Let's Talk with Leaha & Rhonda

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You're listening to locally produced programming created in KUNV Studios on public radio. KUNV 91.5.

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The following is a paid program sponsored by Crawford Management Group and Smart Time Consultants. Please be advised that the voices and opinions you may hear do not necessarily represent the views of KUNV Las Vegas, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

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Hi, this is Leah Crawford.

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And I'm Rhonda Nolan.

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Welcome to the Let's Talk with Leah and Rhonda show.

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We're here for you and we're ready to go.

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Let's do it!

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Good morning Las Vegas.

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How are you doing, Leah? I'm good, Rhonda.

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I'm warming. I'm trying to are you wanna know what this week? Did you see the wind? Did I see it or did I feel it? Oh you were in it You were in it. No, how about the snow? Yeah, I saw that this I mean I was like snow Oh my god flurries for no like like like real snow You saw it. You saw okay. All right. I just you wanna happy Saturday morning. I hope everyone is out and well trying to be out and about. Well I know it's cold but I hope you did get up this morning and I hope and if you're not up already get out there and get some exercise. And you ain't got to go outside.

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Just touch your toes.

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Stay in the house. I'm all for being warm. Just touch your toes. Just touch your toes.

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That's all.

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Just get up touch your toes a couple times. Do a little sit ups in the bed. Something because it's cold. It is cold. I think this is one of the coldest Februaries that I've ever experienced here because typically by now it's like 60 degrees. It's nice outside. It's nice outside and you just go outside with a little windbreaker on and you know do what you have to do. Well now I got on my boots and my coat. Still. Still. But you want to know what it's still taxis and I just want to do a quick just a quick reminder if you have corporations, you know, you have your 1120s your 1065s 1120s they are due March 15th, and that's right around the corner right around the corner Follow the extension if you if you must But you want to do something because the IRS penalties are real guys. They are they are no longer. Oh, we owe Okay, the pandemic. Mm-hmm. All that's gone so it's time for us to get back in action and get back to you know working and doing the things that we need to do but today you know we have a special guest a very special guest and he's been dealing with us for a long he deals with our crazy on a regular on a regular basis um so if you've ever seen our photo shoots um any of our on Facebook, on Instagram. On Instagram, of course, mine is PearlieNomics. And then I got the Tax Boutique and Crawford Management Group. And Rhonda, you have Smartime. And Rhonda Nolan. And then on our Facebook pages, we have our names, Leah Crawford, Rhonda Nolan. But if you've ever seen our pictures, and sometimes when I get the pictures, I'm sitting there, I'm like, who is that?

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Who is she?

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Do I know her?

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Do I know her?

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Do I know her?

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But the person responsible for that is sitting here with us in the studio and I'm telling he puts he is so patient cuz even trying to trying to book it it's it's interesting dealing with three women. But he handles us with such he handled he hand you know what he handles us he handles us he handles us. Good morning, critique. Good morning. How you doing? I see you studios. I'm first of all, thank you for everything that you do for us because our photo shoots, because you know, me and Rhonda don't kind of plan it.

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We just do it.

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You know, it's like on we might say today, can we do a photo shoot on Sunday and we expect everybody to be available. But no questions asked. Thank you for all you do for us. But the pictures because you're you, you, it's like I see you. I mean, you see us and you get some amazing shots. But first of all, tell us about the Las Vegas critique and then

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we'll talk about the Maryland and the New York critique.

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I know where you're going to be at.

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Well we only got a half hour so you all know and since we're going backwards I had to bring you on for part two and part three because the city she even named DC is a whole that's a whole that that's a book New York is a book I'm sure but okay Las Vegas you're here so what are you doing? We're doing this for 10 years, photography, videography, anything to do with media, exposure, definitely camera related, but definitely promotions, marketing, just content creation. But we've been doing it for so long, got a lot of clubs, a lot of businesses, a lot of

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information in this technology of a transition of going from monetizing content.

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Monetizing content. Okay, so when you talk about monetizing content. So it's more than just taking pictures. Yes. Okay. So I know because we have as what video vignettes. That's what Rhonda calls it. Video vignettes. Video vignettes. We have video vignettes where basically you, we record. We just talk about our business for about what, 20 seconds or so? Yeah, many clips. Yes, many clips. And

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what else do you do? promotions are marketing clubs. We do promotion. We did a few events out here in Las Vegas. Everything to do with Las Vegas also opened up on a conscious service dealing with everybody comes to Vegas, they're looking for what they're looking for their taste. We cater to their to their needs with you like you know, this soul food restaurant here.

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I didn't know. Okay, so let me tell you this what he's really talking about. He is from New York and he knows most of all of the hip hop stars that we love. And when they come to town, either they're on their way on the plane or when they touch down, they call critique and they ask him everything, where to go, what to do. He asked him everything. So this this was happening frequently over the years. And finally, he said, I think I want to start a concierge service Black Las Vegas and we're going to put up this website and let

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everybody know where they should be going you know when they come to Las

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Vegas isn't that right? Yes a lot of times people come with a lot of money and you know you used to I remember the amigos is telling me that and we glad to see you it's every time we see you I said why are you so happy see I appreciate it we say you know everywhere we go, Europe, London, New York, there's camera crew there. Vegas is the only place where you can be like, here, here go your hotel key, you get one bottle and we see you at 2 o'clock.

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Yeah.

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So that's what we do.

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We have a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of business people, a lot of CEOs. They all come to Las Vegas and they don't, they have the money, but they just want to spend it to what they like.

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For what they, and not necessarily around what's available to them in that area. They want to go out and explore. They want to explore, okay, so you let them know where they can go and explore.

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Yeah, definitely. VegasNor.Live, we're working on that. But that's just showing people where to go. Say that again though, because I... VegasNor.Live. Okay, all right,.live. Okay, L-I-V-E.

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Okay.

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Yeah, we're working on that.

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But definitely, you just want to... You get like Cathy Hughes and stuff. that But right now let me take a chance and when they get there be like man. I've been watching you for two years I come from Florida. It's the best time I ever had in my life because so basically your Instagram following I see you because I do see you as a matter of fact. I'm gonna tell you a funny story So we were in We went to go eat one day and we were in a restaurant downtown Mm-hmm, and we're sitting at the bar So he got his laptop up and he's sitting at the bar and he doing it he do and I'm just looking I'm watching them like okay so we're gonna talk about my business so you just keep on playing with the with the people on the on the Instagram Instagram he was like no give me five minutes give me five minutes and I was like okay okay 20 minutes later he's like are you ready yeah you know but he's very interactive on Instagram what's your Instagram handle oh I see you studios I see you yes spelled out I S E E Y O U studios Instagram Twitter everywhere tick-tock all the platforms. All the platforms? Yeah. Now do you find that you get more followers on Instagram or on tick-tock? Instagram all day. All day? Yeah. Now is it age okay so these are for adult audiences? Yes. Okay got it. Yeah. Oh the young adults 20 and up. 21 and up? Yeah, 21 and up. Okay, so this is for it and it's because of, well, it's a whole bunch of different types of content.

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Yeah, anything that you want to see, you know, that's going on, I'll probably be there. Definitely throw some pictures.

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So I had to tell you guys something funny. So COVID hit, right? And you know how we felt about COVID and, you know, our thoughts and processes and, you know, we, we moved through it. You know, we got through it. Now it was totally different for critique, right? Because during COVID, when people were at home doing nothing, they decided to have photo shoots and video shoots. So they called critique. So critique was working throughout COVID going to people, putting masks on, but he was going to people's houses doing photo shoots.

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It's more important than it was more serious.

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And videos and all that stuff.

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He was working.

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It was more serious. We're gonna die. We're gonna get this photo shoot that we're supposed to have. So we got our memories. I mean that was I was going to house party. I was doing everything. I would call him up and be like where are you? I'm at a photo shoot. At a photo shoot? Ain't nobody at a photo shoot. Everybody's at home. I'm not. I'm at a photo shoot. I'm out here by the mountains. I'm in St. Charles. I'm here. I'm there. He was doing outdoor photo

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shoots. Because you know because they said you could be outside. So he was doing all these outdoor photo shoots for people in Las Vegas. Wow, because everybody was stationary. Because everybody was stationary. And they had time to go ahead and take those family photos.

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And they also understand the importance of the photos. It was more necessary. Now, we're going to die. We ain't got no pictures together.

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Well, you want to know what that was? Because that was the message we all were getting. Right. That was the message. And it was a very trying time for a lot of people. Some of us have to pivot in different ways. But I'm glad that you were successful. But again, tell us about you. Who is Critique? I mean, what are you doing your downtime?

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Oh, man, I got a nine, I got a 10 year old son. So I take care of my son custody of my children. But that's it. I do his work. It's so time consuming. Like when you'll be calling me for them pictures. Huh?

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You know, this thing.

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I try to be patient. It takes about 15 hours per shoot.

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You know, edited there. Rhonda's cool.

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Rhonda. I say that Rhonda. Okay. Okay. I only ask for my pictures quickly when I have a corporate client because they want

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to turn those pictures around quickly and get them on. I just don't want one. I don't care.

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Just give me one good shot. On my personal photos.

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I don't bother you at all.

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Do I?

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I don't even call.

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I just lay back and whatever they're doing. She don't want her personal pictures.

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She don't care about her personal pictures.

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I don't. I don't care about my pictures. I care about my pictures for my clients.

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She don't want to see those. She's like, ah, you know. But the other photos. So if I wanted to contact you, what would I do?

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Instagram, ICU Studios. But I asked, and then you have 702-544-4513. Say it again. 702-544-4513.

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Okay, so you're listening to Let's Talk with Leigh Ann Rhonda. I am Leigh Ann Crawford. And I'm Rhonda Nolan, and we are speaking with Mr. Critique Haynes from ICU Studios. But listen, for you entrepreneurs, I have to share this with you. Critique is the ultimate entrepreneur. Critique has had several different businesses. He's, and I'm gonna share a couple of them with you, but he's had several different businesses. He knows how to pivot. He knows how to make it happen. He knows how to take his skill set from one business to another. So let me tell you a little secret. Critique prior to being a photographer and being in the media business,

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Critique had a mortgage company. Tell them a little bit about your mortgage company.

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Brown Mortgage Company out in Los Angeles, Maryland, D.C. DMV area. We had 30 employees. When the market crashed in 2008, we had actual lenders, a warehouse line, so we actually could lend money to anybody.

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So you were a banker, not just a mortgage broker.

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And there was only four of us in the country, four was black. So we tried to hold on to that license, hold on to it, paying all these mortgages. And then when the market crashed in 2008, for a year, two years, we held it. And then everything crashed. I lost the club and I had a club in Tampa, Florida. I was taking pictures trying to keep the club open because the market was dead and Cesar called me to take pictures and I came out here one time and I ain't leave. But you want to know what though pivoting during that time was hard,

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especially during a mortgage crash because it was it was good and being a banker is huge. I had about three million dollars

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worth of property that I could have got rid of that I held on to thinking that you know looking at the history the market has never crashed since 1908 where it never came back so I'm like we got to hold on to these licenses.

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1921 was a stock market crash. Not 21, 29 was a stock market crash. on 20s. Right and then you had 19, I mean 2007 when you know it just it just died.

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It just went what it was. So what they did was they took out all the middlemen. Hmm. There's no more me, there's no more Brown mortgages, no it's only Wells Fargo American. That's what they wanted to do anyway so it's hard to get the license back with your actual banker. Now you have to go through foundation. But you know that's why I was holding on to so long and lost so much but I learned a lot so this brought me to pictures and photos and trying to save businesses today you know everything is internet everything's on the phone so I if I had the time I would go up and down Martin Luther King knock on everybody's door so you need pictures you need video you need promotions you struggling because you're not on the internet you're not on Yelp nobody can push your button right now buy uber right now somebody from Chicago says oh I need a phone battery. It's $100 downstairs Let me go find a phone battery look at the look at Yelp and look at your reviews It says Martin Luther King Boulevard say half an hour away buy your uber you from Chicago take your hour to go to the store So you buy your uber and you go there. There's so many businesses. It's not Computer savvy that they missing the 50 million people that come to Las Vegas and that became my job trying to help them because like that's some great ideas But there's 50 million people that don't know you let's come here. That's looking for you. That's looking for you That's looking for they necessarily don't want to be consumed on Normal they really want to get out and about towntown's the first time first Friday's the first time they had so many people leave There's a never had that many people leave the strip to party somewhere else So that broke the knob people not even going to the strip they getting hotels straight downtown I was

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never heard of before. Well also the hotels in downtown that they renovated and changed then you got the new beautiful Circa Hotel so you and you have the D and you have the Golden Nugget and they have and the Golden Nugget has really revamped themselves it's so beautiful in there so now for people who want to hang out downtown downtown is beautiful. Yes it is. You know?

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One more time, you couldn't even go without leaving the skin to them.

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My office is downtown, so I mean, I-

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You've seen it. You've seen the transition.

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Well, you're the nice neighbor downtown.

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No, no.

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By the courthouse.

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I am by the courthouse, but I am a downtown business. And being a downtown, when I went downtown, it was more so, it was in 2009. And it was, we still, it's not as bad, but we had a real bad homeless problem. Yeah it was. Yeah we had a real bad homeless problem we because we've been down there yeah we've been down there since 2000 and I see it was born in 2010 yep 2009 I've been downtown since 2009 and got down there because rent down there is not it's not it's not inexpensive anymore right and most of the buildings down well it was a lot of vacant houses down here at that time. And we actually got a house and we've been in there ever since. I love being downtown and it has changed because I've watched buildings. I've watched buildings erect, some buildings being torn down. I've seen the changes. And I actually, I like downtown Las Vegas. I do.

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I love it. I love it.

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I do. I do.

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I remember when Tony Hsieh came here. I was there before Tony, I was there before. So I remember seeing all the transitions. I was there before you know before the transition. Yeah when Tony Shea came and he saw all the businesses that were downtown and you know businesses were leaving downtown because it was so bad he was giving them grants to stay. Yeah you want to know what's interesting so I got downtown and I know you guys know Lou Collins. Mm-hmm. So Lou has a fan club and fan club was on Carson. Okay. And I remember because I had been here a couple of years and I met Lou and I asked you know I actually you know, I think I want to get one of the houses for you know doing accounting You know because it's a bunch of lawyers downtown And there was a few CPAs a few other businesses, but it's a bunch of attorneys Just so happened. I was across the street from a CPA and The gentleman and I wanted to rent I didn't want to go to a big company I wanted to rent from my owner I wanted to know the person that I was paying rent to everyone and thank you mr. mr. Weisbart because I've been down there now for I like a how does not see her he's 12 mm-hmm yeah so 13 years and I enjoy being downtown I really do it's a great location that you have definitely to see a black owner in

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downtown and the CPA that's definitely working on it.

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Not CPA yet, working on it.

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We still have like- But the fact that you're doing it downtown.

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I am doing it.

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In a major city. In a major city. It's humble to you, but for anybody else, it'd be like downtown Brooklyn, downtown LA, downtown-

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Downtown Philly, downtown DC. You wanna know what? And I think when I first went downtown, I didn't know, I was living in North Las Vegas, and wasn't sure where to go. I know, cause I started off with, I mean, I'm a business owner I started off with a home-based business and I knew every Starbucks right around town I knew every Starbucks and I had a map in my car and I was you know because this before I was using all the Google stuff so I knew what every Starbucks was and I would call my clients and I would meet them at Starbucks get their school pick their stuff up and bring them back to Starbucks and meet them and get my check and it was just that simple I didn't want to go into an office. And someone talked me into renting an office space with them. Renting one of the rooms in their office. And I had to, I think I paid for the office for about four or five months before I even went into the office. Phone was there, everything was there. I'm not, I'm gonna stay home. Mm-hmm. Because I like, I like being home. But being in the office and then going to this office, it was, it was huge. I've been, yeah, so what I can tell you is I am glad that you are helping us with promotions because getting the word out there because you know for me the first photo shoot I was it took us what two years to do it mm-hmm and when we finally did it I think I had to find fell in love I did

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after we did it was over she fell in love now she wants to do one every six You want to know.

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Talk her out of it.

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I'm natural.

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I got a new hair color.

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Come on now.

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But what I can say is I look at the different looks every time and what you say is true though because the look from two, well now three, probably three years ago was different from the look two years ago, which is different from the look now. When I look at the different pictures and I lay them all out together. So it's important for you to get those photos every like children children change every year that's why I take a picture every year so I think you should take a picture because sometimes you worked out and you look you know you slim and trim sometimes you might have ate a little bit too many burgers it might be a little bit thicker but you need to I mean a good representation of who you are and with a photo shoot you take the time to look your best right

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wherever you are so you know when you hear us talking about those executive photos, Kritik is our photographer on our executive photo program. And so he's taking pictures of lots of folks. But let me tell you about another business Kritik had. Let's see now, let's talk about this. So, when Kritik lived in New York, Kritik, one of Kritik's first businesses was fashion. And if any of you guys remember Carl Canai?

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I do.

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Carl Canai, Kritik was one of the partners behind Carl Kanae. Can you please tell us that story about Carl Kanae? Because this is a very important story that entrepreneurs,

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especially new and young entrepreneurs need to hear. Tell us, Critique.

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What up? The old school.

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That K. I remember them K's, baby. That Carl Kanae. I remember that Carl Kanae.

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I can tell our age. You tell people that now, they're like, what?

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Who is Carl Kanae? Who is Carl Kanae? Who is Carl Kanae? Carl Kanae is older than Baby Phad, older than a lot of the other lines. Carl Canaille was the first. Yeah, we was young, AZ. Was Carl Canaille before Madness? Before the Madness story did theirs? Definitely. Madness was on the street. Madness was street. Madness was street. No, I think Madness might be a little bit older than y'all though.

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No, but they was out before us. Yeah, I can say Madness was... We were just first on the go corporate, then they came corporate. They were just on U Street.

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They were on Georgia Avenue. They were on Georgia Avenue. The community base. Yeah, and that's the thing I love about DC was that a lot of times in DC, because you had all days, you had, they have a new one now, I had the name of it, but Madness, they had their own clothing lines. And people in the city supported their clothing line. You know nothing have a Madness sweatsuit or the different type of you know the different the different sweatsuits and stuff. The hats. The hats and stuff like that. But go ahead Carl can I tell you something about that. Yeah so we started AZ, um, Naquan, Carl was the designer, AZ was the manufacturer out of LA and they wanted to manufacture it and they went to LA and uh you know New York is hard to manufacture a full pair of jeans for like $18, and that was pretty much the wrap, you know, took Russell Simmons to FATFORM. We learned L.A. culture before I went overseas, now I was overseas, but L.A. was getting everything done for the cheapest price. In the garment district. In the garment district, getting a wholesale product, finished, washed, denim, sold for

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So, for wholesale, we went to a magic show in Las Vegas here.

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Las Vegas, our first magic, and we got a million orders the first year. A million dollars worth of orders? And you had, so now, you came to magic, everybody loved your jeans, they loved Crocodile, so now you have orders for a million dollars, but you don't have a product to sell them.

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What did you do next? Please tell us. Oh man, the Naquan and them, they found a way to partner with Carl Jones from Cross Colors, a little bit of money that we had and they financed and they became a partner.

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But tell them that part you told me about, you taking the orders to the banks to get

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a loan. Oh yeah, we had the orders. We had the orders saying from Magic, back then Magic was 30, 60 day net where you paid later. So, we didn't have the actual capital, you know, we had to wait later. So we actually took the actual orders and we're like, we don't have any credit, but they have credit. You know what I mean? And they put us with an accountant. And we was using the store's credit because they was paying the bank back directly for the first time. It was unheard of for people that didn't understand the industry. And our demand was so high because we used Big Daddy Kane's dancers.

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Y'all did.

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I remember. We was the first ones. And everybody else was scared of rappers to market their brand I'm like they have a million followers I'm gonna be gone. Right but that was yeah cuz that was back then so that had to be in early 90s. Yeah that was 88. 88 okay so yeah okay cuz I'm Howard I remember Carl I remember Carl DKK.

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Right so what that means to you business owners is whatever business you have if you have contracts worth money you can take that to the bank to leverage to get a loan from the bank to get the money to create your products. That's what I wanted you to learn today. If you have a million dollars worth of orders, you can go to the bank. You might not have a dime in the bank, but you can go to the bank with your business plan and marketing plan and say, hey, I got a million dollars worth of orders, but I need X amount of money to fulfill these orders. I need a line of credit or a loan for this amount of money, they take you seriously.

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They take you seriously.

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They take you very seriously.

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Especially if you can show that it was

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came from the magic show. Exactly. But then that also talks about having a good relationship with your banker.

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That's right, and we talk about that all the time. We talk about having a good relationship with your banker, with your accountant, with your lawyer, with your marketing team.

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You don't know who knows who.

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That's right, you don't know who knows who. But what I really like about Kritiq is that he has taken a, he's not scared to take a chance. No, he's not. If he believes in something and loves something and has passion for something, he will go out there and try it. I mean, think about it, ladies and gentlemen. He went from the clothing business where he was very successful. He went to the mortgage business where he was very successful. And now he's in the media business where he's very successful. So what that tells me is that our parents used to tell us we should pick one thing and just go with it. That's not necessarily true. He has done three things. He's mastered three things. You know what I mean? So we can do more than people tell us we can do. And if we have the time and the energy to chase our dreams and make them a reality, you should.

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Got it. He's done it. He's done it. He's still doing it. So come on. Let me get give us that contact information one more time. OK. Critique Haynes on Facebook. One more time, you moved away from the mic because you twisting and turning and stuff like that. Got me in a daze. Whatever man, come on. It's critiquehaines, C R I T E E K, Haines on Facebook and then I C U Studios, I S E E Y O U S, Studios with an S on all the major platforms. All the major platforms, so if I want to see you on Instagram, TikTok, ICU studio. ICU studio. And I'm his manager, so if you can't find him those ways, you can reach out to me. That's what I need. Smart Time Consultants, 702-908-9577. And we will get you on the books for your photo shoot. And of course, if you want the executive photo shoot, that's Rhonda and Leah together. And Pratik and Kim making it happen. I'm telling you, an executive photo shoot, first of all, you gonna giggle the whole time because we gonna have you doing all the time. You know, put your hand here, do this, do that, do the other, move around. You know, pull your chin up.

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You know, hide that, turn up.

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You know, it actually is an experience if you haven't done it. But Rhonda, her contact information again is 702-908-9577. We are so glad you've been listening to us this morning. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Critique Haynes for coming in and giving us a little knowledge today about your entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs keep your head up. You've been listening to Let's Talk with Leah Crawford and Rhonda Nolan. I'm Leah Crawford. I'm Rhonda Nolan. Have a fantastic Saturday and we'll see you next week. All right. Bye. I'm Leah Crawford. I'm Rhonda Nolan. Have a fantastic Saturday and we'll see you next week. All right. Bye.

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you

Transcribed with Cockatoo