Enjoy the moment I don't take my camera when I go on hikes and stuff. I barely do. I use the camera as a tool for my business. And of course for personal life. I'll snap pictures here and there on special occasions. But ultimately, it's all the experience who knows if you're going to be back on the island, it might be your first time or you know you got married and the whole family shipped in to make sure you had an awesome honeymoon whatever it may be, just enjoy the moment. Time is so precious and so have moments not as valued as much when you just go Enjoy every piece of it because you don't know when you'll have it. And a personal note that I'll add to why I think this way, my dad in 2013 was diagnosed with an neurodegenerative disease called Lou Gehrig's disease, ALS, like, out of the blue, you know, one day, he's fine another day, you know, boom, two years pass. And of course, though the whole disease, you know, it's just it deteriorates the body, and my mom and I were ready, but he passed away and life can change so quick, you got to enjoy the little things and be present. If you travel to new space, take that time also for personal growth and learn from the culture and learn from other people's stories. If you're investing to the island, it's good to eat in a nice restaurant here and there, but try to go local, try to not only support those smaller shops, but just experience what their day to day is. And to come with an open mind come with the mindset to learn from the culture and to throughout the time you're here, do things how they're done already though, don't redo the wheel Don't try to push in what you're used to. I think the main goal of traveling anywhere but mainly of it since it's so rich in culture is try to to learn from it as much as you can when you come could be a small us learning the meaning behind faces or the you know the well known Chaka find the meaning behind Chaka try to connect and enjoy the space you're on. Because you don't know what tomorrow might bring. So make the most of the time you're here.

Bryan Murphy: 31:41

Yeah, I love that. Most of us are traveling out there. And we we at least have our phones and we're you know, with family and we want to snap that moment. The best camera is the one with you. So what if any couple tips would you give someone or point them in the right direction? Like just to maybe get a better composition or something on a on your iPhone or whatever? Would you offer any tips to you know that mom that dad out there?

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 32:09

Oh, yeah, so biggest thing, you know, sunsets are the main picture that everybody wants cameras on the phones, they have their own brain, they're not going to know how you want to capture the picture, you know, the famous auto mode and the cameras. But iPhones and androids have a cool feature, where if you click on the screen, you're gonna see a line pop up with kind of a song icon. So you can click on it, hold it and then push it down. And that's gonna make the the colors of the picture and the overall brightness, then down the exposure, click on it, bring it down and wants to picture the sunset or sunrise. It's to your liking. And I go, it's not the picture. And you're thinking later,

Bryan Murphy: 32:50

that one too, right? Yeah, that that the lock, focus and exposure that makes a whole difference. So someone's listening to this right now, what is something HMC can offer to Hawaii's Best listeners.

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 33:06

Yeah, so we're happy to offer, should you have an upcoming wedding, or an event or maybe you You are a brand owner, and you need pictures and you have a product and you want to send them over, we're going to be offering 10% off any project that you have wedding related product related or you have an incentive trip. We'll give you that 10% off. promo code will be Hb 2021. And then we'll move forward to taking care of you.

Bryan Murphy: 33:37

Appreciate that. And yeah, definitely, if you're listening, we'll link all that out. So be sure to look below this episode. Or go to Hawaii's Best travel comm slash Episode 60 868. And we'll be sure to link out everything there. Josh, Joshua, what's next, as you're staring down, you know, the next six months or so of this year 2021. What do you see what's next for HMC?

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 34:07

You know, being from Puerto Rico, a long term goal has been to be able to do work over there and provide a space for my Puerto Rican friends who are also creatives. I saw this being the next three, five years, but you never know who you're gonna meet. And that's why even if you live here, or wherever you live, and you're starting something new, you never know who you're gonna meet, you got to be at your best with everybody. And not just because of what you're gonna get in return more of, I had the pleasure of meeting this one person. He's the VP of a big kind of meetings firm. And talking sorry, when I you know, we started Oh, I'm from Puerto Rico. And this and that, and he shared some stories of when he visited and the conversation went to about where he said, Hey, I got a program next year in Puerto Rico. Do you want to cover it? I'm like, of course not. So that's one thing that we're really excited about, you know, it's just thinking of the possibility of being able to cover an event over there. And, you know, provide work for my friends is something that we're really excited about. Number two is and this is still in the works, you know, it might happen, it might not, but I'm definitely excited shows being considered to be this is most hotels and brands. At a corporate level. They have approved vendors for content generation for their website, mobile app, social media, marketing pieces. And so this one hotel brand, they don't have a specific media vendor to take care of Hawaii region. They always bring people in. And so we're on the works of possibly being that media vendor on island that, of course, understands the culture and lifestyle and can provide content more tailor to what people will expect once they come here. That's all in the works. But thanks for moving forward in the right direction. so huge, huge opportunity.

Bryan Murphy: 36:02

That's awesome. We'll definitely stay posted on that. Anyone who comes on the podcast Hawaii's Best is about people traveling to the islands and a lot of them for the first time and being on the island of Maui. What are like some of your best places to eat? What would you recommend? I know

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 36:21

the biggest place where most people stay at is on the west side of the island kaanapali side, and oh my gosh, Front Street has so much to offer. I'd say my number one pick. My wife and I go at least once a week once every two weeks we go to Down the hatch on Front Street. They have these things called mermaid fries. It sounds weird, but man it's like these loaded fries but like melted cheese and bacon on men spicy meal and it's just to die for us. So good. Big thing a mountain way is shaped eyes. Now you got to try umani straight dice on Front Street. That's a must. And if you can have mochi on top is kind of a Japanese sort of jumbo oily texture. The third it's so good but you got to go early because that thing goes out quick because it's so good. You got to make the minor only but also more on the smaller shops. on the high side there's this breakfast place called oh no grinds. They only take cash, there's like three tables inside the lines go for it. You know the lines are super long, because everybody wants to try it. Yeah, that's one place I would suggest to go might sound weird. But if you want to try poker like really local local poker, I just go to Safeway and I've told this to my friends and they're like yeah, totally you know it's just go to Safeway if you want to try polka you know, it's made by local guys it's local fish is catch they if you really really want to try one local seat, you know just go to the small shops in the barn in your get a bit of that local tastes. And then for those listeners who might stay on the south side of the island kihei is the spot to be you know, so many good restaurants. There's a triangle over there. One of my favorite spots to to have breakfast on it's called lava rock in South kihei. You got $1 me Moses, my friends. It's so good. And then a kihei born restaurant is called coconuts. Another must try their coconut shrimp. So good. They're efficient chips. That's awesome. It's my wife's favorite one. So definitely another spot to look at.

Bryan Murphy: 38:38

Love it. Yeah. rode the Honda. Right now we're recording this. It's like mid June. A lot of people are traveling to Hawaii. A lot of people are on Maui. What advice would you give someone who wants to do road ohana and how to do that? respectfully.

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 38:59

Yeah, I wrote to Hannah. And I think right now people from there are being more serious and strict of things. So you know, it's not to discourage anybody. rota Hahn is beautiful. is something you definitely need to do. There's two ways to go to Hana you can do the back road which they call divorce road because it's horrible it's you need you know a good car to go through. And then there is honeymoon road which is the famous road to Hana which is where all the views are and the whole thing but you need to be one very, you know, hyper respectful to the people. to them. Yeah. And, and to parking. Parking is the biggest thing right now with people are brought to ohana and here's why. rota ohana you know, it's not like an abandoned base. People live there. And they commute to town and even though as far some Areas of Honda you need big vehicles to go through like people might need a Tacoma or you know, a tundra, whatever they get to their house or big cars. Be respectful on where you park, you're gonna find waterfalls along the way and their designated parkings don't park on the side of the road. If you park there, one, you're gonna be fine, too. If a logo comes through, which they will, they're not going to be friendly. And three, you're blocking, you're making things difficult for people going through. So be respectful of parking, don't park on the side of the road. If there's no space, keep going up. I mean, the waterfalls not going anywhere,

Bryan Murphy: 40:40

come back down later, even alongside the road, you might get a turnout. But a lot of those turnouts are for emergency vehicles and utility workers. Yeah. So to you know, be aware of that as well.

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 40:52

Right. And I've had the cases where I've been stuck in karma for hours just because you know, either one, there was an accident and cars park where they shouldn't have been it makes things difficult for the ER team, medics, whatever to go through those turnarounds. Some might be parking, some might not fill their space intentionally created for these tour buses. You know, there are these commercially licensed people who do tours around to be able to turn smoothly. And yeah, just just keep in mind parking. That's issue number one. Issue number two, you know, be respectful to the man to the people. If you take stuff with you take it back with you. Don't leave anything, treat them with respect. I think there's beauty in not only taking in all the good from your surroundings, but making sure that you you respect where you're at. So just give the best image you can from Maine, not right? The come wouldn't love come with cleanness, make the most out of it, enjoy it. But keep in mind that things might shift a bit depending how the conditions are, it might be rainy, if it rains, you know, water is going to go down the road, people are going to be slower. If you go late in the day, which is the number one mistake don't go to Hana at noon, after brunch, don't do it, it's going to be traffic, it's going to be horrible. And then you're going to come back super late. But overall, just enjoy the time going up. But keep in the back of your head, you know that respectfulness towards the people and the space available,

Bryan Murphy: 42:24

because there's still a lot of people in Havana who that's their livelihood, living off the land. So be mindful of that too. In all the other things that you just mentioned. They're super important. Joshua, I totally appreciate you and taking your time is really cool to see what HMC has done and is currently slated to do and I'm just excited about that. So thank you so much for coming on today.

Joshua Martinez - Hawaii Media Collective: 42:50

Now, thank you for having me, it was a blast to be able to share my story and, you know, share Island living do's and don'ts for people visiting, but ultimately to being able to share a bed. My story for those who are just needing the push to do something new, I hope this can be that push, go for it. Just focus on your goal, your concept and you know, money and all the good stuff will follow. Try to do things right, always over anything, and everything is gonna fall into place.

Bryan Murphy: 43:20

Perfect. Love that man. We'll end it right there. Appreciate that. Thank you. You're welcome. And thank you again, Joshua, for coming on the podcast today. And one of my biggest key takeaways, from my conversation with Joshua was just the re the reminder of pushing forward to what you know you ought to be doing or to know what you ought to be creating. And I think there's a stirring in each and every one of us. That is something that is bigger than ourselves. So keep pressing into that. That's one of my biggest key takeaways. And also, another big key takeaway was to please do some of your own research on the current situation on the road to Honda in regards to visitors traveling the road parking and traffic in general. So please be aware of that if you are in Maui right now. Or if you're planning to travel to Maui anytime soon. And again, I just want to say thank you Joshua for offering 10% off for Hawaii's Best listeners. And again, you can go to Hawaii media collective.com slash Hawaii's Best. And he'll take care of you right there. And coming up in just a couple days, I'm going to be releasing a another episode that's going to be pretty quick. It's just going to be focused on the newest travel update, and what to expect come July 8. So stay tuned for that. Wherever you're listening to this podcast, you can follow subscribe for free, obviously and go ahead and do that. And you'll be notified when this next episode comes out in regards to the travel update. Alright friends, and until next time, be well. Aloha.

Hawaii's Best: 44:57

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