Meet Mailani Makainai

We recently connected with Mailani Makainai and have shared our conversation below.

Mailani, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

We all expereince imposter syndrome from time to time but the best way I break out of that is realizing tomorrow is not guaranteed or promised to me or anyone else for that matter. It is saying a prayer before you go to bed and then there’s a moment of realizing this might be your last Earthly slumber. Sounds morbid, but a good way to snap out of it and stand on knowing no one else can tell a story the way you tell it or sing a song the way you sing it. Get out of your own way and just keep going.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a performer, story teller, singer and musician. I love to sing Hawaiian music. Story telling helps listeners understand what I am singing in the Hawaiian language and Hawaiian music is a tiny niche and our audience is quite small compared to the rest of the world. However, many people all over the world have heard about Hawai’i and some plan their entire lives just to vacation there. Hawaiian music is lovely and truly captures the beauty of our islands, people, culture, our dance of Hula, sacred places, stories of significant people some of them, Ali’i (royalty), songs of love affairs, songs that name the different types of fish we enjoy to eat, songs of birds and their love calls, and on and on I go. Of course you learn a lot about a place through its written history, but the music and dance of a place and people is another insight that people ought to take time to experience and witness. You can go anywhere in the world and swim in the most beautiful beaches. But people come to Hawai’i for very specific reasons. At times there can be tension and conflict with our visitor industry and some of that clashes with our way of life and the local people and Hawaiians in Hawai’i. For me, sharing our mele (music) softens those hard lines and gives way to understanding and finding meaning beyond the Exotic Hawaiian Aesthetic and brings forth connection. In the end, we are all Native. We all derive from some land or island. We all share an ancestry that was pre-supermarkets and automobiles, pre-internet, and uber eats. We survived.

I have a new album coming out and it has been some time. It is entitled ” E Huliau” which means self-transformation. It is a new change like a new season. I believe this will be my 15th project.

The album is built with original Hawaiian songs along with old favorites I wanted to cover and renew in this project.

I live in Las Vegas, NV and Hawai’i. It has been an interesting transition.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

“No” really means not right now. And “no” can also be the blessing.

Endure, endure, endure.

“Don’t let anyone or anything park on your mind if they’re not paying rent.”

People who are “with” you are not always “for” you.

All of these sayings have helped curve my drive to keep going no matter how loud or how soft the applause is. Not matter how sold out one night might be and the other night lucky I sold out 5 tables.

Be happy and excited you are on a journey at all! And, once you hit your goal, make a new goal!

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

My parents are some of the world’s most amazing human beings. They worked so very hard for all 5 of us. They sacrificed and put us through private school. People talk about how they remember being “broke” or poor. I just remember being hungry. But that hunger was such a learning lesson and planted so many seeds inside of me. I never cried tears for being a hungry child. Falling asleep hungry had its own kinds of frustrations but you really don’t know any different. I got a job at 16 and loved the feeling of working and making my own money not asking my parents for money. And to this day, I still enjoy that feeling.

My parents made sure that God was in our home and we typically went to church every Sunday.
Prayers before home cooked meals every night of the week. We barely ever went out to eat. My mom somehow worked a full time job and managed to pick kids up from school and get hot dinners on the table. My parents are also business owners and are still working even though they are almost 70. We have the best talk stories whenever we get together or have our weekly facetimes.

They love unconditionally and are awesome grandparents too!

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Russel Tanouye

Antonio Agusto

Make up: Chariya Willis

Clothing: Lex Breezy, Kahulale’a, Hugs and Honi’s

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