“The Horse’s Mouth with Tom McManus” is a unique talk show offering opinions and facts that come straight from the source. No gossip, no hearsay, no agendas; just topics straight from the Horse’s Mouth! His guests include top of the line, high profile figures in sports, news, entertainment, business and leaders in the community. He will tackle the hard subjects in society over a beer and laughs. Today our host, Tom McManus spoke with Michelle Poitier of Michelle Speakz Co, Marcin Hasse of Softgent LLC, Tina Burch and and Shana Wise of Wise Choice Ministries Inc
Transcript:
Speaker 1
From studio three at buzz TV. It’s the Horse’s Mouth with Tom McManus.
Speaker 2
All right. Welcome me to the horse’s mouth here at Tommy Mac’s. Of course, at my bar, where everyone is welcome to have a seat, grab a little beverage, get a chance to tell their story, what they’re doing out there. Brought to our good friends at Foodies Care, a great organization helping people out, and of course, the Daily News Network.
Speaker 2
We got a couple returned visitors, couple new visitors as well. And we’re gonna talk a little tech, little coaching, a little helping people out here in the community. And let’s welcome in the panel. Michelle, 48, is here. How are you? Good to see you. Welcome back for Michelle Speaks. And, you just came off the, ministry trip out in Nigeria.
Speaker 2
Is that correct? Three weeks over in Africa. Three months. Wow. That’s a little, taken away from here and then coming back. We’ve been back. What, about a week or so? Okay. What was. So what was the most fulfilling thing about it? I know you’re newly a minister, so I’m sure that’s part of it, but.
Speaker 1
So the most fulfilling thing was being able to bring hope and to increase their faith and their belief. And, you know, no matter what their circumstances are, that.
Speaker 2
God is in control. That’s right. That God loves them, no doubt about it. No doubt about are your main focus is your speaking and your coaching business. Michelle speaks to us a little bit more about that.
Speaker 1
Michelle speaks. Yeah, you can feel it. We’re focused on helping, women veterans identify the barriers to healing in the same silence and restore their voices. So the rebranded the voice activated dismantle or so. Okay, apologist and destroy your silence.
Speaker 2
Okay. Transitioning it feels like. Right. And people that are transitioning. Yes. That’s a tough transition. We have a ton of military people that sit here. It’s got to be really challenging. Yeah.
Speaker 1
Targeting our, women veterans that have PTSD. You know, as every a sexual trauma.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Speaker 1
That on top of the transition back into the home re framing their identity, not in the trauma.
Speaker 2
Right. Good, good. That’s fantastic. Great to have you back. Yeah. Always a pleasure. All right. Marching horses hear from a soft jet. And you’re our high tech connoisseur on the program today. That’s what you’re doing.
Speaker 3
That’s what we can tell. So I an a company that does, a lot of professional services business. If you come to software and hardware enablement, but also inside of the company, I kind of created this little venture studio, and I’m encouraging people and working with to come up with some interesting innovations. And then we’re trying to put this into a mission to break into the market.
Speaker 3
The mission is very simple. I’d like to build something that changing the world. So we’re doing a lot of innovations around the healthcare, efficiency around, creating a safer and better place to work for, kind of.
Speaker 2
Like an incubator of ideas, fishing them out, figuring them out, and then releasing them. Wow. How did you get into that niche of what you’re doing?
Speaker 3
Well, that’s an interesting niche from a perspective that is difficult to combine. Combine a software services and services business with the product business. Okay. But I always wanted to do something more than just, doing services in there, you know? And there’s a lot of creative people around me, so.
Speaker 2
Okay.
Speaker 3
Connecting the dots together helps me. I would come and go with this.
Speaker 2
Automation gets boring after a while, right? There you go.
Speaker 3
Live in the services company has 1 to 1 advantage over the standard product companies that you have new customers every time, and there’s always something new that you’re doing. It’s not boring. I mean, if you’re working on one thing for a couple of years, it’s maybe getting a little bit different.
Speaker 2
But not anything specific you have to say. But any new ideas that that look promising for you guys?
Speaker 3
We using, certain radio technologies, that are, I would say trending right now. Okay. It’s called ultra wideband. And we, using this radio technologies to do proximity and ranging. And I think we’re trying to convert this knowledge about, locations of the objects inside of the building into some business aspects. And, and that could have implications on the way, how healthcare is working, the how our manufacturing is working and so forth.
Speaker 2
Absolutely. I got to assume I integrated in.
Speaker 3
All that is always a little bit of that. Yeah, but it’s good.
Speaker 2
It’s a good tool if you’re using it. Right.
Speaker 3
If you’re using. Right. Yeah. If you if you understand how it’s working.
Speaker 2
Yeah. Absolutely. Great to have you on the show Matt. Congratulations. All right. Channel wise is here Tina Burgess here from Wise Choice Ministries. Hi, ladies. Hello. How are you. Welcome. Good. Great to have you. Tell us about wise choice of what we’re doing out there helping people, which I love.
Speaker 4
So our project is able Jacksonville. Yeah. And actually wise choice is sponsoring.
Speaker 2
Okay, okay. Just.
Speaker 4
So I am the founder of it. And so this is, is we help people with developmental disabilities from 18 to 25 years old.
Speaker 2
Okay.
Speaker 4
And we teach them real life skills, skills of just cooking, cleaning, the everyday things that they need to learn to do. Now, what we found out is that after 18, a lot of services just drop off, you know? And so we’re here to fill that gap. Okay. So what we’re doing is working with Happy Guru, which is on Hendrix.
Speaker 2
Okay.
Speaker 4
Cool. Jacksonville and we’re happy group where every third and fourth Friday of the month. Okay. We have clinics. So the third Friday is a clinic where we’re doing life skills.
Speaker 2
Okay.
Speaker 4
Friday is where we have a social event. So cool.
Speaker 2
All right. So Abel Jax is your Abel Jacksonville.
Speaker 4
Yeah. You follow that.
Speaker 2
You created what how did you get to there. What was your. Why.
Speaker 4
Because I have a son okay. Has a developmental disability which is his disability is autism okay. So it’s not just autism, right? They have Down’s syndrome whatever that disability is.
Speaker 2
Okay.
Speaker 4
And have these clinics are totally free. And so we call and I got tired of complaining about it. So I’m doing something.
Speaker 2
About good for.
Speaker 4
You and helping other parents will.
Speaker 2
Do services and around age 1718 is that why are you targeting.
Speaker 4
18? Okay. When they’re out of.
Speaker 2
School, out of.
Speaker 4
School and then okay, then it’s tough getting jobs and everything else so we can help get them those services as far as teaching them.
Speaker 2
Okay.
Speaker 4
Then we have more companies that are willing to hire.
Speaker 2
Of course. Yeah, sounds like that could get into the curriculum at one time. Hopefully.
Speaker 4
We used to have in school they used to have home economics.
Speaker 2
Oh that’s right, that’s right, that’s right. You used to.
Speaker 4
Have, woodworking. They have none of that anymore. So now there’s a lack. You know, I’m doing this for developmental disability. Yeah. Right. You know, people, but it’s a lot of our kids need to learn is too. So, Yeah. So that’s what we’re doing. We’re trying to fill that gap. So when they get older and they are able to get out on their own, they don’t have to have all these A’s.
Speaker 2
Sure.
Speaker 4
For them.
Speaker 2
Absolutely.
Speaker 4
To clean for them. They can do it themselves. And it makes them more confident, more able to do.
Speaker 2
Absolutely. That’s fantastic. That’s great. And Tina, your ministry is helping this along. You’re sponsoring this question.
Speaker 5
Yeah. We,
Speaker 2
Which are you to it? I’m sorry. What drew you to this?
Speaker 4
Well, we.
Speaker 5
Our ministry has become more, community outreach focused. So this is another, outreach program that we want to support. We already have outreach initiatives in Jacksonville. We host a free community bingo every single Tuesday. So it’s free for you in a lot of the senior citizens and people with disabilities attend. Great. We also do a crochet fellowship where we make items to be a blessing to a community.
Speaker 2
That’s coming back. I saw in that.
Speaker 5
Yeah, yeah, I love to crochet and I’d like to teach others, but we also like to make things to sin, to bless the community. It was important for us to support, Tina Burch with this, this mission, you know, because it’s needed. It’s needed and not just in Jacksonville, but in everywhere.
Speaker 2
Yeah, no doubt about it. And it’s so great you’re doing it right here. And, those, those they need it. They need the help. I didn’t realize all that in the shop. We had shop. I grew up outside of Chicago. We had all the shops. Yeah, we had all that. We had home ec. I didn’t know they took that out of the stores.
Speaker 2
All of that out, man, they need to bring that back.
Speaker 4
And you.
Speaker 2
Know. Yeah. Thank you for coming out.
Speaker 4
So a lot of young adults are lacking. And it’s not just the ones with disabilities. Yeah. It’s a lot of them are.
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah. No doubt about it. All right. Let’s wrap up with this because I love Jackson I’m assuming most people on this panel do. Yes. Tell us why you love it first. And foremost.
Speaker 5
I just love the city of Jacksonville. I love, I have met so many great people over the years since I’ve been here. I’m not a native of Jacksonville, but I, Jacksonville is home great.
Speaker 2
How long have you been here?
Speaker 5
13 years old.
Speaker 2
Chicken. Yeah. Yeah. From Michigan. Yes. Yeah. That’s great. You can feel like Michigan in a couple of days. Yes, a little bit. Yes, a little bit. Tina, how about you? What’s your favorite?
Speaker 4
My favorite thing about Jacksonville is the weather.
Speaker 1
I mean.
Speaker 2
You’re from Michigan too. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 4
And so I’ve been here since the pandemic.
Speaker 2
Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 4
I had businesses there, and I had to shut that down. And then I said, I need to do something new.
Speaker 2
There you go.
Speaker 4
And I love.
Speaker 2
It. The free world of Florida.
Speaker 4
Yes.
Speaker 2
Yes. How about you? Marcin, what would you say about our find area around here?
Speaker 3
Well, as you can tell by my accent, I’m I’m I’m from different place. I’m from Europe. I’m from Poland. Okay. And you know what? The long story short is that a long time ago, as I was doing my university, there was a program called Work and Travel. I was able to travel over to us to meet a culture, work a little bit on a summer time, and we ended up in Saint Augustine at that time.
Speaker 3
Okay. And there was always something that brought me back, even, even actually, at that time, my wife was my girlfriend and I even proposed in here. So it was.
Speaker 2
Always.
Speaker 3
There was always some stickiness into that. Yeah. And, you know, I have this business that is in Europe and in us. And so I was searching for a place that would allow me to grow this business in here. And I learned that Jacksonville is actually a good community of tech people with a lot of skills. And I think it’s, it’s developing very well.
Speaker 3
So there is a lot of good initiatives, but it’s still a lot of work to do. So I think I have can have abilities to help build this high tech community and maybe get this a little bit more famous from the tech stuff.
Speaker 2
Yeah, you’re in a good spot, I think so. Saint org is awesome.
Speaker 3
And then also, don’t get me wrong, whether it’s also something. Yeah.
Speaker 2
What would you say as we wrap up.
Speaker 1
Jacksonville native. Yeah. And a native by transplant by way of the military.
Speaker 2
Okay. Yeah. Beautiful.
Speaker 1
What I love about Jacksonville is the diversity. Whatever you want or need, you can find it here.
Speaker 2
That’s right.
Speaker 1
And, though I’m not a, a native, this is my landing pad. Yeah, quite a bit. But I always anchor back here when I want to rest and recover, and. Yeah, good is actually one of my getaways.
Speaker 2
My, that’s a bike. Yeah. That’s fun.
Speaker 1
That where I am just and all over the globe. Yeah. Always be home because of the weather.
Speaker 4
I, you know.
Speaker 2
Well, I like it because of the people. I’m sure y’all being here, they appreciate the great work you do doing awesome stuff out there. Make sure you check out their profiles. You see this conversation and thousands and thousands of others. We’ve been doing this since 2018 and we continue to have a great time right here at the bar.
Speaker 2
You can check it all out at Daily News network.com. Until next time you all stay safe. Y’all be cool out there. You see right here on the horse’s mouth. Cheers.
