Meet Sebastian & Kristine Rodriguez | Creators/Producers for Ninth Island Connection

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sebastian & Kristine Rodriguez and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sebastian & Kristine, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
We believe that anyone who starts their own business of any kind is taking a risk. There’s certainly the financial risk, but also the risk in creating something that becomes successful. We both worked 9-5 jobs, Sebastian in sales/marketing and Kristine as a mental health therapist. While we were not educated or trained in creating a television show, we took the risk to create Ninth Island Connection, as we both believed that the market existed for a program like ours in the state of Hawaii  (our original market).

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

Ninth Island Connection is a lifestyle television show that highlights Vegas businesses, events, entertainment and activities, keeping our viewers connected with the Ninth Island of Las Vegas. For those who are not familiar, Las Vegas is affectionately known as Hawaii’s unofficial Ninth Island, due to the amount of travel to Vegas from Hawaii, as well as having the largest population of former Hawaii residents. While we air in three other states currently, Hawaii was our original market, and we try to incorporate Hawaii ties into our episodes. We also focus on the people, not just the business, to help further that connection with the viewers.

We are proud to be the first and only weekly lifestyle show about Las Vegas that airs in Hawaii, as well as the only TV show about Vegas that airs outside of Las Vegas. We shoot and produce 100% of our episodes in Las Vegas.

We are also extremely proud that we were able to survive and thrive, despite the pandemic and stepped out of our comfort zones to be behind the camera, edit, write and produce episodes. It wasn’t easy (and still isn’t), but the work is fun and it’s so rewarding to see it all come together. Things do not always go as smoothly as we would like them to, but we adapt, learn and move forward striving to always do better.

Ninth Island Connection is for anyone who enjoys Las Vegas. From casinos to small family-owned businesses, unique experiences to beautiful state parks, we share it all. We will continue to share the Ninth Island  as long as we’re able to.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
People always ask us, “what should I do while I’m in Vegas?” That’s a tough question to answer, because there is literally everything here! For us personally, we definitely feel that visitors need to get a taste of the Strip and Fremont Street; however, areas like the Arts District, especially Brewery Row, Fremont East District and Area 15 (all featured on Ninth Island Connection) are places that we frequent and love showing our friends and family who visit. Of course when the weather isn’t too hot or too cold, short drives to Mount Charleston, Valley of Fire and Red Rock Canyon show such a different side of the Vegas Valley. And being the Ninth Island, there’s a ton of great restaurants owned by former Hawaii residents, so Vegas visitors can get the delicious foods of the islands.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

There are so many people that we owe a big shout out to…

1. Randy Hatada of Xpand Realty for the gentle push to move forward with the idea of the show and for all of his support along the way.
2. Richard Gacovino of Gacovino & More Multimedia and Hey Vegas TV, who not only shot and produced throughout seasons one and two, but has also been such a helpful teacher and mentor in this business.
3. Shannon Tsubaki, who stepped in to help shoot and edit during the pandemic and has continued to be an instrumental part of our Ninth Island Connection team.
4. The Hawaii News Now station in Hawaii who helped us to initially air our TV show and continues to air it twice weekly.
5. Yurview who has helped us expand our reach to Las Vegas, Southern California, and Yuma, AZ.

and of course all of the support from our friends and family, who have been supportive throughout the journey.

Website: Ninthislandconnection.com

Instagram: @ninthislandconnection

Twitter: Ninth Island TV

Facebook: Ninth Island Connection

Youtube: Ninth Island Connection

Other: TikTok Ninth Island Connection