[00:00:00] Speaker A: In the March episode of the Local Click, we are going to have Martha Hinton with the Pregnancy Resource center of Smith county as well as a visit from Chris Ferrari with Hamilton Hardware of Watertown. Justin is back with lots of tech news and tech tips and we'll also let you know where we're going to be for the month of March. So stay tuned. The show starts now.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Learn more about fun local events and interesting people throughout the heart of Middle Tennessee. With a dash of everyday tech talk thrown in for good measure, the Local Click starts now.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: Hello everyone. Welcome to the Local Clique. The Local Clique is the technology based podcast brought to you by DTC Communications each and every month where we talk all things technology as well as local people. And March has found us, Justin. I guess with March comes continued basketball.
[00:00:52] Speaker C: March Madness, baby, March Madness. And locally we're, you know, we're, we're in that stage with where region tournaments are going on and teams are fighting for state tournament appearances. And so locally it's intense collegiately, people are paying attention as things are happening. But it is a mad time of the year.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: It is, isn't it? It is. And of course Tennessee and weather wise, we always like to kind of chat a little bit about that. Who knows what you'll get in March. I mean, I've seen beautiful spring like marches and I've seen a foot of snow, so who knows?
[00:01:25] Speaker C: Listen, it doesn't matter whether it is January or February or March, my kids want snow as much.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: It's not just your kids. I'd say a lot of them do.
[00:01:34] Speaker C: As much as can get. They want it though. I'm, I, I don't want them to get too much because I believe for all of our area school districts, I think everybody is completely out of snow days.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: That's right. So don't do those snow dances or whatever unless you just want to go to school a little bit longer in the summertime.
[00:01:53] Speaker C: Yeah, I enjoy my summer breaks.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:55] Speaker C: And I say my summer break. They enjoy their summer breaks. And I, I enjoy that they enjoy it, I should say.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: Yeah. For this month's program coming up in just a bit, we'll have Ms. Martha Hinton with the Pregnancy Resource Center, Smith county. And she'll talk about all the great things they're doing to help people around Smith county and surrounding counties that need that sort of assistance and they're doing really good things for people there. And we'll be talking to her in just a moment. But first we're going to start with our first interview for this month. And that'll be with Mr. Chris Ferrari with Hamilton Hardware of Watertown.
And with us today in this segment of the local click, we have Mr. Chris Ferrari with Hamilton Hardware of Watertown. Hello, Chris.
[00:02:37] Speaker D: Hello. How are you?
[00:02:37] Speaker A: Great. How are you?
[00:02:38] Speaker D: Good, good, good. Very good to be here. Thank you.
[00:02:40] Speaker A: I appreciate you being on the program.
[00:02:41] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: And I will say this before we get into any kind of questions. I am a customer, and you have personally helped me before, and you did a great job and you have a great business there. We're thankful to have you so close to home.
[00:02:56] Speaker D: So we're, We're. We love being there. We're honestly, we're honored to be there. Yeah, it's fun for us to kind of keep it going. You know, we always talk about, you know, small town like Watertown, like many of the small towns around, you know, just the bank, the grocery store, the hardware store, the drugstore. Real fundamental, you know, to a small town like that, it is.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: It's important.
[00:03:14] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. So it's neat to be able to kind of participate that way.
[00:03:17] Speaker A: And you don't always don't want to drive to Lebanon or Murfreesboro for that.
[00:03:20] Speaker D: That part.
[00:03:21] Speaker A: One little part, you know.
[00:03:22] Speaker D: Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So if you just need one little thing, you don't want to go now just with the growth that's coming up that way.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:28] Speaker D: You know, traffic is. And people are just not wanting to get caught up in all that.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Well, before we kind of get into the hardware side, introduce yourself to everyone that's watching and listening and tell us about your background and how you ended up in Watertown.
[00:03:40] Speaker D: Right.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:41] Speaker D: Well, my name is Chris Ferrari, co owner of Hamilton Hardware with Paige Hamilton, my partner. She's the namesake for the. The hardware store. We just thought Hamilton Hardware would be better than Ferrari Hardware.
[00:03:53] Speaker A: It has a speed connotation.
[00:03:55] Speaker D: Just small town. Hamilton felt better than.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I got you.
[00:04:00] Speaker D: So I was. I was in the music business for 25 years and worked out of Nashville and lived there for a long time and kind of finished up with that and had my fill and we bought some land out in Watertown, moved out there. You know, just kind of known of Watertown over the years and grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania. So Watertown felt very familiar and got out there and just trying to figure out what we want to do next. And the hardware store became available and. Oh, that sounds kind of interesting. Let's check that out. So we walked down that row with the previous owners and. And here we are.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: That's Great.
[00:04:33] Speaker D: Year and a half later, Hamilton Hardware, Watertown.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: So, so you must have, you must have a Mr. Fix it background or some kind of background in construction or something that would lead you down this road because, you know, I might have an idea for a hardware store. Let me tell you something. You don't want my advice, okay. You don't want my advice on, on how a problem. So how, how did you kind of get the background experience to kind of let you know this would work?
[00:04:55] Speaker D: Right. Well, I grew up around my dad. Always did construction things, had a cabinet shop for many years.
[00:04:59] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:04:59] Speaker D: And I did some construction over the years, so kind of grew up around those things. And again, small town, Pennsylvania. So it was a lot of fixed things as you needed kind of thing and. Right. So felt very familiar with a lot of the things, you know, and I'm. I'm still certainly learning and the, the master electricians that come in and I'll ask them questions, just.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: You can learn from customers too.
[00:05:21] Speaker D: Sure, for sure. You know, but I have a basic understanding of a lot of things to, to help people.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:26] Speaker D: You know, especially the homeowners that are coming in that just need to fix something. We can help them work through what they need. So I love that. So kind of grew up around it, so it felt familiar.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: Right. Describe the store for those that haven't been in yet. I know they will be, but for those that haven't made that first trip yet, describe the store and some of the inventory that you normally carry.
[00:05:45] Speaker D: Sure. Well, when we took over, it was a. It was, you know, this is the newest version of the hardware town hardware store in a small town. It's been around for about 15 years, as I understand it. And it was a small town store for sure when we took over. It was limited and, you know, kind of a mishmash of things.
[00:06:04] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:04] Speaker D: And we've kind of since kind of really started to develop it. We've kind of already doubled the inventory, added a lot of things. So we've pretty much got every department, you know, plumbing, electrical tools, you know, a little automotive things, some paint stuff, but we're certainly expanding all of that. We recently updated the plumbing and the electrical, so we've got, you know, quite a good selection there, you know, some of the really odd things we may not have.
[00:06:32] Speaker A: But I can tell that you really have grown it though, because I remember going in there before you guys took over.
[00:06:39] Speaker D: Right.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: You know, before and after.
[00:06:40] Speaker D: Well, some. It was just kind of organizing it and rearranging, getting the apartments settled, kind of thing so that it's a little bit more user friendly.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:49] Speaker D: You know, if you will. And that just enabled us then to kind of really develop the departments kind of thing. So, you know, like, we're going to do some things coming up this spring with the garden department, really expand some things there, which will then enable us to expand the paint department because we can move some things around. So kind of some, you know, building blocks, you know, as we move along to kind of establish some growth and just provide more.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:14] Speaker D: Because there's a lot of growth coming that way in Wilson county and out towards Watertown. So people are, you know, coming, looking for more things.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: I think it's kind of neat too, because when you think about, you know, needing a. Needing something for a project, just hearing the terms paint department and things like that in Watertown.
[00:07:32] Speaker D: Right.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: Yes, yes. You don't have to go always to, you know, the big town and spend. Spend two hours round trip sometimes, you know, just trying to pick up something you need. Right.
[00:07:44] Speaker D: Well, we've got, you know, now again with the growth going on, we got contractors coming out there and you know, they need one thing to finish the job. They don't want to run all the way to back to Lebanon.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: They don't want to slow the entire job up.
[00:07:54] Speaker D: Right, right. Because you do all that just takes extra time. So the more we can have available to kind of help support, that kind of helps them as well.
[00:08:01] Speaker A: That's awesome. I know you're kind of based from a small town originally yourself growing up and that sort of thing. So what's it like? What does it mean to you? I guess to be a part of a small town like watert that atmosphere and. And just being part of the community.
[00:08:13] Speaker D: I love it. You know, we love being there. You know, Grew up in small town Pennsylvania, so this feels really familiar.
A lot of talking, you know, some of the regular fellows, we stand there and swap stories and tell things and you know, some of the, you know, the older ladies who come in, you know, the widowers and, you know, and. And be able to help them, you know, how can you help me do this? You know, my husband used to do all these things and now I'm trying to figure it out and see, I think that's important. Help community. Folks like that is really fulfilling.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Yeah, you almost, you almost become like family because you start to get to know people's personal stories, don't you? Because they come in with a problem and you're kind of Mr. Fix it in a way. You're helping them at least kind of go down that road of solving this problem. Right. And you get to know their stories and they get to tell you, well, why do you need this? Well, this happened in my life.
[00:09:04] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:09:05] Speaker A: You know, and you kind of. You get to know people that way.
[00:09:07] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. When I was on the road in the music business, there was a lot of stories there. I could write a book. And it's. I feel like it's going to be the same way here and just, you know, some. Some really fun things and interesting things and, you know, it's fun to learn the history of the town and, you know, what used to be where and who used to be who and just all of those things. It's really, it's. It's a. It's fun to be part of a small town in a community and feel connected in that way, you know, and just kind of really know everybody and support everybody.
[00:09:35] Speaker A: How do you kind of decide what it is you want to carry? Do you just kind of listen to the needs of people that come in or. Oh, how do you kind of steer that direction of trying to decide this is what I want to stock in the next six months? I think I want to go this direction or that direction.
[00:09:50] Speaker D: Yeah, it's. It's been a learning process, for sure. Some of it is simply just people coming in asking, do you have such and such. Yeah. You know, and, and in the hardware scenario, people have gotten used to the big box things. You know, you go to Lowe's, you go to Home Depot and, and even some of the big stores, there's just. There's a lot there. Yeah. You know, you kind of go there for everything.
So there's, you know, a lot of things we feel like we'd want to carry, but we. We can't. And certainly a process getting there, increasing the inventory. So some of it simply is just people come in and ask for things and, and I keep a list going.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: And kind of keep an open ear.
[00:10:28] Speaker D: Yeah. You get one or two or three request for that. You know, it's something that people see a trend.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:32] Speaker D: You know, some things are just so off the wall that, you know, with.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: We'll sell one of Those, one every 10 years. Probably may not make sense to carry.
[00:10:41] Speaker D: Right. Not something to keep on the shelf.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:43] Speaker D: But part of it's that and then part of it's just developing each of the departments as we expand those, you know, what are the foundations, you know, of the electric department? What are electricians looking for?
[00:10:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:55] Speaker D: And then, and then Just kind of grow it from there. So, you know, it's. We want to be able to touch on all the departments and increase them all. We're serving the homeowner and the contractor, you know, and looking for two different types of things. Yeah. But you know, kind of really be able to foundation help them both.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that's. And that's what it's about. You're trying to solve that need. Sometimes it's a need they don't even know they have yet.
[00:11:18] Speaker D: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. They'll come in and I'm trying to do this thing, you know, what do you know? Why don't we try this.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: You know what I like about too? There's something. I mean people mail order different things. I know when you need it or whatever. But sometimes when you go in person to get one thing, pick up one thing, you'll see something. I need that for that other. I totally forgot I needed that. You know, and I'll walk through and I think even have done that in your store and I go, oh, I need that. You know, I need some clear silicone. I've got a seal up. You know, I've been in the hardware.
[00:11:50] Speaker D: Business, but impulse buying is a big, a large portion of our economy.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:54] Speaker D: How people shop and things. So having some of those things available and having things strategically placed in the store, there's a whole big retail science there about, you know.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: That's a good point.
[00:12:04] Speaker D: That's available for their people. They see it. Oh, I got to get one of those.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Well, don't put candy bars and stuff right next to the cash richer. I'll be in there every day.
[00:12:11] Speaker D: Well, funny enough, that's one of the things we decided we're not gonna, you know what, we're not gonna carry those partially because we need them all.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: So. Yeah, I understand. I would be there if I worked there. I would be that guy.
[00:12:21] Speaker D: Yeah. So I don't think I'm going to get in the grocery business.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Well, speaking of working there, talk about your staff and those that kind of help keep things going.
[00:12:28] Speaker D: Sure, sure. Well, and it's been small. Small time for sure. You know, we've seen a lot of growth or in the first year. So we had some part timers last summer. So we'll do that again here. Next two weeks they'll start coming on mainly because obviously the. In the hardware business, April, May, June, July. That's. That's kind of the big season.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:48] Speaker D: So that's when it's real busy and we, we dabbled in the garden center thing last year, we'd gotten some live plants in just to kind of test that out, see how that went. And we're going to jump, jump in with both feet this year.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: Oh, that's great.
[00:13:00] Speaker D: In the garden center. So behind our store in the, in the alley, there's a large lawn area that we're going to develop into a garden center.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: That's so convenient to have that there.
[00:13:10] Speaker D: Well, yeah, again, it's kind of the same thing. It's just another aspect of, you know, you kind of have to drive a distance to get plants, you know. So can we add those and kind of assist with everybody? Yeah, you know, not having to go far just to get some tomato plants. So we'll have vegetables and flowers and, and all things that go along with it and just kind of start expanding the whole garden center thing and, you know, work towards making that a place so you can stop for everything.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Well, that's exciting. I'm glad to hear that.
[00:13:39] Speaker D: Yeah, we're excited by.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: Check it out.
[00:13:41] Speaker D: It'd be fun.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: You mentioned flowers. I know you're also involved with a flower company you call the Hamilton Hollow Flower Company. Is that correct? Okay, yeah, tell us about that.
[00:13:51] Speaker D: And well, so when we, we. I got out of the music business, kind of wrapped that up. We, we came to Watertown. We bought some land out there and are developing. We thought, oh, let's just grow some flowers and you know, kind of get into that and see how that goes. So we're. We're developing a cut flower business and we been working on that in the past three seasons now, where we mostly just wholesale cut flowers to local florists and things like that. And we'll probably develop some. You pick things where people can come to the farm and, and cut things like that. So, you know, that's kind of a multi year development thing, you know, just because they only grow once a year. So while we develop that, we're not necessarily getting into the plant growing business. We just. It's all cut flowers.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:36] Speaker D: You know, next birthday I have to file that away.
[00:14:41] Speaker A: That. That could be very good. Absolutely. There must be interest or passion. Right. Of someone to do that. Is it you? Okay. That's awesome.
[00:14:50] Speaker D: So, yeah, kind of always had a flower bed and love gardening and all of those things and being outside and.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Not everybody can do that. Well, you have the green thumb.
[00:15:00] Speaker D: Yeah, for sure. Although I say all the time, you know, as hard as I'm trying to kill them, those plants are trying to grow, so they want to grow you know, so it's a lot of fun. It's fun to be outside. Yeah. And develop that and learn. And there's just, there's, I mean there's so much knowledge to learn and understand and know.
[00:15:18] Speaker A: And it's just so neat when you can take a passion or an interest and kind of apply it towards a business idea. I always think that's kind of neat because you'll put more than 100% in on it because you're interested in it. It's not just a money making venture. You're not worried about that so much. It's more about the enjoyment of it and, and just trying to keep yourself involved in something you enjoy doing.
[00:15:43] Speaker D: Yeah. That's kind of how it started. You know, what are we gonna do next? Trying to figure that out and.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:47] Speaker D: And well, let's just try this and you know, and it was just great. It's just great being outdoors. And I just, you know, I get up in the morning and open the blinds and open the windows if it's warm and I just, you know, like that aspect.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: How do you use, how do you use Internet or technology or, or a point of purchase software or things like that? What do you, what do you use technology for? To make things run a little bit smoother. I'm sure there's got to be some things that save you some time or just make things easier.
[00:16:09] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. So we took over the store and it was very manual. Everything got a sticker. That's how they took care of pricing.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: Like a price sticker, price sticker on.
[00:16:19] Speaker D: It, sticker on every piece of thing. And there was no real inventory other than just going around and seeing what was there and kind of counting it.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:28] Speaker D: You know, their order process had been online through the distributor.
So we have really upgraded the technology side of it, put in a POS system which really helps us from an inventory control standpoint because now we can have everything in the system. It helps especially with, with the inventory growing more customers. It just, it gets a point where you can't keep track of.
[00:16:49] Speaker A: It's real time data.
[00:16:50] Speaker D: It's. And it's real time data. And I'm, I'm kind of into that. I like data, like seeing things, being able to kind of look through that.
[00:16:58] Speaker A: You can react quicker too if you see yourself running low and something is selling and. Well.
[00:17:02] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. And it's a point now where it's. There's so much to reorder every week. You can't remember it or you can't just Walk around, see it. And now I can look at the sheet, you know, and it'll print off saying, here's where you're at, you know, here's what you need, here's what you're missing. Because I am not a paper person generally I like just send it to my computer, send it to my email, send me the file and work through that kind of thing.
[00:17:23] Speaker A: That's great.
[00:17:23] Speaker D: Yeah, just so it's, it's good to be online. I've got everything in the cloud and just kind of work through things that way.
[00:17:29] Speaker A: You're very organized. That's a good thing.
[00:17:30] Speaker D: Well, I don't know if that's the.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: Way to say it makes it very efficient though, right?
[00:17:34] Speaker D: Yeah, it does. Yep.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: Before we wrap up, is there anything new in the works?
[00:17:38] Speaker D: Some things with the town that we're working on. Watertown has a big train excursion thing that happens there with Tennessee Central and Nashville Steam Preservation Size is restoring the old steam engine that used to be in Nashville. So that's going to start pulling the train in Nashville. So we're working on some things with them to develop some things based around the train that beneficial for the town. You know, just some community oriented things as well as some other business things. So we'll kind of see where it goes and how it develops.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: Well, that's awesome that you guys are, you know, using your own time and energy to be good stewards of the history of the town.
[00:18:14] Speaker D: Sure.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: And just trying to keep some of those stories alive because, you know, if we don't tell them, they get lost.
[00:18:20] Speaker D: Absolutely. Yeah. And that's one of the things, it's fun talking to some of the older residents or the residents who have grown up there, you know, and how it used to be. And it was just a very small town, America, and there's a lot of growth going on, which, you know, it's good and bad size kind of thing. But to really be able to work with that and help develop some things from a community standpoint that kind of bring those together.
We just really enjoy participating.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, if someone wants to stop by if they've got a big problem and they need Chris, they need your help there.
Tell them where you're located, your business hours and how they can learn more about you.
[00:18:56] Speaker D: We're at, we're right in downtown Watertown on Main Street, 122 East Main Street Watertown. We're there 7:30 to 5, Monday to Friday. We're there Saturdays 8 to 2. And that may expand Here as we get into the summer in the garden center, see how that goes. And it's. It's really fun being downtown and being part of that.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:15] Speaker D: So it's right off 70. And, you know, if you need anything, need a little project, come on by and stop and see us.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Well, you'll be seeing me soon. I'm sure I'll break something at home in the next month or two.
[00:19:26] Speaker D: Sure, sure, sure.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: Hey, Nick. How's it going?
[00:19:28] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. Well, I'll try to remember. It takes me several times to remember names.
[00:19:32] Speaker A: Oh, you're great. Well, thanks so much for being on the program and good luck with everything. And thanks for being such a important pillar to Watertown and its residents.
[00:19:40] Speaker D: We really enjoy it. So thanks for having us.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: Thanks, everybody. Stay tuned. We've got more of the show coming up in just a moment.
[00:19:47] Speaker C: Do you know what room the router's in? I can't get onto my zoom meeting.
[00:19:51] Speaker E: Tried in our spacious new family room.
[00:19:54] Speaker C: Okay, still not working.
[00:19:59] Speaker E: Try it in our beautiful backyard.
[00:20:03] Speaker C: Still nothing. Your new home.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: Checked everything off your list except for Internet from DTC.
[00:20:10] Speaker C: Oh, come on.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Sign
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[00:20:28] Speaker C: Content creator, customer service rep.
[00:20:36] Speaker A: Software developer.
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[00:20:51] Speaker A: Welcome back, everyone. It's time now to throw the microphone over to Mr. Justin Malden in a little segment we like to call Justin's Tech Tips. Justin, it is all yours.
[00:21:02] Speaker C: Well, listen, I'm very excited to hear Chris talk about how they are modernizing things at Hamilton Hardware of Watertown. And he mentioned specifically how he doesn't do many things on paper. Yeah, that's true. And how he keeps things digital. And so we're going to talk about something a little bit. You made the comment where you seem very organized and that's what we're going to talk about a little bit today is organization.
Maybe from a little bit different standpoint. I want to talk about something that is built into most devices that we don't think about, and that is auto syncing, Auto syncing, auto syncing between your devices. That way, whether you're on a tablet or you're on a computer or you're on your phone, you have the ability when you save something on one device to know that it's going to update automatically on a different one.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:21:46] Speaker C: And so you don't have to copy or paste or what we Used to do a long time ago, we save it to a flash drive or how many times in the past have you emailed something to yourself from one device that you could get it on another?
[00:21:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I have still done that recently maybe.
Or sneaker. Net.
[00:22:03] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: Do you remember that term? Yeah.
[00:22:05] Speaker C: Yes. You know, so for me, you know, I am an Apple guy. Really? Yes, I know that shocks you, right? You know, and to me, to me, you know, Apple icloud its ecosystem is a dream. You know, it doesn't matter if I'm on Mac, if I'm on my iPad, I'm on my iPhone, I can be within there. It's all tied together. Calendars, reminders, emails, you name it. It syncs across files. Doesn't matter what it is.
One thing that's very interesting with Apple's ecosystem that I like to take advantage of is reminders. And specifically something that some people may not utilize too much, but it's like, hey, I need to remember to do this later. Well, you can set a reminder for a specific time. Again, you set it on one device and oh, I'm sitting at my computer doing it. Let me set this reminder real quick. Well, if I don't have my computer later, it's going to pop up on my iPhone and tell me, hey, remember to do this. Or location based. Hey, when you get somewhere, remember to do this when you arrive.
[00:23:06] Speaker A: Oh, I didn't know you could do that. I've never heard of.
[00:23:07] Speaker C: Yes. So you can say, hey, when I arrive at this location, you know, tell me, you know, make sure that I remember to do this when, when you get to the church building, make sure the first thing that you do is you go check this monitor that wasn't working last time before you start doing anything else.
[00:23:22] Speaker A: So it tracks your GPS location, knows when you arrive at that place that you told it.
[00:23:26] Speaker C: Yes, it uses what's called geofencing is what it is what it's called geofencing. And so yes, when you arrive or even maybe when you leave somewhere to it will, it can remind you of things, you know and you know Google with its services. You know, they, they have calendar and keep specifically if you're within the Google ecosystem. But it will sync. This is an advantage it has over Apple. Apple is within its ecosystem, right within its Apple product. But Android will sync over or Google will sync over Android and Microsoft and even Mac. You may have to be on a web version of it, but it'll sync across it doesn't matter what ecosystem you're using. Google's integrated in some way. So it's pretty. That's an advantageous thing that it has going for it compared to the Apple ecosystem.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Right.
[00:24:13] Speaker C: But again, you know, say, hey, set this reminder, you know, give me this note. You know, save this Google Doc, whatever it may be. And again, you're synced across everything.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: I like that.
[00:24:24] Speaker C: Now, now, Microsoft is probably the one that for those of us who are older, we will remember using Microsoft products longer than any anything else because we think of Microsoft Office and it's rebranded as Microsoft 365 now. So, you know, the Office terminology has been tossed out and it's 365 and I guess that's a branding term because it's involved in everything of your life, 365 days a year. Yeah, but all, you know, the outlooks and one drives and OneNote, you know, those again, are all built in together. And again, it will sync across multiple devices as well. So Apple's not as good in that aspect as compared to these other ecosystems. But it doesn't matter if you're on any of the major platforms, you can set up syncing. Now, you may sometimes want to double check syncing, so go into your settings, make sure that you've got it enabled. Maybe you need to refresh your apps, restart your device, make sure that those things are syncing. I know if you were on Apple or you were on Google, you can force it to sync. You can tell it, hey, make sure that you sync these and it will tell you the date and the time that, hey, this last synced at this time. So you can know if you're up to date or not. But pick your Eco6 ecosystem or you can mix them because some of them will go together and just stay organized and stay chaos free. But what I want to know is if anybody who is listening or if you're watching our video podcast, I'd like to know, tell me about a time that sinking has saved you. Or maybe tell me about a time where you wished you had sinking and maybe there was a disaster when it's like, right, this file should, if I, I should have, I should have copied this file. I didn't copy this file. I didn't save it on that flash drive. You know, just let us, let us know. But you know, make sure you're syncing everything together and, you know, keep on rocking your tech life.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: That's right. I like it.
And with us for this segment of the Local click, we are very blessed to have Ms. Martha Hinton with the Pregnancy Resource center of Smith County. Hello. How are you?
[00:26:26] Speaker F: I am doing well. And you?
[00:26:27] Speaker A: I'm doing great. Thank you so much for being on the program. You guys have such an important, important mission. And we just wanted to do a small part in maybe helping get the word out about all the great things that you're doing there.
[00:26:37] Speaker F: Thank you. I really do appreciate DTC allowing us to do this. I know y'all too, are involved in the community, and that's. That's what it's all about.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: It is. If we don't take care of each other, he's going to take care of everyone else. Right?
[00:26:50] Speaker F: Exactly.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: So before we get started talking about the center, which we got a lot of things to touch on here, but tell us more about yourself. Introduce yourself and your background and how you got involved with the center.
[00:27:04] Speaker F: I will. My name is Martha Hinton. I'm the daughter of Paul and Francis Hackett. I'm married to Gary Hinton as of 2023. I have one daughter, Elizabeth, who's married to Matt. And they have my precious grands, Caroline and Ruby.
[00:27:20] Speaker A: And I'm sure you're not proud a bit of them.
[00:27:22] Speaker F: They're just almost perfect.
I have lived in Smith county most of my life, and I'm a retired teacher of 30 years. I became involved in the pregnancy resource center in 2022. I had been widowed for two years, and I was kind of looking for a way to invest my time. My husband that passed would often end his prayers with God bless those babies.
And actually our branded color of lavender that we use at the pregnancy center is based on his birthstone.
[00:27:54] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:27:54] Speaker F: So that was a nice touch.
[00:27:57] Speaker A: Tell us a little bit about the different services that you offer there.
[00:28:00] Speaker F: Okay. The pregnancy resource center functions out of a house owned by a local Smith county pastor who so graciously allows us to rent it for next to nothing. And by that, I don't think we've ever paid.
We have five rooms to work in and we have some storage in the back. In 2024, we became a medical limited. Medical facility.
[00:28:22] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:28:23] Speaker F: So we converted one room into an ultrasound room. We have a counseling room. We have the sweetest little boutique where parents can shop for things for their children. And of course, we have an office and a conference room. We have an amazing board of directors. I cannot tell you how blessed we are with our board management.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: Makes all the difference.
[00:28:44] Speaker F: It makes all the difference. We're almost full, and everybody who comes to the table and comes to the meeting brings their best. They are so, so easy to work with. Our staff. You've heard of the Dream team?
[00:28:56] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:28:56] Speaker F: We actually live it.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:28:58] Speaker F: I do the triage when people first come in. And then we have Allison, who does client services.
We have Gabby. And I'm afraid to talk too much about her because I've already had people trying to snag her away from us. But she does our media. And then we have Colleen, who is a retired nurse. Retired military nurse. And she also teaches college for nurses. So she does our ultrasounds. And then we have Megan Nesbitt, who is a part of the Nesbitt singing group. So we have our own little songbird. Yeah, she works on one day a week and does our data entry. And then my husband Gary is a retired mental therapist and a chaplain, so he works with the men in our facility.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: It's really well rounded then it is a lot of different areas of expertise.
[00:29:44] Speaker F: And it's like everybody brings their own gift.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:48] Speaker F: And when you work in that, you're.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: Going to be successful collectively. When you add a little bit of this with a little bit of that and all those different life experiences and knowledge bases together, you really have a strong team.
[00:29:58] Speaker F: We do. I'm so blessed.
[00:30:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, do you primarily assist people from Smith county or do you help others as well? Or.
[00:30:06] Speaker F: Well, our base is in Smith county, but we are open to anyone. We actually have clients from Dekalb, Macon, Rutherford and Charleston counties. We're glad to see anybody that needs us. We changed the name from the Pregnancy Help center to the Pregnancy Resource center hoping to get the word out there that we were just not a financial need place.
We serve anybody regardless of age, race, religion, gender or income. We're a faith based ministry, but that's not a requirement for our services. And I told our chairman that we're actually looking for a name change again in the next year. And we want to incorporate the motto of our center, which is Health, Hope and healing as we continue to train and add more services.
[00:30:53] Speaker A: Right. With your mission and what you're trying to do. Education is probably a really important part of that and educating those that come in for assistance and that sort of thing. Can you talk about some of the classes that you offer to try to help others?
[00:31:06] Speaker F: We have over 250 online classes from Brock Course that offers 12 to 25 minute videos for the parents to take over so many topics. Bright Course is just a little startup company in Snowflake, Arizona. They are growing.
They're sending out new classes about two a month and new training for us. We have classes on getting ready for Your ultrasound. We actually have two ultrasound scheduled today.
[00:31:34] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:31:35] Speaker F: So we have classes to teach moms how to get ready for that. Classes over each trimester that they're going through. We have. I love this class. It's over a birth plan. Actually getting a birth plan together before delivery. So that way you're not kind of shocked.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: Right.
[00:31:50] Speaker F: Everything comes about. That's not the best time to make a decision.
[00:31:53] Speaker A: You want to be more confident at that time. Yeah.
[00:31:56] Speaker F: We have potty training classes, adding a new sibling. Our curriculum covers basic life skills and relationship issues. We have classes for co parenting and divorce situations. We have single parenting classes. And we also have several classes for men. Okay. I personally, my favorite is probably the Dunstan baby language class. There is a lady, and I can't think of her name right now, but she has been. She's got a unique sense of hearing and she's been like world over on all the programs and all the daytime TVs, and she can hear sounds that most of us can't hear.
[00:32:34] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:32:34] Speaker F: So when she started having children, she would notice that certain sounds were related to certain needs that the babies would experience. So she teaches three classes for our center over how to recognize and interpret what they're crying about. Why did I not have this with Elizabeth?
[00:32:52] Speaker A: That's interesting. I've never heard of that. No.
[00:32:54] Speaker F: It's really neat. This past week I received my training in body literacy and right now we can only do two streams. We actually offer these classes through DTC online. Okay. Their Internet system.
[00:33:07] Speaker A: Glad we could help.
[00:33:08] Speaker F: Absolutely. I'm glad you can, but we need to get up to five.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:11] Speaker F: We're serving actively 23 clients right now and only two at a time can be on the class.
[00:33:17] Speaker A: That's a good problem to have though. That means you're growing.
[00:33:20] Speaker F: Oh, we are, phenomenally. But I don't want them to get online and it say, you know, not available right now.
[00:33:25] Speaker A: Right.
[00:33:26] Speaker F: That's a huge goal with this year's banquet is to increase that you have.
[00:33:30] Speaker A: A big heart for serving others. And. And honestly, that's the exact kind of person that you need in the position that you're in at the center. Talk about it about a little bit. It means to you personally to be able to help others. I mean, you must have. There must be something in your DNA or some way that you're wired or something in your background that just separates you maybe from others in a little bit of way that you just have a heart for service, trying to help others.
[00:33:56] Speaker F: The Lord has blessed me with the heart to love and to serve. It is very easy for me to love our clients and especially to love our babies. I love when I get to sugar them and hold them.
I think I can show mercy because so much mercy has been shown to me.
My family plays a huge part in my personality. I don't know if you've had the opportunity to be a mother, but she is sweet as sugar. That is one of the sweetest ladies. And my dad, although he could be a bit harsh, he had a heart of gold. So I think my family has kind of contributed.
[00:34:29] Speaker A: They're the ones that's kind of sent you down this path early, early on. And you've always liked children too, right? I mean.
[00:34:36] Speaker F: Oh, I have, yes. I've always been. I was always the mom in the neighborhood that took care of everybody.
[00:34:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:42] Speaker F: I enjoyed it in the classroom. Loved my students dearly. Love seeing them now as adults.
[00:34:47] Speaker A: And they still remember you, I bet too, don't they?
[00:34:49] Speaker F: Yes. I have to look at them for a minute, just look deep in their eyes and remember because they change from sixth grade to adulthood. But yeah, I still remember.
[00:34:57] Speaker A: That's awesome. Now, you mentioned a minute ago about some of the classes that you offered were not just for women, but for men for the fathers to talk about. Maybe some of those that may be geared more towards the dad side.
[00:35:09] Speaker F: Okay. Well, we, we do help the mothers. We help grandmothers, we help grandfathers. We have aunts and uncles, we have guardians, and we are pleased to help our dads. I want to tell you a little bit about Samuel.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:22] Speaker F: And he doesn't mind me sharing this story, but he came to us as a single dad with a six week old daughter when he was 22 years old.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:35:32] Speaker F: My husband, who is a retired therapist and a chaplain, as I told you earlier, I called him, he came in, started working with Samuel. Samuel has done everything we have asked of him. He has made so much improvements and he is just a wonderful father to his little princess. His story makes me so happy to share. I'm so glad we could be there for him.
[00:35:55] Speaker A: There are young dads out there who are stepping up and trying to do the right thing to raise these kids and be a part of their lives.
[00:36:03] Speaker F: Well, their role is so vital. It is so vital for these babies.
[00:36:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:08] Speaker F: So we're glad to have them.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: That's great.
[00:36:09] Speaker F: When dads come in with the. They just kind of look at like, okay, I don't know what to do, but they pick up quickly.
[00:36:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, I just like that because when you think of, you know, maybe a pregnancy resource center. You don't think about maybe the father side of it sometimes, you know, and that's. It's a big part of it. So I just think that's neat that you guys don't leave that part of the equation out.
[00:36:30] Speaker F: Absolutely. We're there for everybody.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: And speaking of being there for everyone, talk about some of the different medical assistance type needs that you provide for others.
[00:36:41] Speaker F: I've been trained by our nurse, but she does it. If she's there to administer medical grade pregnancy tests, I can sign the legal confirmation that can help the ladies get started on WIC a lot sooner.
This is important because they can start getting the good nutrition a lot quicker. And we have a great working relationship with our health department. I call Karen Enoch all the time. Hey.
And with our local hospital, I've not had the opportunity to work with Cannon County Health Department, but I'm sure I've just not had that opportunity yet. But I'm sure that it would be wonderful to work with as well. We have limited ultrasounds that we can do first and second trimester ultrasounds. We don't do diagnostic and we don't do entertainment, which is to just do it to tell them what the gender is.
[00:37:29] Speaker A: Right.
[00:37:29] Speaker F: I mean, we do provide a picture. So you. Yeah, it's up to you.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:34] Speaker F: And we do provide the heartbeat sound. We provide a little clip, clip. Now, our nurse is really good. She's detected an egg sac as early as five weeks into the pregnancy. But we prefer they be six to eight weeks.
[00:37:47] Speaker A: Right.
[00:37:48] Speaker F: And what she does is she measures from the crown of their head to the little rump, and then she measures their leg bones. And that gives her a good estimate of the age of the baby. We have a medical director in Lebanon who serves our clinic. We send the ultrasound images to him. He reads them for confirmation.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:38:06] Speaker F: And then we send them to a local OB doctor.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: You guys are really well equipped medically there to assist.
[00:38:14] Speaker F: You know, Nick, it usually takes about 10 years in planning to get this done. We did it in 18 months. We had a lot of help from Cookville. We had a lot of help from McMinnville. We had a lot of help from Peg in Hartsville. So we're all in this together. Together. We also have a standing prescription from our medical director for prenatal vitamins. So we give those out a month at a time, completely free. And with the classes and the medical component, we offer community services. I have a huge wheelhouse of connections that I can start first of all, I'll start with insurance. Are you covered with insurance? If not, let's get started on that.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: Let's just navigating that. Having help with that is a huge deal.
[00:38:59] Speaker F: It's about like signing a loan.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:01] Speaker F: But anyway, then we go to WIC and CHANT and other food insecurities and then any other assistance, assistance that they may need. We've done things from helping ladies, stranded ladies get their cars off the interstate to looking for housing. So we're just there to serve. We also work with our dcs. When they've got infant removal, we have little packets put together for them. They need us. Yeah, we just try to be there in any way. No, no. One day is the same. I talked about if they need WIC or they need chant. But we're not income based, so we're there for anybody.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: Gotcha. That's an important differentiation too.
[00:39:39] Speaker F: Well, anytime you can learn more about raising your babies, you're going to be a better parent.
[00:39:44] Speaker A: You'll never know too much about that topic.
[00:39:46] Speaker F: Never, never, never. Doors are open for all. We are very discreet. We can make private appointments if somebody prefers that, if they want a pregnancy test and they're not prepared to, to let the world know just yet, we do accommodate that. But at the same time, I also want people in our community to know that we are a vital part of that community.
I want people to think of us as a resource, not just a help source.
[00:40:12] Speaker A: Right.
[00:40:12] Speaker F: We're there for everyone.
[00:40:14] Speaker A: I know from your website, I was looking at some of the photos on there. You guys actually have a pretty good selection of supplies and clothes and different. Talk about some of those kind of supplies that you try to help others with.
[00:40:23] Speaker F: Okay, well, formula, breast milk and food are always free. We have given out over 500 ounces of breast milk. That's amazing. We have a freezer and we can keep it and store it and there are requirements to donate it, but that's, that's a huge deal. Our other items are on a point system. We don't take money from the clients. Now we'll take money for donations, but we don't take money. We don't sell the products. Right, but parents can watch the videos and they earn points. They can purchase diapers, wipes, car seats, blankets, shampoo, lotion, nail clippers, bathtubs, thermometers, nasal aspirators, anything you would need for a little bit.
[00:41:04] Speaker A: I don't think a lot of people understand that that's available right there. So close, so local. I mean, you don't have to go far to get, you know, a little helping hand on some. Some of this stuff is pretty pricey and adds up.
[00:41:17] Speaker F: The formula can be ridiculous. Yeah, we purchased a can of formula for a lady the other day and it was $40, actually $38 and some odd cents. But that, that's hard. Right now we have an abundance of clothes. We do need consistent financial support. We have the sweetest little retired couple from New Middleton that provide us with a car seat, a brand new car seat every other month. We have those available for the parents.
We have lots of diapers, but we do run short on preemie size four, size five and size six diapers. Everybody thinks of newborn and size one.
[00:41:59] Speaker A: Right.
[00:42:00] Speaker F: But they don't stay in those very long at all. They move up pretty quickly. So financial support would be the most helpful for us.
[00:42:07] Speaker A: And how can people do that if, if someone's hearing, you know, this great mission that you guys are on to try to help others and the children of the area, what can they do specifically to help you guys?
[00:42:19] Speaker F: Well, where Gabby has set our website up, you can actually donate straight on the website. We do PayPal, Venmo. We do automatic withdrawal from a checking account. If we use the other two services, we have to pay a little bit of a service fee. But if you do it directly from your checking account, we get all 100% of the donation.
[00:42:39] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:42:40] Speaker F: So that's available and we have some expenses with the streams. We have insurance. We actually have to carry three different policies of insurance on our center. The training for our medical component is pretty costly, but it's worth it. Yeah, one time. Gifts are always appreciated, but the monthly.
[00:42:58] Speaker A: Contributions are really helpful for the sustaining reoccurring income stream. Really makes a big difference, doesn't it?
[00:43:05] Speaker F: That's right. I get one handwritten check from a local church in our community. And I just, you know, people don't do that anymore. And when I get it in the mail, I just have to look at it and appreciate the effort that went into that.
[00:43:17] Speaker A: You know, there's still good people that just want to help and they don't want the recognition for it. They just want. They just want to do their part, their small part to try to help.
[00:43:25] Speaker F: People can call me or text 24, 7. It's not unusual for me to get text messages from moms in crisis. It may be 11:00 at night. That's okay. Sometimes I answered at that point. Sometimes it has to wait till the next morning. But Our number is 615-281-8054 okay. They can always reach me by email. Director, rcsmithcounty.org Some people may not think.
[00:43:54] Speaker A: About, you know, when you're in a business or. Or a nonprofit organization like yourself, that you use technology to run it.
[00:44:03] Speaker F: Oh, it's huge. We use DTC as our Internet provider at the Cent. And y'all have always been so kind. If we've ever had a problem, a call in. And Janie helps. And yes, y'all have done a wonderful job. And that's it. I appreciate your involvement in the community. To me, that is key. We also offer the clients to take the classes there, so we have to have Internet connection for that. And then I need Internet connection for the references and the referrals I make. So that is a very huge part of our center is to stay connected.
[00:44:33] Speaker A: We can't do without it in this day and age anymore, can we? So if others want to learn more. I know you gave out your. Your number a minute ago, but can you give out your website again?
[00:44:42] Speaker F: Oh, yes. PRC SmithCounty.org okay. We are located at 108 College Avenue West. And for some reason, when you put that in the gps, it always wants to turn you up the hill. We're actually down the hill. We're right behind Wildflower Nutrition and Heartland Realty. It's a white house, big purple door. There's a sign in the yard. And like I said, we will if people want to be discreet, we have parking in the back. We also can make private appointments, but for the most part, we want the community. Come on in.
[00:45:16] Speaker A: Right.
[00:45:17] Speaker F: See what we do. I think they'd be surprised. What a little treasure we have.
Smith county ranks in the top 10 of providing services for our families and our parents. So, yeah, use them. And even though we are based in Smith county, we're open for everybody. Right.
[00:45:33] Speaker A: So don't be shy. If you have a need, get into it. Right.
Well, Martha, thank you so much for everything you do. You're doing wonderful things there, and I'm really thankful there's people with big hearts like you helping others.
[00:45:47] Speaker F: Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you for all that you do.
[00:45:49] Speaker A: Oh, thank you. Thank you.
[00:45:50] Speaker F: It's been a blessing to get to meet you.
[00:45:53] Speaker A: Absolutely. Well, everyone, stay tuned. We've got more of the program coming up in just a moment.
[00:45:58] Speaker E: My name is Ashley Roth. My husband Caleb and I own stain and seal experts based in Alexandria, and we are a DTC customer.
Caleb grew up in the fence industry, so when we got married and wanted to do something on our own. It made sense for us to start staining fences and manufacturing fence and deck and lawn cabin stains.
We manufacture our own stains that check all the boxes for us that we offer to our customers here locally as well as nationwide that buy our products.
DTC services all of our phone systems. We also have their fiber Internet. For our phone system to work is instrumental for us. We rely heavily on our Internet and phone services from dtc. It means a lot to us that they're local, that they've always been local, and that we're able to support them and their services give us what we need to support our customers. Hi, I'm Ashley. And that's the DTC difference.
[00:46:59] Speaker B: Here's normal Internet speed. Here's the gig difference.
Average speed, Gig not enough speed. Gig speed. With gig Internet from dtc, everything's different. Video streaming is a breeze, music and photos fly and gaming gets real with no data limits. That's the gig difference. Call or visit DTC online and get your gig today.
[00:47:32] Speaker A: And it's time now for Justin Malden to take over once again for Tech News Roundup.
[00:47:40] Speaker C: Well, starting off with a bombshell that was dropped by Microsoft a couple weeks ago when they announced the Mariana 1 quantum computing chip.
[00:47:51] Speaker A: Now, okay, I'm setting down.
[00:47:53] Speaker C: If you were like me, the first thing that you wanted to know was what is a quantum computing chip.
[00:47:57] Speaker A: That's kind of what I was thinking.
[00:47:58] Speaker C: Because it's not a normal processor. Basically it is made up of some different type of circuitry and material that's not in existing silicon. And so Microsoft has said they have created a new state of matter that's not a solid, it's not a liquid, that's not a gas. I am not entirely sure exactly what they're going to start calling it and how the physical properties of it work, but it is been made in such a manner that it is able to be coded quite differently, to be quite powerful and to help in the field of quantum computing and people in the medical field and the science field. You know, we're thinking about medicine, we're thinking about physics analysis are, you know, blown away by the potential for this. And it's very interesting that it drops at this time because a CEO of a recent chip maker stated that we are years away from having quantum computing chips that are able to do the kinds of things that Microsoft is promising with this. And it's also interesting that this is a Microsoft developed chip. And we'll talk about another company that made their own chip recently that introduced to the market. But these big players in tech used to be reliant upon other parties.
[00:49:12] Speaker A: I was going to say, yeah, Microsoft is more about developing the software to run on other people's hardware platforms normally, right?
[00:49:18] Speaker C: Yes, yes. But most of the manufacturers that we consider big tech, it's been a similar thing. They've all been that way. We had the PowerPC days and we have intel days. And now you hear the term Apple silicon because Apple itself swapped to manufacturing its own silicon a few years ago. And so we're seeing this branch toward now. They're not just software developers, but they're hardware developers as well. And so that's very, very interesting. You know, people are excited for, for what it can do in those fields that I mentioned earlier in cryptography and AI and you know that this is just going to be an absolute game changer. And so we'll, we'll see. It's been introduced. We got to get it to the market, got to see if it'll live up to the hype. But, but if it does, it will be revolutionary.
[00:50:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:50:06] Speaker C: The next thing up is Apple has introduced a new product. They've introduced another iPhone. Now they didn't have a big event like they do, you know, for, for their major iPhone announcements, but they've introduced the iPhone 16e. And what this is, is this is a more budget friendly option where they're trying to capture more of the middle market.
[00:50:27] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:50:27] Speaker C: You know, Apple is traditionally a premium product. There's not a low end product per se when it comes to, to Apple's product line. But they have introduced a mid market hoping within the United States and the Asian market to capture some more of that mid market tier because they don't really have a phone that fits into it. Now the problem with that from an analytical size, analysts are saying that they think that Apple is going to cannibalize their own sales and people will still buy the iPhone, but they would have been the ones buying the more expensive version of the iPhone. And so they're not completely bought on. Will it generate new sales? The tech in it is great. You know, it does feature one of the newer chips. It still has Apple intelligence and chat GPT and those things still has a.
[00:51:11] Speaker A: Lot of premium features in it.
[00:51:13] Speaker C: Yes, it's still got those things, those things built into also introduces Apple's first new broadband chip for cellular service. So they have their new wireless broadband chip that they're calling the C1. So this is another app. It is an Apple technically is an Apple silicon chip. It will fall under that line. It is not a processing chip as the other ones have, but it's going to control the wireless capabilities of the device. And so Apple is again shifting away from using Qualcomm, who they've used in the past, to their own internal design chip. So again you see a, you see another major manufacturer swapping to something that they're more in control of and can utilize. Swapping over Meta continues with their heavy push into, into AI usage and they're doing well as far as some more usage numbers have come out. Their stock prices are up. I think Yahoo Finance recently said this may be the year of Meta recently. You know, looking at how people are responding to them, not necessarily that they're introducing so many things, but that they're connecting with consumers and, and they're, they're hitting with them.
I mentioned AI earlier. We got to talk about.
[00:52:29] Speaker A: Oh, here we go.
[00:52:29] Speaker C: We always talking about AI.
[00:52:31] Speaker A: It changes so quick.
[00:52:32] Speaker C: So. So X, formerly known as Twitter, has a division that they call Xai and they introduced Gronk 3.
[00:52:40] Speaker A: I heard that on the news.
[00:52:41] Speaker C: So Gronk 3 has come out and at this point most people are billing it as the world's smartest artificial intelligence chatbot. And I will say that for now because we know how quickly that landscape changes. It's going head to head with chat, GPT and deep seeks R1 model. And I've tested it out already because they are allowing some free usage of it so that you can use it right off the bat, not having to pay for it a little bit. I think it's just some. If you want to get the full experience for what it can do, you have to pay a subscription cost, which is pretty hefty in that. But you know, again, sometimes you get what you pay for. And I think they think they have a product that is designed well enough that people are going to want that. They are offering it at a premium cost. Some, some quick hits here to think about. Spotify is partnering with eleven Labs.
They are doing a AI narrative audiobook that they're hoping they can get some more people. We think of Spotify for music, we think of any of these other platforms that we use, but they also have audiobooks across a lot of these platforms. And well, and Amazon announced they're axing their Android app store that's built in to their devices. They are axing their chime service. So both of those are going to be cut at some point this year. Probably one thing that was really interesting was to see tech giants like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos make appearances at CPAC and make some promises, some partnerships with the, with the current presidential administration. So that's going to be interesting to see, see how, how that works out as we do have the tech sector, the private sector partnering with the public sector and what that may do. But yeah, that's it for that's a wrap on the tech news from we got quantum computing and budget phones and you know, the tech train is not, not slowing down.
[00:54:49] Speaker A: And AI, of course, yes.
[00:54:50] Speaker C: And AI. And listen, you know, are you excited about new quantum computing capabilities? And no. You know, tell us, you know, what, what you've heard about, what you're excited about or if there's something that we missed, let us know and maybe we'll cover it next time.
[00:55:03] Speaker A: And now we're going to bring a part of the show we call what's up dtc. And this is where DTC will be during the month of March and kind of some of the things that we're involved with. And we'd like to talk to you about the Wilson County Career Quest where we get to meet some students around the area and talk about, you know, available careers that they may want to think about as they get older. And that will be held at the Farm Bureau Expo center in Lebanon. And that'll be on March 5th and the 6th. And as far as DTC3 news, of course, lots of basketball being played and we'll still have some, some playback, some programs for that as well as the Bot Score, our weekly sports program. And you definitely want to stay in touch with that and we might even touch on some sports that are getting ready to start as far as spring time related. So definitely keep in touch with us on that. And on that note, I think that's going to do it for the March episode. Justin, thanks again for all your help. I really appreciate you joining us each month.
[00:56:05] Speaker C: Always a pleasure to be here. We'll see you back next month.
[00:56:08] Speaker A: And we want to thank all of our guests today. And we want to thank, of course, all of you for listening and watching. We appreciate you and we hope that you have a very good technology march.
[00:56:19] Speaker B: Learn more about the show by visiting us online@the localclick.com also be sure to subscribe to us on your favorite podcast or video platform so you won't miss our next episode of the Local Click. See you next month.
