Tune in to this week’s edition of Money, I’m Home as Lynne Jarman-Johnson is joined by Wimee’s Words co-founder Michael Hyacinthe and our favorite robot friend, Wimee! Learn about the many exciting things to come from this fun, educational partnership to bring financial literacy to children of all ages!

 

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0:00:00.6 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money I’m home. Welcome in, I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union, from finance to fitness, we have it all. And today we are talking finance in such a fun way, I’m already laughing. Joining us today is Michael Hyacinthe, he is one of the co-founders of Wimee. Wimee, I believe is also joining us today, which is like… This is like having a rockstar on. Hi Wimee.

0:00:30.9 Wimee: Oh my goodness. [laughter] This is so cool to be… Oh man, I’m excited. Let’s just do this.

0:00:37.9 LJJ: Hey, Wimee, is this your first podcast?

0:00:40.2 Wimee: Yeah. Oh, to be honest it is. [laughter] Oh my goodness. I love doing videos. Oh my goodness, we’ve done like 400 episodes of Wimee’s Words. And oh man, it’s so fun. It’s so fun, but yeah this is my first podcast!

0:00:54.4 LJJ: Oh, my goodness, well, you are famous and helping make you famous is Michael Hyacinthe. Michael, thanks for being with us today. We’re going to get right into Wimee in a minute. But let’s just chat with you. Consumers has a wonderful partnership that is helping youth with finance and education, Wimee’s going to explain that, too. But tell us a little bit about the enthusiasm that you have had recently, because of all of the great things you’re doing in the community?

0:01:21.2 Michael Hyacinthe (MH): It’s such an awesome to partner with Consumers Credit Union, and how we’ve been able to take Wimee and his lovable character to help kids learn about finances. We think financial literacy is extremely important. And so, this collaboration with us, Wimee, you guys aT Consumers Credit Union was a natural fit. And so far, it’s been well received, we’re getting emails and phone calls from people around the state, saying how they truly love Wimee and how they’re learning again about money.

0:01:54.6 LJJ: Well, I’ll tell you what, Wimee, I mean, I have had such a joy watching some of the videos that you are producing. And tell us why, Wimee, you’re excited about helping kids learn about money?

0:02:07.4 Wimee: Well, I just love, love creating and interacting and inspiring kids. And like Michael said, to learn the value, the worth, to save, to give. It’s just important, I think, to have a good balance and understanding of how it all works. Oh, my goodness. [chuckle] So the first episode, we started with coins, pennies, nickels, dimes, and oh, man, we got all kinds of stuff planned coming up throughout the year.

0:02:33.7 LJJ: Wimee, I’m telling you what I had my grandkids who had the pleasure of meeting you and seeing you and they couldn’t stop jumping up and down because they just wanted to get to know you even better. I bet you find that wherever you go.

0:02:50.7 Wimee: Oh, I just love the energy. And it works both ways. I’m like, “Oh, my goodness, I get to meet you and you,” and the synergy, when ideas and possibilities go back and forth and back and forth, and the learning, the joy. That’s the kind of the foundation of our shows is to create opportunities to learn, but learn from each other as well.

0:03:14.1 LJJ: Well, Michael, tell us about those opportunities. You’re running on PBS as an actual show. Tell us a little bit about when that airs and what’s that all about?

0:03:22.5 MH: Yeah, so we air every Saturday morning at 7:30 on WGVU, and we’re excited to share that we’re launching season two soon. And it’s just an opportunity we get to continue to inspire kids to learn, explore and create. And Wimee is just a natural person who just loves to inspire kids to want to learn, to want to explore, and with you guys to want to learn about coins, math and money. And how important it is at an early age to understand those things.

0:03:57.3 LJJ: Michael, tell us a little bit about how this all began. Now Wimee, for those of you who are listening and haven’t seen Wimee, you can go to wimee.tv. Explain where to go online so they can see not only on PBS, but also all the great things you’re doing.

0:04:12.6 MH: Yes, you can go on wimee.tv to find all of our episodes, you can also find Wimee if you go to pbs.org. And in the search box, you can type in Wimee, that’s W-I-M-E-E and all of Wimee’s episodes will be there. Am I correct, Wimee?

0:04:29.4 Wimee: Yeah. What’s so cool is we film our shows live in real-time. And that’s in the afternoons on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. And that’s where you can interact and be part of it and really in the moment and then some of those episodes then become edited and made more television ready with some graphics and, oh man, that’s tech stuff it’s like, “What? We got to do what to what and change this and then do that, and post captioning.” I don’t know that gets complicated but I love to just be part of it. And so, like Michael said, our shows then some of them become part of the PBS world. Oh, my goodness. Sometimes I got to just take a deep breath because I get so excited. [laughter]

0:05:13.4 LJJ: Michael, Wimee is a robot right? Guess what I would call him, like a cool robot.

0:05:22.0 MH: Yeah, Wimee is a robot, but he’s got a heart of joy, a mind of innovation, imagination, and so that’s why kids love him, adults love him. And Wimee is always television ready. Don’t let him tell you that he’s not always on-point.

0:05:40.4 Wimee: [laughter] You’re so kind.

0:05:40.5 LJJ: Well, Wimee my grandkids want to know what your last name is? All right, what’s your last name?

0:05:47.0 Wimee: Oh, Oh my goodness. [laughter] Oh, wow. Well, technically you know how sometimes rockstars they just have one name. So, I guess I’m like a… I don’t know. A wordplay singing robot, inspiring rockstar. [laughter] It’s Wimee. That’s all.

0:06:03.7 LJJ: Well, guess what Wimee? You are our rockstar at Consumers Credit Union. I cannot thank you enough for joining us today. I know you’re really busy. I mean, you guys are taping all the time and helping kids learn about dreams. You have books, not only are you a rockstar on television, but you have really like plush animals. Wait, that would be called a plush robot right, Michael?

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0:06:28.4 Wimee: Yeah.

0:06:29.8 MH: Plush robot, but Wimee loves animals. So, and his favorite friend, his best friend, is a bird named Mobee. Do you want to tell anything about Mobee, Wimee?

0:06:40.9 Wimee: Oh yeah, you know what, Mobee’s my good friend. Hey Mobee, do you want to say hi?

0:06:46.8 Mobee: Who are you talking to?

0:06:51.2 Wimee: It’s our friends in the Credit Union, Consumers Credit Union.

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0:06:55.6 Wimee: He’s all busy, he’s working on stuff. I’m not sure what he’s doing.

0:06:58.2 S4: Hey, Wimee. I’ve got plans!

0:07:00.9 Wimee: Okay, he’s busy getting ready for the show. Oh, man that won’t be easy, my good friend.

0:07:03.9 LJJ: Well, how about this? One time, how about like in the near future, I get, you know, we invite the bird of a feather flock together and follow up on our podcast.

0:07:15.2 Wimee: Yeah, [laughter] that would be great!

0:07:17.1 LJJ: Thank you, Wimee, thank you.

0:07:18.4 MH: I’m sure we can make that happen.

0:07:20.1 LJJ: Okay, hey, Michael, anything else you’d like to share with anybody? You do presentations, right? In schools and how can people reach out?

0:07:29.6 MH: Yeah, so they can just visit our website, it’s wimee.tv, and we continue to encourage everyone to check out our first episode, learning about Coins: Money Minutes with Wimee and friends from the Consumer Credit Union. And every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 4:00 PM, they can go to our Facebook page, which is @Wimeetherobot, and interact and share ideas and see your thoughts become a part of the show. So, it’s a great opportunity. Who needs LA or Hollywood when we’ve got, you know… Right here in West Michigan?

0:08:06.0 LJJ: I have a feeling Wimee’s heading to LA and Hollywood too, so that’s exciting. [laughter] Wimee, thank you so much for your time.

0:08:14.0 Wimee: Oh, yeah, it’s been a pleasure, and like Michael said, you know, being here in the community and county, we love libraries. I have so many good friends at Kent District Library, Grand Rapids Public Library, the Children’s Museum, WGVU, so many people working together, and I just love all my friends here in Kent County and throughout the state and then around the world! And oh, my goodness, I can take another deep breath Wimee. [laughter]

0:08:38.5 LJJ: Well, we love you to, Wimee. Michael, thank you so much for all of the creativity and especially for the commitment to the community. You know as Wimee just said, all of the partnerships that we’re creating, are really making an impact on learning and fun, and just the enthusiasm that Wimee brings to all of us.

0:08:57.4 MH: Awesome, thank you, Lynne.

0:09:00.2 LJJ: Hey everybody… Thank you, Wimee. If you’d like more information, [laughter] it’s Wimee, W-I-M-E-E.tv. Head on over there, because then you can find the Facebook page, you can also go to Consumers Credit Union, that’s consumerscu.org and we have our videos for you there as they’re produced. Thank you so much for listening in today. Thanks, Jake Esselink for your production skills. And if you have other topics or you’d like to connect with Michael or Wimee, just shoot us a note and we’ll make sure that that happens. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union, Money, I’m Home with Consumers Credit.

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