Live audio:
Joining Team Lally in this episode is Amy Bender from the Blood Bank of Hawaii. Amy talks about being born and raised in Hawaii. She tells us about her family business, Kai Spirits.
Amy goes on to tell us the story of how she started working for Blood Bank of Hawaii. We talk about the importance of continuous support from blood donors and also what happens with the blood products that are donated by people.
She describes the process a donor goes through when donating blood. Also we talk about some of the myths relating to donating blood
Amy tells our listeners the locations of centers where they can donate blood and when the best time is to do so.
Also in this episode: Quotes of the day, Tips of the week, special events, this week’s Open houses and Coming soon listings.
Who is Amy Bender?
Amy Bender is currently the Sales Director at Kai Vodka LLC and the Donor Recruitment Account Manager for Blood Bank of Hawaii.
She is an Experienced Specialist with a demonstrated history of working in the wine and spirits industry. She is highly skilled in Negotiation, Food & Beverage, Budgeting, Business Planning, and Sales.
The Blood Bank of Hawaii is a non-profit organization that provides lifesaving blood products to 11 civilian hospitals on Oahu and eight civilian hospitals on the neighbor islands.
Team Lally Show with Amy Bender
Blood Bank of Hawaii
Announcer: It’s time to enter the world of real estate in Oahu with Hawaii’s only true real estate radio show, the Team Lally real estate show. Grab a pen and get ready to take notes! For the next full hour, Hawaii’s premier real estate leader, Adrienne Lally and Attilio Leonardi will bring you the latest in real estate news and real world strategies on how they can guarantee to sell your home at a price and deadline you agree to! Or they’ll buy it! Now, here are your hosts, Adrienne and Attilio!
Attilio: Welcome to the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed sold program or we’ll buy it. If you have any questions you can reach us at 799-9596—what’s that number? 799-9596 or you know what? Check us out on the web at www.teamlally.com, that’s L-A-L-L-Y. Okay, so! This is Attilio, obviously uh, you’re just hearing my voice. I could talk high. “Hello, my name is Adrienne.” But no, she’s not here today, she’s uh, she’s in the mainland, I think at this moment, I think she’s at the Universal Studios with her, with her kids in Florida, so she’s having a good time. She has what we call leverage. So, I know this is the beginning of the, beginning of the show where we, I like to give what they call those life coach moments and then I’ll, I’ll sub in for Adrienne and share with her, uh, share with you guys our listeners the 3 quotes that she typically has, but let’s talk about our life coaching moment. So, leverage, leverage you know, it’s an uh, from a scientific standpoint, allows you to, you know you have a fulcrum and then you’ve got a heavy weight and a big long pole that allows you to lift up something heavier, with less force. In the business world, we disguise, we, we uh, describe leverage as the ability to, to, to be able to do more, do more than you’re capable of just by yourself. And so, here’s some leveraging opportunities. Uh, or traps that people fall into, especially if you’re a brand-new business person. I know we have a lot of realtors listen to the show, and one of the things that you guys always uh, we always end up getting out of balance with our life is because in the beginning, you have to do everything, because you don’t, you know, you can’t afford to have people uh, or systems or things in process, but I’m going to give you a couple tips to get more leverage in your life. Uh, so that, you can have balance in your life. Because if you’re doing everything all the time, and everything is urgent and everything is important then nothing is important and nothing is urgent because it’s all just driving you crazy. So, here’s some leveraging tips. In the beginning, you, maybe you don’t have money to hire an assistant, and administrative assistant or a personal assistant. What you can do is find somebody that’s willing, that wants to trade their time for learning. Uh, we call that someone who works for free, the, the word, uh, intern. Anyway, so, find somebody that you can partner up with that maybe wants to learn the ropes and they’ll be willing to help out in doing thigs for you and there’s again the other trap. The art of delegation, a lot of times we fall into this trap of like oh! I’ll just do it myself it’s too, it’s just too much to train somebody else to do it. Well, here’s the tip for you. Even if somebody else can do it 80% as well as you can, you cannot be in two places at the same time! So, find that other who, that person, if you can’t find that who, then use systems and processes. You know, get organized with time blocking. Don’t check emails every minute of the day. It’s an interruption and you’re multitasking and that’s not true, you cannot multitask, you can’t jump from one thing to another or do two things at the same time, it is, it is been scientifically proven that the human being, you switch back and forth, between tasks and when you do switch, you actually get less done. Because of the time, it takes to get back up to speed on the complicated task. So, by having somebody do it at 80%, and getting it done at the same time while you’re doing something else, actually makes you more effective. And I’m sure everybody would rather be effective than busy; buys is at the end of the day you’re like, wow, I did a bunch of stuff but I don’t feel like I, didn’t get anything done. Efficient is, I didn’t do as much, but I really feel accomplished in that I did the important things. Speaking of important things, we have Duke on the line from Hawaii Pacific Property Management. Hey Duke, are you there?
Duke: I am! How are you guys doing today?
Attilio: Always great, Adrienne’s still in the mainland, enjoying her vacation, so, but—
Duke: Yeah, see her on Facebook.
Attilio: Yup, but that’s leverage, you’ve got a business partner and life goes on and we still do the radio show. So—
Duke: Awesome, awesome.
Attilio: What’ve you got for us today?
Duke: Okay, so I’ve got a really relevant tip this week and I’ve been really talking it up with my owners uh, and that is to make sure in the wake of the Marco Polo fire, that you are insured correctly. And also, please make sure that you have loss of rent coverage. So, a lot of these units will not be intact for at least 6 months to a year. So, if you have tenants in your, your unit, and you’re uh, you’ve just been damaged by water damage you know, and from an upper floor coming down, or you got fire from a lower floor coming up, you’re not going to be able to collect any rent for at least a year. And, and some of the stuff is going to be on-going uh, they’ll be lawsuits and all kinds of things going on. So, as an owner, make sure that your insurance policy covers loss of rent coverage just for a situation like this.
Attilio: Yeah, and you know, it’s, it’s really unfortunate circumstances I mean one of the things, uh, you know I wanted, by any chance, do you manage any units in there?
Duke: We do not, luckily, we, we do not have any units currently in that unit, in that building.
Attilio: Yeah, in that building. Well one of the things too and I’m glad that you mentioned that is not only that, but because of all that damage and maybe damage to common areas and litigation, obviously their maintenance fees are going to go up, so if your maintenance fees go up on top of the loss of rent, as an owner, you may be in a precarious situation uh, if you were doing it by yourself and you didn’t know these things so I highly recommend if you’re a for-rent-by-owner, that you give Duke a call and just, at least have them analyze your situation to, to, you know, here’s one thing, Duke, would you agree or disagree with, a lot of people that have been doing for-rent-by-owners for a long period of time, that they’re, they’re, there’s a high probability they’re renting under market value?
Duke: Under market, yup, so a lot of times we can prove to them how we can make up our property management fee, our management fee with them just by getting more rent. And less work for the owner, it’s hands off! And you get to write off our, our charges. It’s a cost against your income. So, it’s a total write-off.
Attilio: Yeah, I was just thinking—
Duke: But you know—
Attilio: Go ahead.
Duke: I have a, real quick, I have another example where I have an owner who came to me from the Arbors, if you remember 4 years ago, the Arbors caught on fire. And burned 2 buildings out. So, here now is an owner that calls me up and says hey, I just got my buildings back brand-new. I said what do you mean, brand-new, these buildings are 25 years old. He said, no, these are the 2 buildings that burned. 2 1/2 years later, he just got the buildings back built again. He’s had, he had to pay mortgage for 2 1/2 years with no tenants in those units. 2 of his units. Yup.
Attilio: So, that loss of rent would’ve, would’ve come in handy huh?
Duke: (laughing) Yeah, too bad for people in that situation.
Attilio: Yeah, well, uh, guys if, if you’re listening in, uh, you know, oh, one last thing I wanted to mention uh, Duke was I uh, here’s a tip for business people. Uh, if your reputation is valuable, here’s a quick tip. If you want to know somebody’s uh, good or bad, mention to you out there in the digital world, it’s called Google Alerts, you can actually set one up on yourself for any topic, so I have one step up on my name, Attilio K. Leonardi and uh, uh Duke, do you know the other Attilio K. Leonardi?
Duke: It’s your dad!
Attilio: Yup, so retired fire chief for the Honolulu Fire Department. He was uh, the fire chief at the time uh, and he was actually quoted in an article in Civil Beat regarding the Marco Polo uh he, at the time when he was a fire chief, he was proposing before the uh, before the politicians here that they changed the laws to uh—
Duke: Sprinklers.
Attilio: Yeah, to put sprinklers in the old buildings, yeah, so he’s quoted throughout that article and I just, I got that Google Alert and learned about the unfortunate tragedies that happened in that building but uh, yeah, so, uh, there’s your Google Alert tip for today and go check out that article. But uh—
Duke: (laughing) Good job!
Attilio: Yeah, you know so, you guys talk about people under market value on their rent, you guys help them get that up, so you off-set your fees, but let’s talk about how you earn your fees, a couple of things that you guys do to earn your fee.
Duke: We do 6 and, 4 and 6 month walkthroughs in your home, we do background checks on all your tenants, uh, check the last 2 landlords, check their income, verify their job, and just make sure that people are who they are, and we do a credit check so as an owner, we give you all that information and we give you a picture of the pet that’s living in your house to make sure you’re okay with everything.
Attilio: Sure, and, and you stand next to the pet so you give it a size, give it some size comparison because if it looks like, if it’s the size of a Shetland pony, you want to be able to, you know, this dog is huge!
Duke: And if the dog is over 50 pounds, yeah.
Attilio: Yeah, yeah, okay. And the last one there is just, you keep people out of hot water because there is so, I, I don’t even want to pretend that I know even anything about what’s going on with pets and, and emotional pets and all of that, I just say, you know what? You need to check with Duke, make sure you have a professional property manager because uh, the main reason we didn’t personally get involved with it and we refer all our clients to you guys is 90% of the litigation is with uh, tenant-landlord situations and we just, we just, we don’t want to be caught up in that. So—
Duke: And you know one of the things that surprises me the most is that like competition, if they put a tenant in your unit and they have to evict them, they charge the owner for the eviction. I don’t. I have an eviction guarantee that states that if I put the tenant in your unit and I qualify and verify them, and we have to go to an eviction, I will take care of the legal costs for evicting the tenant.
Attilio: Well you’ve heard of putting your money where your mouth is, Duke is putting his eviction, he’s putting the eviction where his mouth is. So, that is awesome, I don’t know why anybody wouldn’t want to give you guys a call if they’re thinking about or have a, uh, rental properties that they would have you guys take care of. You guys take care of our properties, it’s set it and forget it, I don’t worry about it and uh, thank you for taking those calls on Super bowl Sunday when the tenant flushes the teddy bear down the toilet.
Duke: Call us at 8, 808-445-9223 or visit us at www.hipacificpm.com.
Attilio: Alright, thank you Duke!
Duke: Thank you, take care. Bu-bye.
Attilio: Alright, bu-bye. Alright guys, so that was Duke uh, Kimhan with Hawaii Pacific Property Management uh, again you can uh, reach them at 445-9223, that’s 445-9223. And uh, check them out online, www.hipacificpm.com. You know, a big source of the, the, our incoming leads come from Yelp. So, check them out on Yelp! And here’s, here’s another business tip for you guys, people out there. Consumers as well as business owners. Here’s the deal with Yelp. There’s 3 categories: (1) all the reviews are super awesome. Be wary. Uh the second one is all the reviews are terrible. Run the other way. What you’re looking for on a Yelp review is if it’s a legitimate and authentic and genuine, is you see a lot of good reviews and a couple crazy ones. And the reason why I say crazy one it’s like Abraham Lincoln said, we can make uh, some of the people happy but we can never make all of the people happy all of the time. So, you’re going to have people that you give them $100 and they’re going to say what’s the catch? And those are the kind of outliers that will be giving, giving out reviews on, on these sites and then that, that’s a realistic business. But uh, okay, so, I have a couple quotes for you, 3 of them and then after that, we’re going to go take our break and uh, stay with us, but here’s the quotes. Uh, these are what we call BOLD laws, BOLD’s an acronym, or it’s a class that we teach over at uh, Keller Williams. If you’re, even if you’re not in the industry, not a KW agent, go to Keller Williams Honolulu, register, sign up for it, it’s a class I highly recommend, it’s 7 weeks uh, every Friday, all day, 8:30-3:30 I think. And mainly what they’re teaching you is how to prospect and how to build your business and network and the 90% that is the key to success. Mindset! So, these are BOLD laws, uh, that we follow or help us uh, you know, be more happy, more efficient, uh, “You teach people how to treat you.” “You teach people how to treat you.” Mmm-kay, so if you’re, one of the things that I’ve learned is that typically how people are reacting to you is probably mirroring how you’re being to them. Even though we think, oh, what’s their problem? You’ve got to think to yourself and say, you know what, look in the mirror and say what’s my problem? Mmm-kay, so “You teach people how to treat you.” Uh, let’s see here, here’s another one. “The purpose of a business is to fund the perfect life.” The purpose of a business is not to pile up big caches of money, put it in a bathtub and do a back, you know, do a free-stroke, freestyle stroke in these big, big bath tubs full of $20 bills, it’s to fund all the other things that you want to do in life, so “The purpose of a business is to fund the perfect life.” And, last one I’ll share it with you. “Don’t mistake movement for achievement.” A lot of people think, oh, I’m so buys, but they’re not really getting anything done or picking up the phone and talking to prospects. So, “Don’t mistake movement for achievement.” Alright, so, we’re going to take our first break, uh, stay with us. When we come back, we’ll be talking with Amy Bender from Blood Bank of Hawaii who will talk uh, talk to us about the who, the why and the when of donating blood! Stay with us!
[Music fades to commercials]
Announcer: The Team Lally real estate show continues.
Attilio: Welcome back! So, if you’re just tuning in, you’re listening to the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed sold program! Or we’ll buy it. Uh, I’m Attilio and if you have any questions you can reach us at 799-9596, what’s that number? 799-9596 or you can check us out on the web at www.teamlally.com. That’s L-A-L-L-Y. Well hey! Uh, I, I was telling you that we’re going to bring Amy on the show, uh, before the break. I lied. We’re going to bring on right before Amy though, we’re going to bring on Kacy! Kacy with uh, Pac Rim Mortgage. Kacy, are you there?
Kacy: Hi!
Attilio: Hello, hello, welcome, welcome to the show. Uh, what’ve you got for us today?
Kacy: Today we just want to kind of talk about the importance and the difference of being pre-qualified vs. pre-approved. Especially in the summer market you know, right now a lot of times clients are going up against 10-15 other offers. For the same property. Uh, so you know, take the advice of your trusted agent, when they say you know, do your due diligence ahead of time, get completely pre-approved because as a listing agent, that means you have done your due diligence with your lenders. You’ve allowed them to review your credit, you’ve provided them with all of your pay stubs, your bank statements, any of the necessary documents that’s going to help to ensure that you are able to purchase a home without any types of issues once you find the property you love. Uh, you know, go head.
Attilio: No, I was going to say, you know, a pre-qual is like uh, when you go on like uh, those uh, dating websites or something like that and you see the picture. That’s a pre-qual. Uh, and it, and if for some reason, it never matches up to their reality of, of the person! And so, when you meet them in person, that’s the pre-approval.
Kacy: (laughing) Absolutely that’s a great way to be putting it you know and I love it. That’s what I’m going to tell all of our clients moving forward. You know, you want to meet them, you want to get a good feeling for them, you know, we understand it is a lot of documents, and it is going to take you a lot of time to get those things to us, but that just allows a lender to completely solidify you so that when you find the home you love, you’re ready to act. You’re able to submit an offer with your trusted agent and, you know, feel really confident that your offer will hopefully be the one to get accepted against those 10 other offers that you’re competing against.
Attilio: Yea, I’ll tell you, you’re hitting it right on the head because I’ve had so many realtors just sent me this email. We saw the home, we love it! It’s perfect for us. We’re just waiting to get our pre-approval and then we’ll submit our offer. And, and then I just cue the Homer Simpson sound effect “D’oh!” Because, but, you know why? Because the next realtor’s sending an email, here’s our offer, we looked at the home, you know, it’s almost like when I get them on the phone it’s like that guy that talks at the end of the commercial that reads the disclaimer. Yeah, we saw the home and we liked it and we, here’s our offer and here’s out pre-approval and we’re ready to go, hey, do we have an acceptance. You know, I mean they’re just people, you’ve got to move fast. And—
Kacy: You’ve got to move fast.
Attilio: Yeah and then these, you know how the clients learn, they’re all like, yeah, okay, whatever because it’s kind of like kids you know, when you tell them, don’t touch that pot on the stove it’s hot. Okay, Mom, Dad, shh, aahhh! It’s hot, and it’s, that’s the first time we show them a home and they don’t’ write the offer. Oh, we want to write an offer. Ah, okay let me check with the agent. It’s already in escrow. Or you know, they already are reviewing 3 other offers, so you’ve got to move quick and I know that you guys will help them! You’re going to help them, you’re going to, you guys are like giving them the track shoes, you’re warming them up, getting them ready, you’re not just like pulling them out of the bed and putting them on the start line, you’re getting them prepared to get in that race called home buying on Hawaii right now.
Kacy: Absolutely.
Attilio: What uh, uh, so as far as like uh, what is that process look like? What’s your, what’s you’re, what’s the to-do list for these people that need to get pre-approved?
Kacy: You know, the, the biggest thing is, you know, take about 5-10 minutes of your time to touch base with Jodie or anyone of us at Pac uh, Pacific Rim mortgage, we’ll get some basic information from you, that’ll allow us to go ahead and pre-emptively start working on some numbers for you which would be kind of like your pre-qualification. From there, we collect a few of the main supporting documents like your tax returns, pay stubs, and bank statements, those are the 3 essential main documents. Once we can get ahold of those, and everything lines up, you’re solid, you’re ready to go, that can literally happen within a matter of a few hours, if a borrower is well prepared.
Attilio: Gotcha, so that’s good. Just like that Match.com when you say well, you know, I uh, I, I’m into fitness, but uh, that means like that could mean anything. Maybe they like watching the fitness channel, so you guys are like, no! I don’t need to know that you’re into fitness, I want to see you at the gym, or in a workout, show me your W-2s, we’re going to run a credit report and we’re going to do some income verification. Okay, so, awesome.
Kacy: Absolutely.
Attilio: Alrighty. Well hey, Kacy, thanks for calling in for Jodie!
Kacy: Absolutely thanks for having me Attilio, it’s always a pleasure, you have a wonderful, wonderful day!
Attilio: Alrighty, thank you so much.
Kacy: Bye!
Attilio: Bu-bye. Hey guys, so it’s an easy 4-step process. It’s called pick up the phone! That’s their easy 4 step process to getting preapproved and starting your home buying process. Don’t go, I mean, go look at the homes on Zillow, go pop in some open houses if you want, but the very first step, the very first step, in your home purchase process is go get pre-approved and see what you’re qualified for, okay? You can reach them at 488-5510, that’s 488-5510, uh-oh! Your pen just ran out of ink. Okay, you got a new pen. 488-5510. Check them out online, that’s www.pacrimmtg.com. Alright, we’ve got our guest! And, our guest today is an experienced salesperson with a long history of working in the wine and spirits industry. She is skilled in sales and marketing, negotiations, planning and budgeting, and logistics. She is currently Sales Director of Kai Spirits, her family business and is now the Donor Recruitment Account Manager for Blood Bank of Hawaii, covering east Oahu and ___. The Blood Bank of Hawaii is a non-profit organization that provides life-saving blood products to 18 hospitals across the state of Hawaii. Let’s welcome our featured guest for today, Amy Bender!
Amy: Good morning, pleasure to be here!
Attilio: Yeah, welcome on the show.
Amy: Thank you.
Attilio: So, uh, thanks for being on the show. So, uh, as I told you, you know, before we got started with the show, we kind of go local style, we want to know the person you know, in the mainland it’s like, let’s get down to business. I don’t care who you are or what you, blah-blah-blah, let’s get straight to it. Here’s your business tip for today folks. If you get, if you do that with local people or local style business owners, it’s going to be very off-putting and you’re going to be getting off to, getting off on the wrong foot in the beginning and it, it’s hard to correct after that, that first impression, so let’s go to local style uh, are you from Hawaii, are you from somewhere else?
Amy: No, I am born and raised in Hawaii. Fifth generation. Yup.
Attilio: Okay, and where did you grow up?
Amy: I grew up in ___.
Attilio: You grew up in ___?
Amy: And I know your next question. I wen to ___ school.
Attilio: You went to ___? With the president?
Amy: Uh, well. I’m a little younger.
Attilio: You’re way younger than the president. Not like he was there at the same time, but you went to the same school.
Amy: Yup, and then the University of Hawaii.
Attilio: Oh, right on! You know it’s very, you know, I remember I was talking to you about that and I was like oh wow, because it’s, it’s so surprising nowadays that people grow up here, go to school here and then work here. Because it’s such, it’s so challenging in Hawaii, we have such a high cost of living that we do have uh, I, you know, I guess I’ll call it a brain drain or you know, uh, or a, just a young people drain, because they do that and then they go to the mainland.
Amy: Absolutely.
Attilio: Adios and they were just visiting Mom and Dad back home in Hawaii uh, and, and uh, and the relatives back here. And then, or maybe connecting up with them once a year in Vegas but uh, okay, so growing up in Hawaii uh, tell us about you know what? Let’s talk about your, a little bit about your guys’ family business. What’s that all about?
Amy: So, Kai Spirits is a brand that my dad Marcus Bender started. 10 years ago already and it’s a collection of rice spirits, so they’re all gluten free, all natural, Pan-Asian flavors and uh, it’s been quite a journey working with my father, I’ve done things all over the U.S., we do well in Australia, yeah. It’s been a great relationship building journey together.
Attilio: Yes. Bender! That name goes with, no I’m just kidding.
All: (laughing)
Amy: I was born for this business.
Attilio: I know, you guys have the last name. But uh, so rice beer it’s that’s, I mean, that’s not sake, is it? It sounds like it.
Amy: No, we have a vodka and a ___ or a s___ juice. They’re all distilled.
Attilio: Oh, the s___ juice, that’s the stuff you get at Duck Butt.
Amy: Duck Butt, yeah.
Attilio: And they put it in the big watermelon. And it sneaks up on you and then next thing you know your like on the floor. No, I’m just kidding. But uh—
Amy: Attilio has the story. (laughing)
Attilio: I was like oh ___, I know what ___ is.
Amy: Bingo.
Attilio: And stuff, okay cool, so, and then, you know, growing up in that business, in a family-owned business, again, that’s another rarity, having a locally-owned, family-owned business and you said multi-generation, how many generations?
Amy: So, I’m fifth generation here. My mom is here, Portuguese ancestry.
Attilio: Okay, she was, her relatives were helping get the sugar cane, they brought the first ukulele, and all of that. Okay good. So, uh, what, you know, what, you, you grew up in that business, what did you, you know, what was your big take-aways growing up in a, in a locally, family-owned business here in Hawaii?
Amy: Whew, you just have to have tenacity and you know, an optimism and so my dad is an entrepreneur and I grew up only knowing that, and I’m very grateful to him and uh, you know, I’m still involved in that business but I wanted to make that skill set and apply it to something that I felt was more rewarding. So, the Blood Bank was the answer.
Attilio: Gotcha, and you know it sounds like you’re hitting on what Tony Robbins, motivational speaker has realized about people that are successful is that it’s not a lack of, and this is, this is, I would describe this as every entrepreneur out there, they’re successful because there’s some that go try it and they go oh, they’re what I call the want-repreneur, they want to be an entrepreneur but they don’t follow up and they don’t have that tenacity, that persistence, but it’s not a lack of resources, because everybody starts form zero, right, everybody, your dad started from zero, nobody handed him the business?
Amy: No.
Attilio: There you go. And uh, and, and his expectation for you is that you’re not just going to get it, you need to learn how to be a part of it and run it and you’ve probably learned all the facets of it?
Amy: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Down to production and, and uh, supply and gosh, the laws that uh, are in, the liquor laws, it’s a very deep subject, yeah.
Attilio: So, Tony, Tony Robbins he says this, it’s not a lack of resources, it’s a lack of resourcefulness that separates people that are successful from those who are not, and obviously, that’s probably a good valuable skill set that you learned, is how to be resourceful. Things are going to happen, right? Did your, did your, did your dad have a playbook that said, okay, I’m going to start this business and at 3, 3, you know, uh, 3-inch binder, 3-ring binder with all the answers or did he have to figure it out?
Amy: No, he absolutely had to figure it out.
Attilio: So, let’s, let’s talk about that, that skill set of learning how to figure it out and be resourceful, tenacious, no wait, that’s the Jack Black word. Tenacious! Uh, and how that translated so, how did you end up working at the Blood Bank?
Amy: You know, it came, it fell into my lap, I saw the opportunity online and uh, knowing that I really wanted to delve into something more rewarding, I reached out to them and I would say I was evangelized during my interview process. Because as an outsider I didn’t realize the need. Uh, and I think that most people don’t realize the need and so now as the Account Manager, it’s my job to relay that, to educate people and to let them know that every day we need 200 donors to service our 18 hospitals and there are many opportunities to help out. It takes a community to save lives.
Attilio: Yeah, you really never, you never realize how good water tastes until you’re like really thirsty and, I guess that’s the challenge, right? People aren’t walking around being thirsty, you know, unless you’re Dracula. He’ll be thirsty for blood, but they’re not walking around with this immediate need for blood. So, it’s not in the forefront of their thoughts and that’s, is that the challenge that you guys run into is, with the donations?
Amy: Absolutely, a lot of people, unless their father, mother, child has needed blood, it’s not something that you’re going to wake up and think about for obvious reasons, so it is educating people about the fact that general surgery, cancer treatment, patients, traumas, transplants, all of these things require blood. There’s no uh, no other way to get blood than other, than our donors. And we need those 200 donors every single day.
Attilio: Wow, you guys have the same tag line like the, like the Board of Water supply. There’s no substitute for blood.
Amy: No substitute.
Attilio: No substitute for pure water. So, I did not know that, I thought maybe you know, man, the scientists came up with something you know, as a substitute but, there isn’t.
Amy: No substitute.
Attilio: Well, that speaks to the, the awesome complexity of the human being and how’s, how’s it important you know that, they talk about, we’re all, we, we, we strive for connection and I think what’s a better way to connect with somebody than giving them your blood that’s going inside of them. Uh, so let’s talk about some of the uh, let’s talk about the need and then after that, go into maybe some of the, the, the, the ways that people can help and maybe at the end, at the end part, maybe we’ll take a break and come back but what I want to talk to you about on the third part is maybe like a lot of the misunderstanding or myths bu let’s talk about the uh, let’s talk about the day, the need, let’s talk more about that, why, 200 people a day to give blood? What, what are they doing with this blood? What’s happening?
Amy: I can tell you there’s no waste, so, the mission is to uh, supply an adequate and safe blood supply for the state of Hawaii and uh, we rarely have enough blood, so when we say we need 200 donors, you know, we’re not being selfish, it is a, that is a real figure uh, and we like to say your donation can save 3 lives and the reason for that is, we take the donation down to our lab, on Dillingham and we separate into platelets, plasma, and red blood cells, so potentially 3 different patients are receiving your beautiful donation.
Attilio: Okay, all those 3 parts, I have no idea what all that stuff is for. What, what do we use those 3 types of, of the parts of the blood for?
Amy: So, uh, a lot of it is, has to do with uh, helping to coagulate, helping to heal, deliver oxygen.
Attilio: Oh, she used the 50-cent word here, I must get my, wait, hold on, I’ve got on Wikipedia. I know what coagulation means, but in case, in case people don’t know, what is—
Amy: Think of having to create a scab. So, you have an open would and your body needs to create a scab. Yeah, these products help with that, with delivering oxygen.
Attilio: You could be like that guy on the SNL episode, he’s massive headwound Harry and he was lying on the couch and the dog was licking his head—no anyway but, good thing he was coagulating because he, he would get up and he’s like, I feel dizzy. But if you don’t have that coagulation and you start losing blood, uh, so, okay, so, and then, so that’s one of them and then what was the other, the other two or?
Amy: Oh, gosh, our bodies are so, so, so delicate, I mean every function in our body requires these different uh, blood products, yeah, and, nobody is immune, so blood products go to our neonatal centers, from babies to the elderly.
Attilio: And, and typically, and I know you’re not a doctor and we’re not providing any kind of medical device. There’s our disclaimer, got it out of the way. Uh, is that, you know, people, people think like, you know like they go into surgery nowadays I think maybe and they think like oh, you know, maybe the surgeons not using the, orthopedic, you know, the really tiny incisions so they’re not, everyone’s not all, you know, bleeding out all over the place. And, but uh, you know, the human body, why, you know, what’s the situation where they need blood. If they didn’t, I mean, is this like, this is like life or death, right? If you don’t get the blood?
Amy: It is life or death, like you say, no substitute. Yeah.
Attilio: Yeah, an di mean, does it get to the point where like, you know, I know it’ sin the movies but I don’t know if it happens in real life, where like they’re in a situation where maybe like uh, like a big traumatic uh thing happened like a big catastrophe and then like the, the, the medical personnel are like giving blood on the spot. I mean does it get to that level?
Amy: Let me tell you, the people at the Blood Bank of Hawaii are so dedicated to their jobs, that they are often on the beds donating because they love what they do so much and they believe in the cause so much. And it’s, we have an incredible community here so when there is a need, people rally and summer time is a time of incredible need, we say please help save our summers and the reason for that is because schools are out of sessions and they uh, they supply a great amount of our blood during the school year, so we just need our community that much more during the summer.
Attilio: Now, you had said, I remember we were talking about it when we were doing the blood drive over at KW, you were saying that, the, what was it, the shift is when they stop doing the blood donation at that location, that you had to shift your, your, your, fill in your supply to the schools but then that creates the, the challenge of the summer breaks.
Amy: Yeah, so we uh, used to have a donor center in Dillingham, we no longer have it there, we’ve moved our donor center to Young Street, so the address for that is 1907 Young Street—
Attilio: One more time.
Amy: 1907 Young Street. And we are open 7 days a week there. Monday through Thursday, 6:30 am to 6:30 pm, Friday through Sunday, 6:30 am to 4:30 pm. So, that’s a nice way to stay off the, you know, the traffic, the traffic roads uh, come on by and donate while you’re waiting to come home.
Attilio: Tell us, now give us more, you’ve got to give more like local kind of directions, uh, you’re going to take a left at the mango tree that got cut down last year and then my uncle’s house with all the junky cars, he’s right next door.
Amy: Think McCullions’ Green uh, King Street, okay, you can remember where __ is on King Street, there’s a little pass-through street called Artisan and then when you reach Young, the corner of Artisan and Young, you’ll see us there. It’s a beautiful 3-story building with these big pink red circles on it, uh—
Attilio: And the question that, that creates more stress in everybody’s life than somebody pulling a gun on them is uh, how’s the parking?
Amy: Parking’s excellent.
Attilio: Parking’s excellent. Okay. So, they can just park right there and then you go in there. How long does it you know, so you go there to give blood, how long does it usually take?
Amy: We say to give yourself 45 minutes. It’s not, the blood draw itself is only about 5-7 minutes, but you fill in some paperwork, we’re going to have a history session, where we go over that paperwork, then you’re going to receive a mini physical and I’ve actually had some individuals tell me that they discover health issues uh, thanks to that min physical, yeah. And then you’re going to have your donation and then we encourage you to hang out and have some maunapua, some donuts, some cookies, water, juice with us, yeah, relax, enjoy the air conditioning, we’re never going to rush you out.
Attilio: Uh, you guys have like a drive-through where I just pull up and stick my arm out the window?
Amy: Wouldn’t that be something? (laughing) Maybe one day in the future! Not today.
Attilio: Not today. Uh and then they’re going to say hey, would you like some fries with that uh, that AB negative? So, uh, couple more, I want to ask a couple more questions and then we’ll, we’ll, we’ll take a break and then we’re going, we’re going to come back with a how, what would be the uh, what would be the number one uh, you know, do you, I don’t know if you know the statistics and if you don’t we’ll go to another question, but do you know what, what’s the number one uh, the, the use of the blood in the hospitals? What’s the number one use?
Amy: General surgery.
Attilio: General surgery, okay.
Amy: And after that, cancer treatment.
Attilio: Oh, wow. Uh, you know, folks, listen up, I mean I, I’m one of those documentary nuts, when I was a kid that’s what I was doing on Saturday, I wasn’t watching Super Friends, I was watching documentaries and, and I, so as an adult that’s what I do, my, my family, they groan, oh, Dad’s got the remote! We’re going to have to watch a documentary. I watched one on the uh, I forgot what I was going to say, what was I going to say, Lea? She’s like I don’t know, I can’t read your mind! Anyway, I watched uh, I watched a documentary on, what were you talking about before, because it’s going to trigger me.
Amy: We were talking about general surgery and cancer treatment.
Attilio: Oh, uh, cancer. The doctor was quoted, oh, no, I didn’t even see this on the documentaries, uh, Newsweek came out with a whole, with a special issue just on fitness and I read through it all because I’m really into fitness and dieting and one of them said that uh, right now it’s about 1 in 4, 1 in 3 people are getting cancer. And that by 2030, some statistics like that, its’ going to be like 1 in 2, so this need for blood is only going to be, the demand for it is only going to become greater as time moves forward, so it’s more important for people to, and I, ideally you’re looking for those people that are like, they get the punch card like I donated 10 times and I get a free maunapua or you know, I used to go in there and they, do they still do the thing like, I’m a super donor!
Amy: Well we have the wall, we have the super donor wall, many of our donors are just religious about it, so if you’re donating whole blood, uh, the, you’re eligible every 8 weeks, a lot of people come every 8 weeks.
Attilio: You, what do you mean like donating whole blood? I can do it like 10%? Or skim blood?
Amy: So, we also have other processes, at our Young Street location that enable you to donate more frequently, but if you see our blood mobiles around town, or we come to your workplace like we did at Keller Williams, that’s whole blood and you can, you can donate that every 8 weeks.
Attilio: Alright, so, I want to talk about for-benefit marketing and how your group or organization can put out their presence through social media by giving back into the community and we’ll, we’ll talk about how you guys come into the workplace and do that. Let’s go ahead and take a break uh, when we come back, we’ve still got Amy Bender, we’re talking about blood! Wish I could have like a Dracula accent but I don’t. Uh, but anyway! Stay with us and we’re going to talk about how your business can benefit by having one of these events in their workplace. Thank you.
[Music fades to commercials]
Announcer: It’s the Team Lally real estate show. Here’s Adrienne and Attilio!
Attilio: Alright, so welcome back to the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed sold program or we’ll buy it. I’m Attilio and guess what? I’m still Attilio. And if you have any questions, anything about anything, you want to know the meaning of the life, call our, call our seller hotline, 799-9596, that’s 799-9596. We also have the meaning of life on our website, www.teamlally.com. That’s L-A-L-L-Y. Uh, dot com. Anyways, so we have Amy Bender here from the Hawaii Blood Bank in the, in the studio as our awesome guest for today, and what I want to talk to you, I’m going to talk to you business owners out there, maybe start-ups or existing businesses, you big corporations, everybody that helps drive our economy here in Hawaii. You guys want to make more money? Have more sales, have, have better customer awareness, brand awareness? Give blood. No, it’s, I know what you’re thinking, Attilio, what do you mean? Well I’m glad you asked. This is what I mean. It’s called for-benefit marketing, this concept I read about from a guy uh, who started uh, a company called TOM shoes and for those of you who don’t know, their concept is you buy a shoe, and then another shoe will be donated to a needy child who does not have shoes. Uh, in a foreign country, that’s their whole mission statement, it’s called for-benefit marketing, uh, it makes you feel good doing business with them, so, uh, here’s what we learned, my big take-away from reading that book is that if you, if the consumer perceives your business pretty similar to your competition, and they, and their perception, can’t tell you guys apart, if in your marketing it shows that you’re giving back or doing things in the community for good, 95% of the time, that consumer would choose to go and do business with you because of your for-benefit marketing. So, Amy, let’s talk about how businesses can have one of these donation uh, what do you call them like, get-togethers?
Amy: We call it a life-saving uh, blood drive. Celebration, a life, a celebration of life.
Attilio: How, if I’m a business owner, what’s necessary, what’s required to have a blood drive at my, at my place of business?
Amy: Attilio, I’m going to quote you in your easy 4 step process and say pick up the phone and the number to call would be 848-4770 and that’s 848-4770.
Attilio: Call them.
Amy: Yup, and our life saver clubs are comprised of businesses, schools, religious organizations, clubs, any group of individuals who are willing to host these blood drives. Yeah.
Attilio: I think you know, I used to do a lot in scouting and I think any of you boys out there who haven’t reached your Eagle Scout, maybe, I think, organizing a blood drive, talk to your scout leaders your, your uh, committee chair members and stuff like that and say hey, if I organize a huge blood drive, or a couple of blood drives, could that be uh, qualified for an Eagle Project so there’s my little think outside the box.
Amy: Yeah, and it’s a turn-key experience so we bring the supplies, we bring the beds, we bring the canteen, which comprises of the food and beverage, we bring the fantastic phlebotomists, we bring everything. All you have to provide are the people.
Attilio: Now, a phlebotomist, that’s uh, like a, like a Spanish dessert, right? What’s a phlebo—no, I know what it is, but explain.
Amy: I love flan too. (laughing)
Attilio: What’s a phlebotomist?
Amy: A phlebotomist is a certified individual who can draw the blood safely, yeah. And that’s who’s going to be uh, tending to you at your blood drive.
Attilio: So, they’re the ones that don’t’ turn your arm into a pin cushion. Because they know how to do it correctly, they’ll find the vein and boom, one time.
Amy: We love our donors, they take good care of you.
Attilio: So, a phlebotomist in case you’re on Jeopardy and that question comes up, now you know the answer to that. And you’re going to yell out what is a phlebotomist. Okay.
Amy: Now, just don’t ask me to spell it.
Attilio: Okay, gotcha. I know that would, that would be a tough word in the spelling bee, that probably kicks a lot of people out on the, in the spelling bee competition. Alright, so, uh, like I was talking about uh, in the beginning, we wanted to talk about a lot of the myths that people have through, towards uh, blood donation. But you know, I don’t’ know if there’s a top 10 but you know, name the, some of the top myths that people, misunderstandings that people have towards uh, donating blood.
Amy: Well the misunderstandings are understandable because our rules have changed, so uh—
Attilio: Oh, really?
Amy: I’d say, tattoos are a big myth, in the past you had to wait a year before donating after getting a tattoo. Now so long as you’ve had your tattoo done in the state of Hawaii, at a licensed parlor, you can get, you can come donate immediately provided the scab is done. And over with, yeah.
Attilio: Okay, so don’t go like to the tattoo parlor right before you’re getting ready to donate blood, it’s probably the, the learning lesson, here right?
Amy: Yeah, so maybe you have to wait a week rather than a year.
Attilio: So, if you want to get Mom inside the heart on your shoulder, hey, go donate blood first and then do the tattoo thing later.
Amy: Yeah, there’s a lot of myths about medication. Most medications are permissible, so blood pressure medication is okay, birth control is okay, mediazations for diabetes are okay, and again, I, if you ever questions, I encourage you to call the 848-4770 number and then you can also uh, visit us at www.bbh.org.
Attilio: What if I had a whole mouthful of pop rocks with a Pepsi? Can I still donate blood?
Amy: You have to tell me about that myth, I don’t know.
Attilio: That’s like ’80’s candy, you’re, you’re too young to know what Pop Rocks are.
Amy: No, I remember them.
Attilio: You know and this they like make your, your mouth explode, it’s like Drano and you just, but anyway. Uh, so the tattoos is the myth, we busted that one, uh, are there, but there are certain drugs that you, that if they’re taking them, you can’t donate blood or is it like, it’s wide open?
Amy: Most medications are okay, we do have a list of medications that are not okay and you can see those at www.bbh.org.
Attilio: And I’m going to automatically assume all the legal ones! If you’re taking illegal drugs then you probably don’t want you donating blood and uh, the uh, okay and then what else? What are some other misunderstandings or misinterpretations?
Amy: I think uh, huge misunderstanding is just that we have adequate supply. Yeah. I, I know before I started at the blood bank, I just had this vision of, you know, bags and bags of blood, filling our shelves, but the truth is, once we collect blood, you can basically consider it accounted for by a hospital. So, it goes out for testing every, every blood product is tested thoroughly, uh—
Attilio: That, you know what, that’s another one, and I, am I going to get sick from this donated blood and then you know, like people are, I don’t know how you could do that, can you donate your own blood and then have it stored, because it, how long does stored blood last?
Amy: It depends on the product. So, platelets are 5 days after their testing uh, and then red blood cells are about 40 days, but again, these products are already accounted for by the hospitals.
Attilio: Okay, so unless you’re like a Navy Seal or something in a high-risk injury situation, you’re not going to be storing your own blood, you’re going to be dependent on, and then that’s, that’s going to be, is you like, drawing out your blood. You know, here’s another one! Uh, I’m not going to be able, I’m going to feel dizzy and weak the rest of the day.
Amy: You bring up a good point, let me tell you before you donate your blood, make sure you have hydrated well, and eat something! So, it’s the opposite of uh, medical blood draw where they tell you to fast, we don’t want you to fast at all. We want you to enjoy those iron-rich foods, especially iron-rich foods, drink a lot of water, and come to us feeling full and healthy.
Attilio: What uh, you know, here’s the other question. How and, is more like the, the blood trivia, is how long, well how much blood do you guys draw?
Amy: We draw a pint.
Attilio: A pint. Okay, what’s a pint?
Amy: It’s about 500 milliliters.
Attilio: Like, like, something that, if I went to 7/11, what’s in a pint?
Amy: I don’t know. I’m not, you know, I can’t answer that. I haven’t been to 7/11 in a while!
Attilio: It’s the big 40-ounce Corona. No!
Amy: No, Attilio. You’re going to get me in trouble.
Attilio: No, but I mean it’s like, it’s, I’m going to quote Tony Robbins again, like what does that have to do with a 40-ounce Corona? Nothing! He just says when you’re explaining something that someone doesn’t understand, explain it in terms that they do, because, like in America we’re like the worst and everywhere else it’s all metric system, over here we’re like quarts, pints, half a gallon, gallon, but I guess, yeah, okay, so it’s like that big tall skinny uh, the, the, the pint of milk that you would see, that would probably be the one that, that people are going to like, oh, pint of milk, we give that much because they’re not thinking like, a lot of people.
Amy: It’s not a quart, don’t scare people now.
Attilio: It’s not a quart but people aren’t thinking like, it’s like, gallons of blood. Like how much, how much, how much blood is in a human being? Typically?
Amy: You know, it depends on your size, but uh, for 18-year-olds, anybody who’s 18 and over, you have to be 110 pounds to donate, so we’re going to always err on the side of safety. We actually now allow 16-year-olds to donate, so 16 and 17-year-olds need a consent form, but the weight requirements are a little different and those weight requirements can also be found at www.bbh.org. Or we have a chart showing uh, height and then weight requirements.
Attilio: Okay, so that, that, I guess the big, the big, the big ones here is that people are thinking, are thinking that uh, okay, we’ve got all this blood, we’re overflowing with blood in these uh, in the hospitals and you know what? It’s kind of like meh, you know, it’s that old typical mindset, uh, somebody else got it. But you know what, everybody needs to step up and everyone needs to, you know, develop a, uh, either a, if you’re, you know what? This is what I tell people. If you can’t donate blood for whatever reason or you don’t want to, you know, what? Participate in having one of those blood, you know, organize one of the blood drives.
Amy: Oh absolutely! It’s very powerful to advocate, to recruit others, to give your space so that we can use that space for our drive. If you don’t have an indoor space we have our blood mobiles so we can really accommodate a lot of different situations and just being a mouthpiece for the cause is amazing, an amazing way to serve. So again, during the summer months, we say save our summer and our community is so, so excellent at rallying for the patients.
Attilio: Well I’m going to bring Brooks on here, he’s going to be talking about something awesome here in a second, to wrap it up, what would you say is the uh, what is the, what’s the number one thing that people can do for the blood drive?
Amy: I would encourage you to call in! 848-4770, make an appointment at Young Street if you want to test it out before hosting a drive at your workplace but again, your place of work, your school, your religious organization, all of these uh, entities can be great hosts and life savers.
Attilio: Well thanks for being on the show, we really appreciate it.
Amy: Mahalo, thank you for having me!
Attilio: Okay, hey uh, Brooks, just real, if you can tell us in 10 seconds what’ve you got for us, go!
Brooks: Upper ___, huge home, huge garage, huge office space, be wonderful for a, a, a person who’s operating a business out of their home. Good, it’s immaculate, coming live in uh, short order, probably about 3 weeks.
Attilio: Alright, I appreciate your conciseness. Okay.
Brooks: Alright.