 Hi, welcome to Seymour's World at Think Tech Hawaii. We are going to have a very special show today, but I do want to thank you for all of your emails and texts that I got about last week's show. I didn't want to discourage anybody from thinking that they could be positive about life and do everything that they can and want to do. I just want everybody to realize that it is tough and it takes a lot of hard work and determination to be able to move forward with your life. Now, you know, in today's world of rush, rush, rush and everything that's happening in this Mr. Trump and Hillary descending into the abyss of politics, we're all a little fed up, so I wanted to have a fun show today. And I've asked a couple of our musicians from the Make Them Smile program, they're called the Hawaiian heavyweights, to join us. I wanted them to play for you, to make you smile, to make you laugh. I also added Charmaine Pokey, who is Alan's wife, who's joining us and she has her own story, the story of why she does what she does for her community. And I think it's important for all of us to know. So I'd like to introduce everybody here at the table with me, Charmaine, welcome to Seymour's world, Alan and Willie. You guys are the Hawaiian heavyweights and I remember the first time I met you and we coined that phrase together and I said, that is perfect. Why not? Because you are and you have been such a blessing to the Make Them Smile program. You've done so much for us. You have played at rehab hospital at Kaiser, at Shriners all over the place and I just feel so fortunate that guys like you volunteer your time to help patients in the hospital. So the first thing I have to say is mahalo and thank you so much for doing that. We've come to the point where you're not only musicians that make them smile. You have your own gigs and you guys are doing things all over Honolulu. You even go to the outer islands, I understand, to do your gigs. Alan, how did it all start? How did this Hawaiian heavyweights begin? Well, it started back about three years ago. Right now, there's only two-thirds of us. The other one is working. So I had a friend call me and asked me if I wanted to play in the hospital. And she gave me a number which was yours and then I got contact with you. And from there on, we've been doing this for the past three years. We started just backyard, just playing music, just because we love music. And that's how it began. And then from there, just took it all the way to where it's at today. And Willie, you were with the group from the beginning. And you have the most winning smile of anybody. Everybody says your smile is what really gets those patients in the hospitals just looking happy again. And you play a very special instrument. You play the harmonica. And you also play, what's the other instrument? Cajon. The cajon. And where did you learn that? How did you learn how to play that? I learned from my dad. From your dad, really? He's the one who came up with it. He was a musician, too. And did he also play harmonica? A little bit. A little bit. And you picked that up? Yeah, after a while. That's wonderful. Well, I would like very much if you guys could play a song for our audience so that they get to feel what it's like to listen to the wine heavyweights. Please. I picked up this song from the Makassan of Niihau. And Israel did this song called Kanai of Kuni. It talks about the conquerors, conquerors of the nations. Conquerors of the nations. It was something like this. Oh, ah, oh, kahkuyea. Kawaii, uman no Kala ni hong. Kawaii, uman no Kala ni di hong. That was beautiful, you guys. And I have to tell our audience that when these guys play in the hospital, there's an amazing transformation that happens to patients. First of all, for those of you who are watching our show from the mainland U.S. or Canada or Europe or Asia, Hawaiian music has a very, very special feel and patients seem to gravitate towards it and you'll see them start rolling a little bit and rocking a little bit because it's so melodic and it makes you feel so good to listen to the music. So you guys are the epitome of what make him smile is all about and we just love it, absolutely love it. But that's enough focus on you, let's talk a little bit about Charmaine. Charmaine, I've known you for three or four years, you've been to our house, you come with your kids and everybody from the group and I always knew you as the strength, the power behind this young guy over here. And I always said, you know, Alan always has a smile on his face so you must do something right. You are obviously giving him what he needs to feel as good as he does, so I congratulate you for that. Thank you. I think that's absolutely wonderful. Tell us a little bit about you, you're a realtor, we know that. I'm a realtor, I've been in real estate for 30 years and I just have so much compassion for people, for helping people and that's what I focus my business on. I specialize in Hawaiian homeland so I have a passion for homestead, not only for Hawaiians of course, but I have a passion for helping them become homeowners and educating them in the process. And you do more than that because you also work in your church a lot, both of you work in your church a lot. What do you do in the church? I'm a deacon at my church and I help my husband on the worship, leading worship. You lead the worship Alan? Yes. That's wonderful, wonderful. Now as a part of your passion, I can see you're very passionate about your work and your family, I know that already from the past. You're doing something very special coming up and I'm going to put it up on the camera if Zuri can show it. There we go. Can you tell us a little bit about this Let's Talk story? Well I'm having a workshop on September 28th and it's called Let's Talk Story versus a seminar or workshop. It's a little different. It has, we're going to have refreshments and entertainment and just to educate people on the buying process and what it takes and answer any kind of questions they may have. I like the setting of talking story versus me talking to the audience, just answering their questions and see picking their brain and what's going on in their head. Could we get a phone number or a website, how to reach you? My website is homeswithaloha.com, homes with a S with aloha.com and my number is 295-4474. That's 295-4474. Wonderful, wonderful. So this Let's Talk story is more about helping people than selling homes obviously. I get tons of calls so I thought we could just get together and answer all those questions that they have. That's a great idea. And we know the area you come from, obviously there's a lot of Hawaiians who live there. Are you all Hawaiians? And what percentage? We look, I don't know, looks a lot more than he actually is, but... Just enough to get in. Really lives on Homestead. Oh, Homestead, that's fabulous, really. And you guys are in Kapolei? Yeah, we all live in Kapolei. You're all in Kapolei. You know, I haven't had a chance yet to come to one of your jam sessions in the garage, but I really want to do it one day. I really want to come and listen because there's nothing, and you guys know, I'm very busy with what I do in my business, but when it comes to when you guys are playing, you'll find me there more often than any other group that we have at Make Him Smile because I feel so honored and it's such a pleasure for me to hear your music, so I think it's absolutely terrific. We'll be playing tomorrow at the Cup on the Top at Sam's Club in the morning. Now, which Sam's Club? In Pearl City. In Pearl City? Yeah. And what time? From 7 to 8. From 7 to 8 in the morning. All right, so from 7 to 8, this is on Saturday morning, 7 to 8, on top of Sam's Club in Pearl City. Yeah. In the parking lot. Right before you go into Sam's Club, the parking lot right there will be right in there. Terrific. You have the whole group playing? Yeah. That is terrific, just terrific. So Charmaine, to get back to you a little bit, your business, it's 30 years that you've been in the real estate business. Tell me how it's changed. What's happened over the 30 years? Well, of course prices have gone up tremendously and rents have gone up tremendously. So a lot of people who are paying rent, you know, they can afford a mortgage. They just need to learn how to do it. And you help them do that. And encourage them to give them hope that they can. And what is your, I mean, everybody has a favorite part of their job, right? My favorite part of my job is listening to the music that you guys play. What's the favorite part of your job? Well, you know, God has put a lot of people in my path that really needs help, encouragement, and that's a blessing for me. And I really, that's the best part of my job is being able to help people move on when there's a death in their family and they no longer, you know, can function well enough to make decisions. It's just sometimes they just need that extra help to get them going. I find a lot, you know, a lot of people are that way when a spouse passes. You know, I do a lot of foreclosures as well. And I find that in a lot of foreclosures, when the spouse passes and the other remaining spouse, they're stuck, they just don't know how to move forward. And it's just encouraging them, giving them hope, showing them, you know, their options to help them move forward. And that's been really the highlight of my business. I look for people that I can help on a regular basis, just always out there looking for people that need my help. I think that's fantastic. I think we all have to do that. Most of my commentaries that I have with my shows are all about helping people. And of course, people have to help themselves. There's some people who, unfortunately, take advantage of the system and they stand out like a sore thumb, right? But the issue is if you help yourself a little bit and get assistance from people like you, you can move forward with your life. You can climb that step. You can go up and own your own home and have a good job. And whatever baggage you carry behind you, it'll always be there, but you don't make it the focus of your life. The focus of your life should be looking forward. Looking through that tunnel to look for the light at the end of the tunnel. I think that's very important. So we're going to have to take a small short break now. But then if you guys can get ready, I'd like you to sing another song and then we're going to talk a little bit more after this. This is Seymour's World. I'm Seymour Kazimerski on Think Tech Hawaii with a wonderful show about Hawaiian music and how the Hawaiian community. Hi. My name is Aaron Wills. You are watching ThinkTechHawaii.com. I am the host of the show, Rehabilitation Coming Soon. You can watch us live at ThinkTechHawaii.com at 11 a.m. on Tuesdays. I will see you there. Aloha, everyone. I'm Maria Mera, and I'm here to invite you to my bilingual show, Viva Hawaii on Think Tech Hawaii, every other Monday at 3 p.m. We are here to talk about news, issues, and events local and around the world. Join me. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. My name is John Waihei, and I actually had a small part to do with what's happening today, served actually in public office. But if you don't already know that, here's a chance to learn more about what's happening in our state by joining me for a talk story with John Waihei every other Monday. Thank you. I look forward to your seeing us in the future. Hi, and welcome back to Seymour's World on ThinkTech Hawaii. If you watched the last few minutes of our show, you realize how much fun this show is rather than talking about all of the terrible stuff that's happening in the world. So I'm going to continue with this because I think it's one of the most important things in our lives that we focus on the positive, that we actually feel good about ourselves and feel good about what we do for other people. So let me introduce our guests, Charmaine Poki, Alan Poki, Willie Aki. They are from the Hawaiian heavyweights. This is the power behind that throne over there. And I'm going to ask you guys to do another song because everybody seems to be getting goosebumps from listening to you. So go ahead. I'd like to do a song from, talks about the Ni hao xiao. And if you've ever seen a Ni hao xiao le, it's very, very beautiful. It has different kind of colors and very expensive le, and it's the only piece in the world you can get those shells over there in Ni hao. And this song is called Kaulanao Ni hao. And I just learned this song about two days ago. So. We will excuse it. I will excuse it. Is somebody squeezing something? I don't know. But you, you're amazing. You get your voice up. And you hold that tone so beautifully. Wow. That is really, really cool. I have a, I have a story to tell our audience because they weren't there, obviously. But there was one day where you were playing at rehab hospital. As a matter of fact, we have a picture of rehab. I don't know if we've shown it yet or not, but in that picture, you were playing for a, no, that's the one at Kaiser Hospital. Yeah. Kaiser, that's part of Alan's group, playing for a patient who unfortunately had cancer. That's, that's rehab possible. So if we can just leave that on for a minute, I'll, I'll tell the story. You can see Alan is over there with this group in the back. And all these patients are sitting around the dining room table and they're having their lunch. And there was one patient who had a severe stroke and he was sitting there and he couldn't feed himself and he couldn't do anything. He couldn't move his hands or his arms. Your music started. And when your music started, all of a sudden his hand started to go to the beat of your music and he started swaying. And the doctor who was there looked at him, looked at me, and we had a conversation after that says, this is why music is so important because it's a healing process for people and how important it is for what you do for both adults and for what you do for children. So what a blessing it is to be able to do that. Anything to help that man get on with his life and be able to do what he couldn't do before just because of the music that you played. Thank you for putting that up. We can see you guys back there. What do you think, Charmaine? That's your husband. Yes. He brings me sometimes to those things. It is such a blessing. Of course, he helped me do the hula as well. And that's good. That's good. I think that's wonderful. It's all part of Hawaii that, of course, people who have lived here a while understand why Hawaii is so special. People in the mainland and in Europe who just see Hawaii if I vote, they have no idea that the music of Hawaii is so critical to make sure that Hawaii keeps going for what it really is. We can have all the skyscrapers in the world and all the TV shows. But the Hawaiian music, Hawaiian music is still a base. It's the foundation of what Hawaii is all about. And you guys have done a lot for it. A lot. Willie, tell me a little bit. You don't just play music. I know that. What do you do? I work on the waterfront for McKabe, Hamilton, and Reddy, Steve Adore. And you find time to come and play for Make Him Smile? This is great. Is it something that you, I mean, every time you come, I know you're giving up a day of work. And you keep doing it. Does it continue? Is it something you want to continue? When I have time off, I always want to come, so giving back is great. It's wonderful, Willie. Absolutely wonderful. And Alan, somebody just asked me in my earphone, how do we get hold of him? Could you give people your phone number? 808-292-3684. So 292-3684, that's 808-292-3684. And I understand an album is coming out, or what's happening with that? No, no. I'm going to do a gospel album down the road, yeah? Wow. And we're putting together everything to get it out, yeah? That's my number one goal, you know? You did one song on the Make Him Smile album, if you remember. The Make Him Smile album is something we put together thanks to Honolulu Community College. They were on our show and we talked about, you know, they gave us $50,000 to record the album. And your song is the number one hit on that album. And we're very, very proud of it because I think it was fantastic. And if anybody wants to hear it, if they want to contact me or go to Make Him Smile Hawaii.com, they can listen to the album and you can go to the Hawaiian Heavyweights. It was a magnificent, magnificent song. That's beautiful. Charmaine, I keep thinking that you, I didn't know you did the hula and I would have made you do the hula today if I had known that you could do the hula. Is it something you do often? It's something I do for me. I love to hula and listening to my husband makes you. You can't help it. I was doing it. I don't know how to do the hula. The hips want to go. Yeah. But that's my passion. That's something I enjoy for me. Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah. And your kids, you have four children. I have four children. And where are they now? Everyone is here except my baby. He lives in there, I guess. Oh, no kidding. And we are blessed with seven grandchildren. Oh, my gosh. I am getting our first grandchild. Sue and I are very blessed with my son, Aaron, and his wife, Ashley, are pregnant. And we are having a grandchild on December the 20th. Great. We'll be our first grandchild. What a nice Christmas present. Yes, what a very, very nice present. Obviously, we always hope for good health. That's the number one thing. And I'm sure we're going to be very happy grandparents, especially Sue, because she's really looking forward to it. I'm very happy that Aaron and Ashley have moved back to Hawaii. And they're here now, and he's working. Things are good. Good. Things are really, really good. Alan, we only have a minute, so we need you to take us out with another song. Yes. Is that possible? Yes. All right. So I'm going to say goodbye to everybody. Go ahead, you can start. I want to say goodbye to all of you from Harululu today. This is C-Pars World, Think, Technology. I will be in Moscow in Russia for our next segment. And we hope to do a live segment from Moscow, Russia. And we'll have from Seymour's World on Think Tech, Hawaii.