“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 hosts, Tom McManus spoke with Cynthia Simon, Jeff Martin, Mauricio Belgrano and Jason Lafser.
Cynthia Simon
Level Up Empowerment Coaching LLC
Website: https://www.levelupempowermentcoaching.com/
Jeff Martin
Greystone Construction Management
Website: www.GreystoneKitchens.co
Mauricio Belgrano
Kairo Films LLC Dba Name Sake Pictures
Website: namesakepictures.com
Jason Lafser
Oro Tax Advisors
Website: https://www.orotaxadvisors.com/
Transcript:
Speaker 1
From studio three at buzz TV. It’s the Horse’s Mouth with Tom McManus.
Speaker 2
All right. Time once again for the horse’s mouth. Here at Tommy Mac’s at my bar, where everybody’s welcome to have a seat. Get a chance to tell their story, especially if they don’t move the seat prior to the show’s start. Brought to our good friends right here at Foodies Care, a great organization helping people right here in Northeast Florida.
Speaker 2
And of course, the Daily News Network. Great to be a part of all that. We’re going to talk a little coaching out there for women. We’ll talk a little video production. We’re going to talk about construction and tax advisory and how we’re going to bring it together. We never know. But it always comes out together nice on the other side.
Speaker 2
So let’s say hello to the panel. We’ll start with Cynthia Simon from Level Up Empowerment Coaching. Cynthia how are you?
Speaker 1
I’m doing great.
Speaker 2
You look fantastic. I love the color. That pink looks beautiful on. Tell us about your level up environment coaching business.
Speaker 1
Well, so I have a passion for helping women and basically I want to empower them to tap into their inner self, so that they can take control of their careers and become the CEO of their business.
Speaker 2
Okay. And how what’s the foundation? How do they get there? How do you what do you bring to them that helps them get to that point well or work towards that?
Speaker 1
How I do it is I have a career empowerment model. Basically it’s about power. Okay, okay. Power is strong. So P is for potential. I want to bring out their potential okay. Always for ownership. I want them to own it. And then the W is for worth. Yeah. When you know your value.
Speaker 2
That’s right.
Speaker 1
How much you love it. E is for evolution. Can’t be stagnant, right. So you have to continue to evolve as you learn and grow. And then R is for resilience. So you have to be able to reset and keep it moving.
Speaker 2
Yeah that’s fantastic. I live in a house full of woman women. Y you three daughters. Yeah, the dogs are male. But I got that. But I absolutely know now you’re into fitness too. I can tell, and I know you have a fitness business, but to me, and I believe you believe the same. The mind, the body and the.
Speaker 2
So they all go together. Healthy mind, healthy body, healthy soul can really make things right for you on here.
Speaker 1
Yeah, absolutely. And both businesses, the thing that ties them together is the passion for women. Having women have work life integration and again, be the CEO and the boss of their own career or lifestyle.
Speaker 2
Internal accountability, is a it’s a tough thing, but once you have it, you can do anything. Great. So we on the show. Thanks for being here. Thank you. Mauricio Belgrano is here. How are you, Michal from Namesake Pictures video production. How long you’ve been doing that?
Speaker 3
For almost 20 years.
Speaker 2
Right.
Speaker 3
So it’s been cool. It’s been, it’s been a it’s I’m first of all, thank you for having us. Absolutely.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Speaker 3
But yeah, we are a, video and photography, company. We also create content. Our, our focus is to help businesses either grow through lead generation. Yep. And also, save them time through training videos or explainer videos. And so, the beautiful thing about video is that it’s used for leverage. You know, when you’re sleeping, that video is still working to provide you either the leads, the qualified leads or to kind of help answer questions when, when you’re not awake at 2:00 in the morning.
Speaker 3
So, so we use it for leverage and, and like I tell my customers, it’s like, kind of like building a house that leverage just the foundation, the walls are the, the purposes, which is time management or, or to scale your business. And then the, the roof is how are you going to do it. Which channel.
Speaker 3
So it’s like we create, we turn, we create a strategy with you to be able to get you to where you want to get to, with the right. Yeah.
Speaker 2
I mean, look, we live in that world, right? Video is huge. You know, you look, I just did a thing, a, a dashboard report, analysis of all the stuff I do on social media. Videos get the most everything. But just do people want to see it? They don’t want to see it for a long, long time. But they want to see the video they want to see.
Speaker 2
And if it’s a hey, how do you do something? They’ll watch the whole thing because you got to learn. I mean, those YouTube videos, any DIY project, just go to YouTube live videos. You can do it right.
Speaker 3
And there’s formats to it. Yeah, you got to have hook points. You’ve got to have certain call to action. I mean, it’s it’s like the whole science behind all of it. Yeah. And I love it. I mean, yeah, your love is to help women like, my love is to, like, tell stories to help you guys with it.
Speaker 2
That’s right. Yeah, right. Create that content, man. More content, the better. That’s the world I live in. Anyway, great to have you on the show. Thank you. Appreciate it Jeff Martins, up next, Greystone Construction Management, sir. How are you doing? Great. Welcome to the show. Thank you. It’s gray stone, a family business for,
Speaker 4
When I was a kid, I started 30 years ago. So I moved to Jacksonville. Moved the Martin appliance family business here. Okay. And then as we evolved countertops, cabinets, construction, we realized we needed another, way to explain what we do. Tell the story. Yeah. So I actually took the middle names of my two boys and put those together for good.
Speaker 2
We’ve been on before. Yeah, you’ve been on before. I did when you said Martin. Wait, I remember that because you and your family had started in that line, and then you guys growing and growing and growing. That’s great. So what’s the latest? It’s kitchens I see on your shirt. Is that. Yeah.
Speaker 4
We do it started as kitchens. It really over the last with 30 year evolution. But over the last ten especially you know, become more construction management conditions and large scale projects. Okay. Still really do focus on kitchens and bathrooms. Okay. You know, it’s a it’s a focus for every home. If you’re simply wanting to enjoy your home, if you’re positioning it for resale.
Speaker 4
Right. Kitchens the heart of this remodeling.
Speaker 2
It may. It will. The kitchen is the center of everything, right? Everyone hangs out in the kitchen. Even if you have a small kitchen, you can have another room that’s like, got a great TV and a couch and everything. You have this little kitchen which everybody out there, there’s hanging around the kitchen.
Speaker 4
Improving existing spaces is something we have a passion for is, you know, figuring out like, what do you what do you like, what do you not like, what’s your vision? And then turning that into a reality is something. Yeah. Just really gives us. Yes.
Speaker 2
It’s anybody that’s renovated a home like your own home like expand or whatever done your kid like man would still be like, this is awesome. Yeah. Brand new home. Yeah. That’s great.
Speaker 4
Tough process. Sometimes I’m in the middle at my house and at my office of remodeling, you know, for ourselves, if you will. So, yeah, I don’t have a, a spot that’s finished just yet.
Speaker 2
And how are the two sons? Gray and Stone. How are they.
Speaker 4
Doing? Great. Oldest one’s in college, a second year, and he’s switched up from, his entire life. Wanted to go premed and be a doctor. Decided that was going to be a long path to get to where he wanted to be. So he switched to a construction major. This lab. Okay, so that that’ll be the stuff. That’s right.
Speaker 4
For for a few years, it felt like, be a doctor, you know? Yeah. Another sort. But but, and then the younger ones in, in ninth grade. All right. Cool. Great.
Speaker 2
Great to have you back on the show. I appreciate you updating us. That’s awesome. And Jason, last year here from Oro Tax Advisors. Right. Our accountant.
Speaker 5
That’s right.
Speaker 2
Man. You’re busy.
Speaker 5
Welcome to tax season.
Speaker 2
Yeah no doubt start right. When does it start for you guys officially do you thing.
Speaker 5
Yeah. So you know the official tax season I would say starts probably the end of January. That’s okay. We’ll start getting documents. But we’ve we like to turn it into more of a tax conversation. So instead of compressing everything into a few months of the year, let’s talk throughout the year and write.
Speaker 2
To a quarterly, those types of things that would make it make it easier for everybody. Right?
Speaker 5
I mean, let me ask you, Tom, you ever got a surprise tax bill and been like, oh, man, I wish I would’ve done this six months ago or three months ago.
Speaker 2
I don’t know. I can’t say that I have okay, to most people. Or maybe I’m not. I mean, we’re here normal enough.
Speaker 5
Yeah. No, we hear that a lot that, you know, hey, it comes time to file my tax return. Like, oh, crap, I owed $20,000. Oh. Oh, right, right.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Speaker 5
And so, you know, that’s what we do. Oro stands for gold. It’s Spanish for gold. So we like to find those little gold nuggets okay. We have in there their tax situation that they may not really know about. Right. So, you know, it’s, it’s all about being proactive. We talk we talk to people all the time.
Speaker 5
They’re like, hey, I can’t get Ahold of my CPA and talk to them throughout the end of the year. And we like to almost, you know, use a football analogy. Right. So I’m sure not that there’s anything wrong with playing defense, but if you’re talking to your CPA once a year, you’re really playing defense, right? And so we like to play offense.
Speaker 5
Yeah we want to score. So we’re talking to our clients at least quarterly okay. A lot of times on a monthly basis what’s going on in your business. What are you looking at doing and how can you structure that. How can you time that to take advantage of the tax rules.
Speaker 2
So are you looking at small business and individuals and that type of range.
Speaker 5
Pretty much all entrepreneurs. We do both business and self taxes. But it’s all entrepreneurs, small business owners of. Yeah.
Speaker 2
1099 for me for a long time. Yeah, yeah. So that’s very important to have a good tax person.
Speaker 4
That’s all.
Speaker 5
Right. And there’s a lot of planning things you can do even if you’re only a 1099 or if you’re just a W-2, there’s still things that you can do. Have same taxes. Yeah.
Speaker 2
Great. Great. All right. Let me ask you as we wrap up here and, Cynthia, you got me thinking about it because, we don’t have a chance to talk about anxiety, but seems at least in my house, women tend to have more anxiety than I’m used to. Let’s just leave it at that. But not to get into that.
Speaker 2
But how do you relieve stress? Like, because we all have jobs. We’ve got busy. I’m busy as heck. I need downtime, like I need to cool down and just relax. And and I talk a lot for my living. So like, I like sitting there not saying anything for a little while. But what do you do to, bring it all down to a comfort level?
Speaker 1
Well, actually, I’m a runner.
Speaker 2
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1
So I run, I actually did the Donna this past week.
Speaker 2
Did you? I granulation, like I said, cold for you. Yeah.
Speaker 1
So that’s what I do. Okay. You know, that calms me down. Yes. Is those endorphins? Yeah. And actually, it clears my mind. And I actually have my best ideas when I. When you’re.
Speaker 2
Working out. Yeah, I don’t run anymore, but working out for sure, even even the endorphins for, like, you’re going to have a conversation later. You almost run through your it runs through you while you’re working out and figuring it out or. Yeah, that kind of thing. That’s great. How about you? What would you say? What do you do to take care of you?
Speaker 2
Stress and relax.
Speaker 3
I work out.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Speaker 3
So I, I try to stay fit even at 46. Like I would be out there, even if it’s ten, 20 minutes. 30 minutes. Okay. And it’s it can happen once or twice, twice a day, you know. Yeah. Depending on my time schedule in my flexibility. Yep. The other thing is it’s just I, you know, just just times you just have to take a nap.
Speaker 2
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3
Like, you know, if you’re tired. I mean, you know, I mean, sometimes just.
Speaker 2
Listen to your body. Yeah, yeah. Well, the old school is like, don’t take naps, don’t drink water, don’t don’t eat at. Yeah. I know, like.
Speaker 3
Drinking water is.
Speaker 2
A very critical. Yeah. No I don’t I.
Speaker 3
Don’t eat it. Eat properly.
Speaker 2
Yeah. But after lunch because I work you know if I’m not doing what I’m doing, I’m at home. And after lunch I get to, I’ll take a ten minute nap, I don’t care. And guess what? When I get up, it’s like I’ve slept for an hour and I feel fantastic.
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Speaker 2
Yeah. You gotta listen to your body sometimes. No doubt. Yeah. What do you think?
Speaker 4
Well, when I turned 49, I got a little more serious about my health. Started working out, created more daily routine. So these days, my my son and I, we go to the gym in the morning, get there about six, work out for about an hour, nice sauna, showers, take him to school and just starts the day off.
Speaker 2
Right. Good bonding to man.
Speaker 4
Yeah, we have a great time with that. And then I think faith is a big part of it. Go down to just kind of the assurance that, you know, we’ll get through whatever it is. Yep. Trying not to, you know, make a problem, you know, inflate it to larger than it is, like. Yeah, well, I remember this in five years, right.
Speaker 4
So trying to keep things in perspective. Here you go.
Speaker 2
A lot of times I like it, I like it, Jason. You get the final one.
Speaker 5
Yeah. I don’t know that I have anything that hasn’t already been said, but I think faith is a big one. Yeah. And obviously, you know, some type of fitness. I’ve got a group of guys that I work out with as well. Cool. Great. It’s called F3. And so I did a little plug in for them, but it’s it’s fitness fellowship and faith are the three FS.
Speaker 5
Yep. And so it kind of lumps all those together. It gets you out with a group of guys. And yeah so there’s accountability to that as well. And it’s early in the morning. So I’ve got a family as well. So it’s hard sometimes I find that time in the afternoon to work out. Yeah. And so it’s like okay, I’m, I’m getting my fitness in and I’m not taking time away from other obligations that I might have.
Speaker 5
So we’re out there outside at 5 or 530 in the morning. Yeah. Getting a workout in.
Speaker 2
To wrap it up. You. We all need me time. Yeah. Take care of yourself. No. Right. And do what you feel makes you happy for that. At least for whatever period of time. I like stretching a lot to. That gives me a little Zen. But working out, praying to the Lord. You know, Hulk Hogan had it right.
Speaker 2
Like, take your vitamins, pray, you know, say your prayers, work out pretty easy. Thanks for being here, guys. Really appreciate it. All right. Make sure you check out their profiles. This conversation so many others go to the Daily News network.com website and it’ll be all right there for you. Until next time, stay safe. Be cool out there and, get some time in and we’ll see you next time right here on the horse’s mouth.
Speaker 2
Cheers.
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