He is also a three-time HawaiiSlam First Thursdays top 12 performance poet, Best Solo Performer Hawaii Scene Choice Award recipient, inspirational speaker, voice actor, host, mathematician, moonwalker, Word of Life men’s life group leader, church volunteer, Chinese and Phi Theta Kappa scholar, former soccer and judo athlete, author and publisher for the Jason Tom Music, Hip Hop And Faith Life Blog, and is featured on the Na Hoku Hanohano Award/Hawaii Grammy Award RnB/Hip-Hop nominated album “Nobody Owns Me.”
Team Lally Show with Jason Tom
Professional Beatboxer, Hawaii’s Human Beatbox
Announcer: It’s time to enter the world of real estate in Oahu with Hawaii’s only true real estate radio show, the Team Lally real estate show. Grab a pen and get ready to take notes! For the next full hour, Hawaii’s premier real estate leader, Adrienne Lally and Attilio Leonardi will bring you the latest in real estate news and real-world strategies on how they can guarantee to sell your home at a price and deadline you agree to! Or they’ll buy it! Now, here are your hosts, Adrienne and Attilio!
Adrienne: Welcome to the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed sold program or we’ll buy it. If you have any questions, you can reach us at 799-9596 or check us out on the web at www.teamlally.com.
Attilio: Alright, hey everybody this is Attilio. And real quick, uh, friendly reminder, nothing that we say on the show should be deemed as tax or legal advice. Boom! Disclaimer out of the way. Uh, what I wanted to talk to you about, so this is uh, for you that are just tuning in, at the beginning of, top of the show, we talk about a life-coaching moment. And here is one for you. We talked about it in our, by the way, I’m going to share this with you and where I got this information and I’m going to talk a little bit about cadence of accountability. There’s a book called The Four Disciplines of Execution and everything in life is about, every, we have all the information, we out, that we need to be successful, but what’s, where’s the gap? Adrienne?
Adrienne: Well, it’s, it’s in the action. Taking that, taking action.
Attilio: It’s in the execution. So, there’s, I highly recommend the book, called Four Disciplines of Execution, and there’s four things that you need to do to execute on, I’m only going to give you one because you’ve got to go read the book! And the one of them is create a cadence of accountability, so if you have a sales team or an organization, you should be meeting on a regular basis to create what we call a cadence of accountability. So, every morning on our team, to better serve our clients that want to buy or sell a home with us or invest, we have a morning huddle and we record it on Zoom, and it’s at 8:45 to 9:00 every morning, somebody on our team is responsible for teaching something to the rest of the group, and what’s important about teaching something?
Adrienne: Well when you teach it, then you obviously are going to be an expert or you’re going to learn more about that particular topic that you’re teaching.
Attilio: Yeah, nothing like teaching something that holds yourself to a higher level of accountably, to, knowing that topic, right? Because nobody wants to look like a, like a ding-dong, right?
Adrienne: Especially when it’s being, especially when it’s being recorded.
Attilio: Yeah, so, unless it’s going to our blooper reel, then it’s okay to be a ding-dong, because then it can go on our blooper reel—
Adrienne: We’ve got lots, we’ve got lots of bloopers.
Attilio: And end up on our career blog, you know, and people can watch it and it’s there forever. So, this is what we talked about this morning, pain versus pleasure. What do we know about pain versus pleasure as far as the, as far as human beings, Adrienne? What do, what, which one of those motivate people? Just uh, naturally?
Adrienne: Well people, they will naturally, I would say like 95% of us will move away from pain, and towards pleasure.
Attilio: And so, here’s the deal, and I’ll give you an example: losing weight. Right? The pain, the pain of losing weight is uh, is the exercise and changing diet and not changing your, not, and I don’t want to say diet as in like, uh, it just, changing your calorie intake and your calorie outtake, so, but it’s, it, when you—
Adrienne: Like your eating habits.
Attilio: But when you exercise for the first time, is that painful?
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: Yeah, so—
Adrienne: It’s painful for another couple of days even afterwards.
Attilio: It’s painful but then, what really motivates us and how we know is that, that, that doesn’t demotivate people to go do it, what really motivates people, if they, if they have a situation where they’re overweight is when they have that massive heart attack. Is that a lot of pain?
Adrienne: Yeah! I mean it could be, you know, you could, you could die from it.
Attilio: So, the—
Adrienne: Extremely painful.
Attilio: So, the daily pleasure of that feeling that we get from exercise, of eating right and having high energy, it’s not enough motivation and unfortunately, we have to have that pain. So, here is if you’re in an organization or you’re trying to relate to people and you know this is the human condition, the human nature that we move, we’re much more motivated by moving away from pain and not so much motivated by moving to pleasure, two things you want to do when having a conversation with people. Number one, you want to identify what is the pain? If you’re in sales, you’re trying to figure out, is my product or service providing a solution to their pain, and you want to identify that and incorporate that into the conversation. Now the second thing you’ve got to do is you’ve got to establish a relationship with the people. Because very rarely, unless you’re a completely extroverted person, you just open up to somebody that you just met. So, most of us are not going to open up with the pain, so you’ve got to go through some rapport-building techniques and strategies. And maybe we’ll talk about that on the next show.
Adrienne: The form. Or the Ford.
Attilio: There, there is your highly packed life-coaching moment for today’s show.
Adrienne: And I actually, I have some quotes.
Attilio: Okay, go head.
Adrienne: From Hawaii Pacific Property Management. Duke Kimhan sends these to us every day, keeping us motivated. Alright, the first quote is from Jodie Victor. “The secret of success is hidden in your daily routine.” It’s funny how we were just talking about habits and so forth and the quotes just tie right in beautiful. Alright, this next one is from Carl Rielands. “In about the same degree as you’re helpful, you will be happy.”
Attilio: So, if you’re not feeling happy, get out there and help somebody!
Adrienne: That’s right!
Attilio: When we serve it’s, when we’re serving and being gracious and kind, it’s hard to be bummed.
Adrienne: Mmm-hmm, and then the last one is from Mike Murdoch. “You will never change your life until you change something you do daily.”
Attilio: Daily habits. So—
Adrienne: They’re so important.
Attilio: Zig Ziglar talks about it, you’re never going to make some major change overnight, but you can make a small one. And those small ones add up to the big change.
Adrienne: That’s right.
Attilio: Daily habits, alright, there you go! Speaking of daily habits!
Adrienne: We’ve got uh, Janyce on the line from Dream House Drafting.
Attilio: Hi, Janyce.
Adrienne: With her tip of the week.
Janyce: Good morning.
Attilio: Good morning.
Adrienne: Hello.
Attilio: What’ve you got for us this week?
Janyce: Well, construction is booming here in Hawaii and my recommendation is if you are not the original owner of your home, that perhaps in counting the cost of what your renovation’s going to cost, or your remodel and design, perhaps you should also plan on doing an assessment of your home’s construction history. This way you don’t get any surprises in discovering that a certain area may or may not have been added with a building permit, in which case, that portion would have to become part of your current expense load.
Attilio: Gotcha.
Adrienne: Yeah, no one likes those surprises.
Janyce: No, because sometimes they’re quite costly.
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: You know, what, for the layperson, what’s some easy visual indicators that, you know, something may have been done to the home and maybe not be permitted? What are you looking for?
Janyce: Uh, for the lay person, if you are strolling down a street and it just seems like the house is a little bit too close to the sidewalk, it’s supposed to be at least 10 feet back, uh, obvious changes in building materials, types of windows, uh, the slope of the roof being one particular type of roof and then all of the sudden there’s this flat roof added on to it and at the far edge of the building at the end of that flat roof, kind of question whether tall people would be comfortable in there, that’s another thing that would be a tell-tale giveaway. And then once you’re walking around in the home, if it’s an older single-wall construction home, and you can easily tell the difference between whether you’re in a double-wall home with drywall and the type of finish, you’re in older single-wall construction homes with, you’re looking at you know, the decking boards when you look at the roof, open-beam celling and you turn the corner and you’re in this super ultra-modern kitchen, and the walls and bathrooms have been totally upgraded, check and see! It may have a building permit, it’s obvious that updating has taken place, and that they don’t match the age of the house, the bathrooms and the kitchen, but just double check!
Attilio: Yeah, so if they have uh, you know, nice vessel sinks with these really good fixtures in the bathroom, granite countertops and ceramic tile and really nice—
Janyce: Subway tile, that comes out of the tub and goes all away across behind the vanity and the toilet, which is the current trend, you know, that wasn’t being done in the ’70s, ’60s, or ’50s. Nope, that would tell you the place has been updated.
Attilio: And you have the avocado green shag carpet in the living room. There’s a difference in what’s going on with this home and you know, things like hot tubs in the kitchen, those should be indications that you might want to bring in a professional.
Adrienne: So, we recommend Janyce as that professional. She can uh, she can check it out and let you know. If you need some updated permits or be after-the-fact permits. Some remodeling.
Attilio: And the lay people I was referring to is realtors too, because we don’t know everything and then, so instead of them, you know, you’re not going to go running around looking at, you know, running around with a buyer and a buyer and a client, looking at the 10 homes with them and sitting in the car all day with them, but these, these indications are what would be probably the reasons why they’d want to give you a call and just to give them that peace of mind with your ability to go in and determine what’s permitted or not. Okay, thanks Janyce.
Adrienne: Thanks, Janyce.
Janyce: Okay, take care.
Adrienne: Alright. So, you can give Janyce a call at 206-7107 or check her out online at www.dreamhousedrafting.com.
Attilio: Alright, next up we’ve got Jodie, the Mortgage Genius. Jodie, are you there?
Jodie: I’m here!
Attilio: Alright, what’ve you got for us this week?
Jodie: Oh, well, uh, it’s, it’s the moment we’ve all been talking about, and uh, it’s not, I want to say, okay, we have a new fed chairman uh, previously Janet Yellin, now Jerome Powell, uh, Janet could’ve been more I guess, politically-speaking, categorized as a dove, so, you know, wanting to keep interest rates low so that uh, people can become homeowners so that people keep spending money and the economy keeps bustling, and right? That’s her kind of uh, I guess, though process. Her belief system and, and then Jerome Powell is a little bit more uh, like a hawk, so, he was nominated by Mr. Trump and he has taken over I think today’s his third day and we have seen uh, massive, massive impact on, on the market, not just the market, the stock, not just the stock market, but interest rates, uh, the 10-year treasury bill is at, up to 2.88 which is the highest it’s been in the past 4 years, uh, also, interest rates have moved over probably about half a percent in the past 3 days. Which is obviously traumatic.
Adrienne: Yes.
Attilio: So, you know, does the half a percent that uh, translate that into like, I’m qualified for $550, at this interest rate, and then it goes up by half a percent, how much?
Adrienne: So now what are they qualified for?
Attilio: Now what are they like, is there, like a half percent translates to $50,000 or?
Jodie: So, ballpark uh, let’s see, just on the spot, I mean, it’s upwards of $100,000.
Attilio: So, $100,000.
Adrienne: Wow!
Attilio: So, would you say that, if people procrastinate, they’re just going to end up paying more for a home? Even if the home price didn’t go up, they’re going to qualify for less?
Jodie: Right. And, and I just, I, for anyone who is in escrow, that you know, they don’t know if they’re lost or not, I would say you’ve got to make that phone call right now. Uh, and for anyone that is, was thinking about getting into the market and now they’re feeling a little bit discouraged, I would you know, I would still say again, yes, half a percent is a lot. If we’re, we were talking about 3.875 and now we’re taking about 4.375, 4.5, some of the conventional scenarios, where you’re putting 5 and 10% down, you know, we might be more like 4.5, 4.75, and I know it sounds scary, but again, if we pull up a chart, of the 40-year, the past 40 years, it’s still great, it’s not, it’s not historic, it’s not 3%, but it’s also not 6.5. So, I would, you know, I just feel like—
Adrienne: It’s still a great time to get into the market. Interest rates are still low, they’re just not as low as they once were.
Jodie: Yes. And so, I know it’s discouraging, but.
Attilio: Well we talked about it in the beginning of the show in the life-coaching moment, pain versus pleasure. And if you have a product or service, you’re trying to do business with somebody or establish a relationship, you’ve got to have a pain versus pleasure dialogue and/or script. So, for the interest rates going up, here’s the pain: you’re going to qualify for less money and not necessarily get the home that you’re dreaming of or wanting or have set a goal on, right? Is that the pain?
Jodie: Mmm-hmm.
Attilio: And unfortunately, the pleasure of low interest rates doesn’t motivate people to go make a, you know, stop procrastinating and do it. So, maybe the potential pain as you describe, I mean, Donald Trump being president, that’s kind of painful. And the people he brings on board, you know, we’re all on pins and needles with whatever he’s going to tweet out and uh, it has an effect on that interest rate and what’s going on there. So, are you saying people should just—
Adrienne: They should just get in now before the interest rates continue to rise!
Attilio: Get in now, what are you waiting for?
Adrienne: Yeah, it’s a great time. Great time to get into the market.
Attilio: Gotta move now. Okay, thanks Jodie.
Adrienne: Thank you Jodie!
Jodie: You’re welcome!
Adrienne: Alright, that was Jodie Tanga, the Mortgage Genius with Pacific Rim Mortgage. You can give them a call at 488-5510. Check her out online at www.pacrimmtg.com.
Attilio: Alright, next up we’ve got Duke! Duke, Duke, are you there?
Duke: Hi, good afternoon!
Adrienne: Hello!
Attilio: Alright, what’ve you got for us this week?
Duke: Tip of the week is don’t underestimate termite damage.
Attilio: Termite damage.
Duke: Termite damage is so huge and most of the time you only see the little tip of the iceberg sticking out above the water, and that is a little hole or some termite droppings. So, I always advise owners to get on termite damage ASAP. And that’s, you know, just by saying I want to termite tent my house is not that easy because you’ve got to move your tenants out and then you have to hopefully have them bag up all their perishables, and then they have to leave the house for 24-36 hours, and then you have to let them back in. So, for the tenants in your home, the best time to do it is when it’s vacant. Because it is huge! Big mess for the tenants. And you’ve got to find them a place to stay.
Adrienne: So, Duke are you dealing with that right now? With a tenant that’s having to be misplaced due to a, a termite tenting?
Duke: So many homes that we manage have termite damage in them, and I will tell you that for the most part, the owners, you know, they’re concerned but they’re not freaking out. So, for me, if I had termite damage in my house, I’d be freaking out because termites can eat up to 5 pounds of wood a month.
Attilio: So, let’s, let’s talk about the pain versus pleasure, I’m just going to incorporate that into everything today. The, the pleasure is that they should get it inspected and get it taken care of and just do the right thing, the pain is that it’s, when it’s just creating some serious damage because you guys are probably bringing to attention, their attention at the 3 or 6—month walkthrough right? Probably notice it, because tenants, they don’t like, oh, yeah, you know what? I think the place we’re renting has termites, can you come and fumigate the whole home and put us up somewhere else and totally disrupt our lives, could you do that for us, you know, the tenants aren’t doing that. Because they’re avoiding what?
Adrienne: The pain! The moving pain! Being disrupted.
Duke: Painful.
Adrienne: Yeah!
Attilio: So, it’s better to avoid that pain by having you guys, you know, taking your guys’ recommendations, having a professional property management company like you guys. Now you guys aren’t professional inspectors, but, you guys are in the industry and you, you can kind of probably recognize it and—
Adrienne: If there’s issues, you can bring them to the—
Attilio: Make a recommendation.
Adrienne: Yes.
Duke: Oh, yeah, we’re, we’re on it right away and then it’s just a matter of the reaction time, most of the, and it’s financial but, to tell you the truth, to tent your home is still very, very reasonable. The, the fees to tent a home, an average home is about $1000, and that is, that is just so reasonable.
Attilio: Yeah, you know the other thing, too, because you know, because the vendor we always recommend is Kilauea Pest Control and they do have, they’ll make a recommendation, they’re not going to do it and not guarantee it, but they can do spot treatments too. If it’s possible.
Adrienne: And then the inspections just to, you know, to make sure you’re on top of, on top of the termites. And/or bugs!
Attilio: Yeah, was it—
Duke: Owning a home is, owning a home requires so much maintenance and attention to detail, but a lot of times, people are you know, living off the island, that’s why they depend on us. Do the walkthroughs, to monitor the home, to collect rent, to vet the tenants and most of all, protect the home.
Attilio: Yeah, and I think it’s, I don’t know, something crazy, there’s more, the, more termite damage occurs in the state of Hawaii than like with the fire and the rain and the flood and hurricanes is, there’s more termite damage than all of those combined, it just, you know, you don’t see some, some dramatic weather report regarding termites. And today is ___, there’s a massive termite outbreak! Winds are up to 50 miles per hour.
Duke: There’s 2 types of termites too, right?
Attilio: Yeah, the ground—
Duke: The ground and then there’s the wood, the flying termite. So, they, there’s, you know, I don’t know, I, I just can’t say enough to people who still blow it off and say they’re going to get to it later or, we’ll wait until the tenants vacate and then tent the house.
Attilio: Yeah.
Adrienne: Not a good idea.
Duke: Yeah, you’re going to fix a whole lot of—
Adrienne: There might not be much of a house to uh, to tent at that point.
Attilio: The termites are going to get tired of holding their hands together which is keeping the home together. Alright, thanks Duke!
Duke: I had uh—
Attilio: Oh, go ahead. No go ahead.
Duke: I had a guy who kind of blew it off when he left. Gave us the house with termites in it, we put people in, one year later, the people complained because there’s so much termite droppings and the termites had eaten completely through his cabinets. All of it.
Attilio: Yeah and if the tenants bring in furniture, it might go to their furniture. Then you’ve got some liability too, right?
Duke: Yeah, so, when the tenants moved out, we went back in, we tented the house, we had to rip out all of his cabinets and $8,000 later, new cabinets, he could’ve, he could’ve taken care of it the year before and cabinets would’ve been fine.
Attilio: Yeah, pain.
Adrienne: Yeah, $8,000. He’s lucky that’s all it was!
Attilio: Yeah.
Duke: (laughing)
Attilio: Okay. Thanks Duke!
Adrienne: Thank you, Duke!
Duke: Yup, you’re welcome!
Attilio: Alright.
Adrienne: Alright, so you can uh—
Attilio: So, remember Duke, he’s got the rent guarantee which is what?
Adrienne: That’s right, so basically if he can’t get your home rented in 30 days, at the agreed-upon rental price, he’ll pay the rent!
Attilio: And him and his team are really good at helping you avoid the pain of ownership.
Adrienne: That’s right, so give them a call at 445-9223. That’s 445-9223. Or check them out online at www.hipacificpm.com. Alright, so I think we’ve got our body language tip of the week from R.B. Kelly, the Body Language Boss.
R.B.: Hi Adrienne, hi Attilio. I’m so happy to be here. Now this week my tip is actually for those of you who have kids. So, if you’re evaluating a realtor or a broker or a client, whoever you’re looking at, ask your kids what they think and if your kids are under the age of 8, here’s how you can phrase the question and see what they really think. You ask them if this person would be a good captain of their ship. And you explain that the captain of the ship, they have to be able to find danger and take care and lead everyone and that they also have to take care of everyone on board and the science of people found that when you ask kids these questions about pictures of electoral candidates in different countries, the kids almost always chose the person who was eventually elected. So, yeah, when you are looking at someone to come into your home or someone to choose as a client, you want the best. And so, you want someone you can respect, someone you can trust and if you ask your kids, which is the better captain, usually they always come up with the best answer.
Adrienne: So, the kids have that intuition, that childlike intuition just to know?
R.B.: Absolutely. Well we all have that in us, we all naturally read and code the body language, but most of us are used to not listening to our intuition, whereas kids are usually closer to the source.
Adrienne: Got it. Very helpful.
R.B.: Well that’s my tip of the week. Thank you, see you next week!
Attilio: Alright, that’s always awesome, good stuff.
Adrienne: Yes, and you can find R.B. Kelly at www.thebodylanguageboss.com. She’s also all over social media and she does, you know, classes and so, and uh, Masterminds, so I think she’s going to be out at Kapolei soon here with us.
Attilio: Okay, hey, we’re about to take a break, but stay with us, when we come back, we’ll be talking with Jason Tom, Hawaii’s human beatbox, who will talk to us about his unique style, mixes of old and new-school beatboxing. Stay with us!
[Music fades to commercials]
Announcer: The Team Lally real estate show continues.
Adrienne: Welcome back and thanks for listening to the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed sold program or we’ll buy it. I’m Adrienne-
Attilio: And I’m Attilio!
Adrienne: And if you have any questions, you can reach us at 799-9596 or on the web at www.teamlally.com.
Attilio: Hey, our guest today is an American professional beatboxer who reached 2.1 million unique individuals and households throughout our world.
Adrienne: TEDx presenter, High Sessions musician, inspirational speaker, voice actor, host, mathematician, and moonwalker are just some of his many talents.
Attilio: Here today to talk about, uh, talk to us about his unique style mixes of old and new school beatboxing, please welcome our guest today, Hawaii’s’ human beatbox, Jason Tom.
Jason: (beatboxing) Team Lally radio show. (beatboxing)
Attilio: Alright. The uh, producer’s like what’s going on, there’s, there’s this uh, music, bit of music coming out of my, my mixing board that I don’t have any control over, it’s human beatboxing, right?
Jason: Yes, human beatbox, uh, it, it started in the ’80s and, and just uh, still taking off to this day, worldwide and it’s incredible.
Attilio: Now the, the one that everybody uh, what was that, was it, it was like—
Jason: Buffy?
Attilio: No, no, no, it was like the guy and he was singing about being happy, oh, just be happy.
Jason: Oh, don’t worry—
Attilio: Yeah, that one!
Jason: That’s Bobby McFerrin. Yeah, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” So, he, he’s a jazz musician. All a capella and he layered the music and it’s all from his voice, he did Bobby, uh, what is it, Bill Cosby show too.
Attilio: And then together, so, what I’m doing is like, uh, Tony Robbins says, you know, it’s like beatboxing, some people are like what is that, and then you just talk about stuff that people recognize. The other one was uh—
Jason: Michael Winslow?
Attilio: No, the Police Academy.
Jason: Michael Winslow. Yeah!
Attilio: Oh, is that him?
Jason: Yeah, so get this! I, I—
Attilio: I didn’t know what his name was.
Jason: So, he played uh, he did all the sounds like (beatboxing). Right? So, I just wrote to him on Facebook, he wrote back to me and, and so we’re friends, I opened for him when he came to—
Attilio: Oh really?
Jason: Yeah, he came to Honolulu 2 times and I opened for him uh, both of those times and it, it sold out.
Attilio: So, what, he’s like what? He does like stand-up comedy, but he’s got sound effects?
Jason: Yes, but he beatboxes too, but he does sound effects that, you know, daily sounds and whatnot, and he’s just hilarious, for example, you go to the supermarket and you know, you scan an object, like a ten-pound chicken. Boop! Boop! Fweee! And you, you do that, so it’s hilarious.
Attilio: And then he’ll do that with the, and then like Safeway cashiers going like wait, what?
Jason: Yeah, right, so he fakes them out and everything so.
Adrienne: So, so Jason, could you, you know, share with us and our listeners, like how did you get involved in this beatboxing? What, what drew you to it?
Jason: So, at the age of 4, get this age, at the age of 4, you know, I grew up in the ’80s and uh, recorded myself an audio cassette tape, so back in those days, that was our podcasting, right? So, I record myself and I would do it to Michael Jackson’s “Bad.” (beatboxing) “Bad, I’m bad, you know it, you know” (beatboxing). At 4 years old, that’s, and my first sound was (beatboxing) that ___ snare. (beatboxing). So, you’re taking a breath in and you’re like clapping with your tongue. (beatboxing). With the high-hat kicks and then the melody with the rhythm, so that’s how I started. And, uh, it started from just hearing the music and wanting to sing it and so, I wanted to play that music as I hear it in my head and so I would record myself, play it back, you know, so that’s how it started, 1987. And uh, from there I just kept going, kept going, and at 8 years old, I would do the Adam’s apple sound, right? (beatboxing). So, it’s like a heartbeat. (beatboxing). Right? And then you put that together with the ___ snare, you get a tom-tom. (beatboxing). So, it’s like, put it all together.
Attilio: That must be fun when you do like health checkups.
All: (laughing)
Attilio: Doctor’s checking your heartrate.
Jason: Say “ah” and then you do a sound.
Attilio: I can imagine you as 4-years-old and you’re at home and uh, the, your parents are trying to shut the radio off. How come this radio doesn’t go off?
Jason: It was interesting because back then, I didn’t realize it was a talent, right until like freshman year of high school, I would just do it at McKinley and then I would just do it during class work and English class and my classmate kept turning around. He kept hearing the sound, the music, and so he said, is that a radio? Are you hiding a radio or is that you? So, he found out it was me and that’s when I found out it was something unique and then I saw this female on TV, her name’s Elaine Chow. And she rocked it, beatboxing! Uh, on the showtime at the Apollo and she tore it up, and I was like that’s what I got to do! I gotta get on stage and present this and from that point, that was in 2003 and in 2004 is when I pursued it. I pursued it and I had to get out of my comfort zone, you know, I grew up very introverted uh, very quiet, so, when people are laughing at a funny movie, I’m staying quiet and stuff, but I had to develop and learn how to be extroverted, more social. Didn’t come easy. My first performance, 2004, was a talent show, a competition, uh, stage fright, so I had to overcome stage fright, anxiety, and all that stuff, so, but it’s, it’s fun. I love it today and now I’m a people person, you know, so, it, it just comes natural now because it allowed me to get out of my comfort zone. I had to force myself to, kind of like you said, pain or pleasure.
Attilio: Pain or pleasure.
Jason: And, you’ve got to do things that are uncomfortable and that’s when we grow the most, is when we do things that are uncomfortable. Like I used to play soccer and judo so we had to learn how to push through the threshold and I know you did cheerleading.
Adrienne: Gymnastics.
Jason: Oh, I’m sorry, gymnastics, Olympics, and you trained with uh, Dominic D’Oz. I used to watch the Olympics during that time, too. Yeah, so uh, and ___ school’s where you graduated. That’s—
Attilio: Done your research!
Jason: Yup! They hit me up. ___ schools’ amazing. I’m going to hit them up, that I’m going to be on the show, so, I’m going to send them an email and whatnot so uh, yeah.
Attilio: I think that pain too is like, you’re talking about it. I can go up here and it’s very important that I not be a mime beatboxer, you know, not making any sound, because you’re frozen up right, and so the pain is like being embarrassed because you’re like, you get up there and you don’t do it, so you, you push through and then the pleasure of it is people laugh, they smile—
Jason: Right, they enjoy.
Attilio: They cry, you can feel it right, when the crowd’s getting into it?
Jason: Right, I remember like the first time I did it, I heard myself on the sound system, it’s like you’re talking into the microphone and you’re hearing your voice through a PA system, you’re like whoa! That’s like, it’s a lot magnified so that was the freakish part, uh, and then the first night that we met was actually downtown.
Attilio: Yeah, the __ Dragon or? Dragon bar?
Jason: Mmm-hmm. And then when I was performing, when I was performing, my lip was already sore, I think it was like, maybe over practice or something, uh, my lip was sore, but I was still going at it, so going at it—
Adrienne: You couldn’t even tell, you’re a true professional.
Jason: (laughing) And even my jaw at one point, because I was hitting the snare so much. (beatboxing) And eventually, ah, my jaw right here, but it’s, but I put it part of the show, to show them hey, this is really happening, because sometimes, that’s like a recommended that we do a video because it was like, people have to see it to believe it.
Adrienne: And to understand what it is that you’re—
Jason: Right, and they’ve seen it!
Adrienne: To understand what you’re performing.
Jason: They see it and they hear it and they’re like wait, was that really you or was that like uh, a backing track that was playing and stuff, so I’m glad I started performing because I’ve traveled the world with it, uh, I’ve been to China, you know, I did beatboxing, I mean I wasn’t that known yet but I was still doing it you know, and then I would go to California, I would go to LA, uh, San Francisco, New York, I stayed there for a bit too, in New York and then I just finished a project in Sydney, Australia.
Attilio: So, you’re like, you’re comfortable with it now but again, getting over that hump, tell these people. Because this is a relatable connecting story that you can share with people like, they’re doing something and they’re comfortable but they’re getting bored and apathetic and they’re like, they’re tired of it, how did you overcome? You went form a, that’s like an extreme, introvert to extrovert on a stage.
Jason: Yeah, I was the quietest person you can think of and uh, it’s like, you have to not be complacent, that’s a trap. For every artist, once you become complacent, oh, I’m comfortable, you know, and even if, and the creative realm uh, speaking in the music industry, if you get comfortable getting in like, like a fanbase and whatnot, you get comfortable not to practice. But then, but then you’ve got to not, you’ve got to get out of that. You’ve got to practice every day so I’ll find time to put in, time to work on my kicks, my high-hats, my snares, my baselines, you know, my didgeridoo.
Attilio: Give us a didgeridoo.
Jason: (beatboxing) So if I don’t warm that up, if I don’t practice that, my voice won’t be prepared for the show, so I make sure I warm up before I even, even hit the stage. You know, I may be an hour, two hours, three hours, you’ve got to put in that work and a lot of people don’t want to put in that work, but the most important thing is you gotta want to. You gotta want to put in that work.
Attilio: I can’t imagine your vocal warmups must draw attention, it’s a whole show by itself! It’s like an opening act. Your vocal warmups.
Jason: So, yeah, it could be! I could be uh, right! Because like, it sounds like I’m doing a show sometimes and I’m just walking down the street, practicing, you know, on my way to my gig or I could be uh, sometimes I’ll catch public transit, so I’ll be on the bus and I’ll just quietly practice to myself and then the kids would just uh, come around me. They’ll come around me, hey, can we hear that beatbox, and then sometimes I will challenge them on, I’ll say hey, come on, you do a beat too! And then they get all ashamed and stuff but then sometimes they actually do it and then one time I, like, well just do it, we’ll trade beats, uh, but that’s the main thing, I mean I’ve taught a lot of our youth, and, and they’re now, some of them have families now, it’s incredible.
Attilio: So, we’ve got, if we’ve got some leaders out there that are working with kids, what, give them an idea, what would be something that you could uh, you know, like a program or something that you can come into their school or environment and help with the kids.
Jason: Yes, so, I do go around schools and I speak, I do motivational speaking, uh, I, I, I shared them stories of going through tribulations and trials and how to overcome them, and not, and to persevere. I encourage them to persevere because without work, then, what we believe in will go to waste right, so we’ve got to put in that work and firs tis believing but you’ve got to put into action too. And I’m, I’m a firm believer about that, and putting in the work you know, uh, I mean even prior to jumping into the music and stuff, I was still, I was actually studying full-time and I was working on a degree and stuff. And it, that’s where I kind of first started, I did it in front of class, my classrooms and classmates uh, and then just, it expanded. It expanded my, my territory.
Adrienne: Now have, have you had any formal training like have you had any coaches or is this all self-taught?
Jason: Oh, you know, no, so uh, one of the things that I was weak at was singing. So, I was very uncomfortable singing, because you know, music came naturally, hearing the instruments and stuff.
Adrienne: The beats.
Jason: So, I took private vocal lessons, so her name is, what’s her name, gosh? I forget off the top, but I took private vocal lessons and that’s when I developed even more beatbox sounds. Because when she would hit the keyboard, boom! I would learn to hold that note, and I didn’t know I had high notes, because as a dude, you want to hit only the base sounds, the low sounds, so I had a high register too, so as a beatboxer, when I teach my students and stuff, or teach whatnot, I work with range. And, and, and it’s not just the lows, but I also work on the mids and the highs, so, for example, if I were to do a beat, (beatboxing), but uh, from the private vocal lessons, I would get stuff like, I would hold a high note. Wait (beatboxing) you know what I mean? So, I was like just playing with my vocal cords and stuff, sorry, I haven’t warmed up that part, but uh.
Attilio: That’s okay, it was better than everybody else!
Jason: But yes, I did get formal training uh, I mean, growing up I, I, tried out the ukulele, I tried the, what else did I play, oh, I had a toy piano growing up too, piano uh, so I messed with that a little bit.
Attilio: And what is this toy piano sound like?
Jason: Like (beatboxing). Right? So, uh, but then, but then in middle school, in band, I didn’t know what instrument to try, so I did uh, tuba and tuba is very close to beatboxing because, with your lips, you’ve got to go (beatboxing). They call that flubber lips, so, but I didn’t, but every time when I would try an instrument, so this is the thing, whenever I would try the instrument, like the ukulele, a handmade instrument was, I always wanted to go back to the beatboxing. Like I feel like I can sing that instrument. You know? Like, my dog has fleas? Right? Is, is, ukulele so I would play around with that. So, there’s a video I did with my friend Jodie Kamisato, he’s in LA right now, uh, in the ___ Conference I believe and so he, we did a video where he’s playing the ukulele and I’m beatboxing so I teach him how to beatbox and he teaches me how to play ukulele while we kind of use humor in it but it’s on my website, and whatnot, so you guys can check that out. Uh, Jason Tom—
Adrienne: And your, yup! Website: www.jasontom.com?
Jason: Www.jasontom.com, yup. So, uh, I do a lot of fun stuff, you know, I do a lot of fun stuff and, and yeah. It’s just exciting.
Attilio: Well hey, hey listeners, if you’re just tuning in, this is the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed sold program, we’ve got in the house, Jason Tom! And it’s easy to get to know and learn more about him, just go to his website, www.jasontom.com.
Adrienne: Got lots of videos there.
Attilio: Yeah, it’s Tom, T-O-M. And uh, he’s a professional beatboxer and you, so if you’re like, if our listeners are out there, if they have some kind of kid’s organization, or they need somebody to, kind of, you know, I would bring you in on any kind of events where maybe in the venue, people just want to jazz it up. Like it could be anything!! It could be like a CPA convention.
Adrienne: So versatile. Yeah, just bring some excitement.
Attilio: The opening speaker, and today we’re going to be talking about the 2018 tax changes. (beatboxing).
All: (laughing)
Attilio: And what that means for your clients in the future. (beatboxing). Do you do any like, like if you press a button and you sound like a man screaming?
Jason: Man screaming? Well I’ve done stuff where like, you know, uh, for example, I’ve done voice over work but then within that, I’ll do the music too, right? So, I’ll tell, I’ll do, I’ve been working on dialogue more. Because that’s what Michael Winslow does, he does like voice over work, so, for me, he’s one of my uh, a lot, I mean he is, he’s actually a huge—
Attilio: Is he at the pinnacle of this, beatboxing? I mean he just, is he a beatboxer or is he just like—
Adrienne: He’s like the most well-known one.
Jason: I think he’s like, he’s kind of like everything, you know, he does, he does beatbox too but his specialty is sound effects for sure. But he’s influenced all the beatboxers, like, if you, if you’re beatboxing and you’ haven’t heard of him, you’ve got to do your homework right, because that’s what, I mean, Bobby McFerrin is a legend too, I mean, just, I have a DVD of his spontaneous invention, all he has was one microphone! That’s it! And he just used his, and I was like what? And then it’s like, people came out to see him, I was like, that’s what I want to do is just have one microphone, no machines, and just be pure, I mean, there’s people that do loops, right? Loop station like Reggie Waltz and whatnot uh, people have asked me, hey Jason, have you considered doing loops, and I say, you know what? I could do that, I could do that route, but I’m like a Bobby McFerrin, right? Like I like to do it just pure, just live—
Attilio: That sounds more challenging, when you’re doing it.
Jason: It is because you’re doing different layers, because you’re doing like say the rhythm with the base with the vocals, like, like Billie Jean for example for to do. (beatboxing and singing). You know what I mean, like, you’re putting it together and it’s a lot of fun.
Attilio: Yeah, so for people, the listeners how don’t know what looping is, it’s when they record it.
Adrienne: The surround.
Attilio: You’re layering them.
Jason: Right, and a lot of singer/songwriters do that and then they kind of add a little beatbox and I’m like man, if you’re going to do beatbox, do the whole thing, like that’s just how I, that’s how I feel.
Adrienne: So, so, so where will you be performing next, in case our listeners want to go see you live!
Jason: That’s interesting like, as this show is, uh, happening, uh, as people, listeners are speaking, uh, is, I’m supposed to have a show tonight, right, Saturday night, but uh, it just got cancelled, so, but stay tuned to my website, because I will keep you guys updated, actually my upcoming promotion coming out will be November, December. It’s with uh, Prisma Dance and uh, it’s going to have a lot of things. It’s going to have acrobatics, uh, great dancing, it’s going to have ballet, it’s going to have poets, I believe, and, and if they’re going to follow that same formula, because we did 2 years ago, it did so well, people said it was up there with Cirque du Soleil. Right! And then so uh, I’m going to be in there, I’m going to beatbox and I remember, crowd, I mean, after we, we greeted the audience they said, was that really you? And I was like awe, so it was a lot of fun, uh, it told a story, it’s called Creation, Creation and it’s going to happen in November and December, uh, at the ___ theater at the Windward Community College and I recommend people come out to that because that’s going to be exciting, I’m going to be rehearsing it pretty soon, uh, once I get the rehearsal dates.
Attilio: If they, if they want to get more details and information, they should go to www.jasontom.com. I had another question for you. TEDx presenter, how did that happen and what did you talk about?
Jason: Wow, so, yes! Uh, the first one they had actually in Honolulu, TEDx, Honolulu and that was the year in 2009, it was the first time they had TEDx, because they had TED talks before that. Uh, technology entertainment design and so when they hit me up, uh, they were looking for another group and they weren’t able to be uh, get in contact of, so they said, Jason, can you be our entertainment for the “e” part right? So, I said yeah, sure! So, I went uh, the theme was shift, and uh, so when I—
Attilio: Hey, hey, hey, there’s no swearing on this show!
Jason: No, no, shift, shift! Shift. Uh, S-H-I-F-T, so uh, going to make sure that I translated that well.
Attilio: Hey, you know, shift happens.
Jason: Yes!
Adrienne: It does.
Jason: Yes, yes. Uh, so, when I spoke, uh, basically the quote that I used was, “Successful people fail more.” And it’s just to, because it was about like, you know, like the, the interviewer Angela Keene, she asked me, you know, so, you know, doing what you do, do people make fun of you, you know, do they, you know, say stuff, and then I say yeah, I mean, that’s cyberbullies right, I mean that’s what they’re there for, they’re to make fun of us—
Attilio: They’re trolls, exactly.
Adrienne: The haters. You’ve got to go get some haters.
Attilio: The warriors, hiding behind their keyboards.
Jason: Right? So, I share about, you know, when you do what you love and you’re successful at it, you know, you just, you’re going to go through that. You’re going to go through it and then uh, still to this day, I still get haters to this day and you know, the way you, you respond to them though, you don’t, you don’t ignore it. I used to ignore it, but then now I just respond to them and you just be assertive.
Adrienne: Take the higher road.
Attilio: And you stay at your high level on your response.
Jason: Because you believe in what you do. And if you’re confident in what you do, you can back it up. So, I say, okay cool, yeah, alright uh, come visit my website, you know, something like that, you know, so—
Adrienne: Make a friend out of them.
Attilio: I’ll see you at my next show!
Jason: Exactly!
Attilio: Come in the front row.
Jason: At the sold-out show or something.
Attilio: Because you know, when you’re in the front row at a beatbox performance, you get a lot of spit on you!
All: (laughing)
Jason: Yeah, so. No, I won’t spit at the audience. Uh, but it’s, it’s a, it’s definitely a lot better life because on video, you can only capture so much. Exactly, because it’s recording direct and stuff, so.
Attilio: And I think too, you must have a different energy level when you’re, because you’re feeling the vibe from the crowd.
Jason: Yes, because you can hear the surround, I mean the room sound and from every detail from the cup moving and stuff like that, and—
Adrienne: Just the energy.
Jason: Yeah and you can vibe off of that, you know, and you can play with the audience’s energy and, and I’ll do shows, and then so the TEDx that happened, the second, because I did it twice, so at the second one, in 2011, that was, the theme was it’s, uh, something about time, I forget, it’s about time, it’s about time, so, that one, it was the focal groove, so that one, I wanted to speak, but, because I wanted to see how the voice, the human voice is timeless. And so, when we, when a baby is born, actually, when a baby is in the embryo, they hear the heartbeat, right? (beatboxing) And when they come out (crying). Right? So, the voice is very timeless so we hear the voice, uh, whatnot so that was going to be kind of like the platform and I would get into the beatbox or beatbox and then good story, but they just wanted me to perform so, their comments are saying, how come this, there’s this thing on TED, he’s not saying anything and that’s what the directors, I mean, not the directors, producers of TED, they wanted me to just beatbox and let’s let it speak for itself. Uh, but it’s a good video too, I mean, people really enjoyed it, they wrote back and said wow, that’s one of my favorite performances of yours, and it’s just an honor, it’s an honor to, to, represent Hawaii and, and uh—
Attilio: Do you do impersonations? I think like you do the baby being born.
Jason: Yes, yes. So, uh, let’s see.
Attilio: You should like slip in like a ___.
Jason: Yeah, I do some impersonations.
Attilio: Hey, when I was born I was so ugly the doctor slapped my mom.
Jason: Right, right? And you, you’re very good with your voice, because when we met, you did some voice, uh, that, that uh—
Attilio: I’ll tell the story. Well you know, that reminded me, poetry slam, that’s where we ran into you. Do you do a lot of that, is that where you’re at?
Jason: So, I’m a, yes, I, so I’m a three-time Hawaii Slam first Thursdays top 12 performance poet, so uh, grand slam finalist at uh, so that’s the largest uh, competition, for poetry slam and stuff so, uh, it’s been a while since I’ve done it regularly but I would just go up there, instead of like spitting words, I’m spitting beats, but I’m telling a story through beats, so it’s been very unconventional uh, and then a lot of poets get upset about it because—
Adrienne: You’re different.
Attilio: You have an edge!
Jason: Because I’m very, yeah—
Attilio: It’s entertaining!
Jason: Right? And I think it’s best to stand out, you don’t want to be the same, you don’t want to do the same because if everyone’s doing it the same way, why don’t you change it up and just change it, and I like to do, and that’s why, challenges—
Attilio: Entertainment, what is the entertainment, what is the title of the magazine? Variety!
Jason: Variety.
Attilio: Variety, it’s not the, the title of the magazine is not do the same thing over and over, it’s called Variety Magazine for Entertainment and that’s what human beings get attracted to when they go to see something. They don’t want to, it sticks out and they, you know, like a moth to the light.
Jason: Right? So, it’s been interesting how I crossed over with that and just to bring the, variety as a beatboxer, what I also bring to the table is I fuse it, with not just beatboxing and singing, because that’s been done before, but I incorporate dance as well, so I incorporate, as you read in the bio, I’m a moonwalker too. So, I did a whole Billie Jean with the dance routine too, so you guys saw it live that, that night we met, but, I also do a dance with, but the room didn’t, uh, the stage didn’t have enough room, so.
Adrienne: So, way, so way to differentiate. Stand out.
Jason: YEs, yes, and then people love that routine because they’re like, is he really doing the moonwalk, and I’m beatboxing at the same time so I’ve done it at the center stage ___, all over, so.
Attilio: Yeah, and that slam poetry, we were talking with uh, the manager of the bar, because our friend was, there last night, and they said that is the one event, they have live music every, almost all the time, but the slam poetry things, it packs!
Jason: Yeah, it packs out, I mean, 500 people, or it just packs you know, it’s been there, been around since 2003 I believe.
Attilio: I didn’t realize it was such a big thing in Oahu.
Jason: This was before First Fridays in Hawaii, you know, now they have First Fridays and stuff but First Thursdays I remember started in Chinatown, then it moved all over, sorts, so I’ve seen it migrate, I’ve seen it migrate. So now it’s that Hawaiian Brians and whatnot.
Attilio: Any other questions?
Adrienne: Well I was going to say, is there any message that you want to leave our listeners with before we bring our show to an end here?
Jason: Wow, what kind of message should I leave with them? Uh.
Attilio: What was your, what was your big, you know, what’s your big aha in your life? What do you, you know, I’ll give you the Oprah question, what do you know for sure?
Jason: What do I know for sure? Uh, as we age, is we just never stop learning, uh, and what I realize as I get older is I, I should’ve sought after wisdom at a younger age, because I’m still learning to this day, uh, wiser today but then I feel like, only now I’ve grown, I’m 35 today, and it’s just uh, never stop growing, never stop maturing and that’s very important, uh, so, those listeners out there, uh, it’s very important, no matter what it is, discipline, work at your act, continue to learn, continue to grow, because the moment you stop growing, the moment you stop striving to invest into yourself, to learn, it’s the moment you stop growing, so you don’t want to stop.
Attilio: So, would you say that it’s very important we think outside the beatbox?
Adrienne: Yes.
All: (laughing)
Adrienne: Reach outside the beatbox.
Jason: Uh, I love to learn, I mean I do research a lot, so that’s what I would leave the audience is, uh, you never stop growing, so I encourage people to just, just keep, like, like Tony Robbins, right? You guys went out to see him. That must have been exciting. I mean I listened to it, yeah.
Attilio: Well I’m from Missouri, the ___ state, so what you’re going to show us here, give us about a 30-second, 30-second beatbox and then we’re going to tell them about your website. Give them a 30-secodn little riff.
Jason: Okay, sure. (beatbox).
Attilio: Alright, awesome!
Adrienne: Wow! Alright, so, you—
Attilio: How did you know Adrienne was a cat-lover? You said cats, boots, cat boots.
Adrienne: I love cats. Okay, so uh, you guys can check him out at www.jasontom.com for more videos and lots of, lots of blogging and, and inspirational messages.
Attilio: He’s so nice, he’s so nice they named him twice, he’s got two first names, Jason Tom!
Adrienne: Alright, so we’ve got Angelique on the line. With her uh, tips of the week.
Attilio: What’ve you got for us this week, Angelique?
Angelique: You know, I was going to come in with a beatbox about our coming soon listings, but, you know what? I can’t, I cannot compete with that right there, so (laughing). Great job, great job!
Jason: Thank you!
Angelique: So, uh, we have a coming-soon listing, uh, it’s going to be hitting the market in a couple of weeks, and here’s just a little bit about it, it’s a single-family home, it’s going to be in ___, 3-bedroom, 2-bath, uh, about 1640 interior square feet and it’s sitting on a 5,275-square foot lot. So, just a heads-up if you’re looking in that area for a single-family home, keep an eye out, it should be hitting the market in a couple of weeks.
Adrienne: Awesome!
Angelique: Alright.
Adrienne: Thank you, Angelique!
Angelique: That’s it, have a great day!
Adrienne: Okay, next up we’ve got Miranda! With some grand open houses to announce!
Miranda: Yes, we have some grand open houses, uh, this upcoming Sunday. We do have uh, a total of 7 open houses, but 2 of them are grand opens. Our first one is up in ___, so in the gated community of ___, we have one of our luxury listings, uh, and this is a 4-bedroom, 4-bath home custom-built and there’s an amazing expansive view of Diamondhead, uh, 3-car garage uh, there’s also throughout the home, there’s high-quality finishes and GE appliances, lots of features uh, too many, too many to, to talk about here but, so come visit, uh, this Sunday, 2-5, Kimalie will be there, uh, and then also check out the outdoor areas of their outdoor kitchen and entertainment area there as well. Uh, and then our next one, grand open house is over on ___ Loop, 91-3014 in the ___ by ___ and that, that home has 3-bedroom, 2-bath with the layout and the kitchen on the main floor and that will be with Abby, she’ll be there to answer any of your questions uh, and then if you have any questions on the other open houses, you can call our buyer’s hotline at 234-4421.
Adrienne: Alright, thanks Miranda! Alright, thanks for listening and thank you to our sponsors!
Jason: Yes, and I want to also thank those that are visiting my www.jasontom.com uh, blog, to Marlena in Romania, also to Maka from Japan and also shout out to Gail in ___, so I just want to shout out to you guys for being regular visitors and commenting on my blog and whatnot. Thank you guys!
Attilio: Alright, and thank you to our sponsors! Jodie Tanga and Derek Tanga of Pacific Rim Mortgage!
Adrienne: Bradley Maruyama of Allstate Insurance!
Attilio: Nathan Baker of Pillar to Post Home Inspections!
Adrienne: Ben and Tony Mamood of AAA Roofers Hawaii!
Attilio: Janyce Myrland with Dream House Drafting!
Adrienne: John Speed of Kilauea Pest Control!
Attilio: Duke Kimhan with Hawaii Pacific Property Management!
Adrienne: Mike Metts of Kama’aina Plumbing!
Attilio: Thomas Pattison with Pattison Land Surveying!
Adrienne: Myron Kamihara of Kamihara Law!
Attilio: If you want to get ahold of any of our sponsors just go to www.teamlally.com.
Adrienne: We also want to give a big thank you to Lea, our producer here in the studio.
Attilio: Chi-hoo!
Adrienne: Make sure to tune in next week, we’ll have an awesome guest talking about something that’ll change your life—
Attilio: Forever! This is the Team Lally real estate show, home of the guaranteed—
Adrienne and Attilio: SOLD PROGRAM!
Adrienne: If we can’t sell your home at the agreed-upon price and/or timeframe, we’ll have it bought for cash.
Adrienne and Attilio: THANKS, AND ALOHA!