Navigating the Path to Small Business Success: Insights from a Banker and Chamber Chair

0:00:00
You're listening to locally produced programming created in KUNV Studios on public radio. KUNV 91.5.

0:00:11
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.

0:00:25
system of higher education. Hi this is Leah Crawford and I'm Rhonda Nolan. Welcome to the Let's Talk with Leah and Rhonda show. We're here for you and we're

0:00:44
ready to go. Let's do it. Good morning Las Vegas. Hey Leah how you doing? Hey y'all Rhonda back.

0:00:50
Rhonda is back.

0:00:51
Rhonda is back.

0:00:52
Rhonda is back.

0:00:53
Happy Saturday morning everybody and guess what this week was Leah Cropper's birthday. Hey. Happy birthday Leah.

0:00:59
Hey.

0:01:00
Yes it was an amazing birthday. Did you have a great week? So my daughter is in town.

0:01:03
Oh fantastic. And my son in love is in town. That's wonderful. It's just you know what it feels good to have them in the house, or you know, to have her in the house. It's been a long time. Like I tell you all the time, she is an attorney. And lovely, she is here with us this morning, and we get to talk to her. She is a tax attorney. She graduated from Howard Law. She is, but she, first of all, she is a graduate of Clark County School District. And she graduated from LVA, went on to Howard University, stayed in Howard for eight years and when I tell you I don't know how this baby did it because she got her BFA in dance then she got her JD MBA went out and passed the bar and I had to look and say like who's child was that? But I am super excited that she blessed me this year by coming to town for my birthday but she

0:01:58
has some amazing stuff going on. Ms. Aliya Mani can you please introduce yourself? Sure, sure. Well, that was quite the introduction. Thank you, mom, for reading the resume. But yes, my name is Aaliyah Imani. I'm currently a tax attorney, and I'm also the founder and CEO of a nonprofit called Uplift. And the premise of Uplift is to provide resources and forums for HBCU students to learn more about law school, the law school admissions process, and also the legal profession. The legal profession.

0:02:33
So let me ask you this.

0:02:35
What challenges did you see, because you were at a HBCU, when it came time to go to law school, what were your challenges?

0:02:42
Yeah, so my primary challenge was access to people who were currently practicing attorneys who I could get or felt comfortable getting advice from. My main resource that I leveraged was Google, right? And so a lot of the information that I got that drove my perception about law school and the process came from these people that I do not know at all, right? And I think that that's, while Google is beautiful, it can also be dangerous because it can set standards that may be unrealistic at times, meaning I thought that I had to be perfect in all ways in my application and everything, but I've since learned that it's okay to not be perfect all the time. And honestly that's why I decided to create this program because I think that a lot of people in the African-American community do not have access to people who are currently practicing attorneys within our community, but there's still like a desire or demand that people want to go to law school. They want to achieve these things which are attainable,

0:03:50
but sometimes you just need a little help. Okay, so what I want you to do is do you have the information up and ready to go? How would someone get in contact with this program? If you know someone that's interested in going to law school, they're an HBCU student, how can they get in contact with or just get engaged with this program?

0:04:10
Yeah, thank you. So we are kicking off our law school admissions program on May the 22nd. Information related to the program is available on LinkedIn, Instagram and also Twitter. You can follow us at Uplift Legal on all of those platforms to learn more about the application process for the law school admissions program. I can say that I have had a first cohort through this program and of all of those who applied to law school, all of them got into law school and some of them got into top tier programs.

0:04:42
That's fantastic.

0:04:43
But let's but but she needs to give you the backstory on that though.

0:04:46
Why did you how did you start their program? Yeah, so I started that program, it's a layered story so I'll try to make it really quick, but as a graduate student I was selected to be in this program called the Hennessey Fellows Program. I know all about that. Yes. Through the Thurgood Marshall Foundation. Yes, yes, they partnered with Moet Hennessey and I was selected as a graduate student. I had to put on a community impact project and it really provided a space for me to give back to my community in an impactful way. And so, circling back to the results of my program, my direct mentee, for example, is currently at UC Berkeley Law, and he will be working at the number two law firm in the United States after he graduates. That's fantastic. So, yeah, we definitely are results- we focus on our results, and we're really invested in the students who are part of our program. So, if you know anyone that's an HBCU student, please have them follow us.

0:05:40
Play it slow, an HBCU student.

0:05:42
Yes, HBCU student. Please have them follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter at Uplift Legal so that they can learn more about the program. Fantastic.

0:05:53
You heard it here first, folks. Heard it here first. I knew she was coming in town and she told me about it, and I'm like, all right, I got weak. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it. Now, can anyone come and get mentored? I mean, I know you want to focus on HBCUs.

0:06:07
So anyone, anyone applying to law school can come get mentored, whether they're HBCU graduate or whether they want to go to a HBCU law school?

0:06:15
No. So we are primarily focusing on students who went to HBCUs or graduated from HBCUs as an undergrad. That's our target market. So we would love to service everyone, but unfortunately we don't have the capacity to. So we're focusing on HBCU students and recent alum.

0:06:33
That's cool.

0:06:34
So how hard is it to get in law school? How many people were in your class?

0:06:37
Yeah, so in my class there were about, I think, 50 people per section and three sections. So there were 150 people in my class. I haven't looked at the statistics lately, so I can't really speak as to like the level of difficulty of getting in now, but it can be quite rigorous because you have to take the LSAT, which is a difficult test, in addition to writing a personal statement, getting letters of recommendation, and having a robust resume. So it can be very challenging if you're going through the process on your own. That's why we're providing the service to help people out.

0:07:09
Well, that is super fantastic.

0:07:10
I love it.

0:07:11
I do too.

0:07:12
Hey, hey, we got one more to go, Rhonda.

0:07:15
Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Yes. Don't forget uplift.org.

0:07:20
Uplift Legal.

0:07:22
Uplift Legal Online.

0:07:24
Yeah.

0:07:25
.org.

0:07:26
No. Not the website. Nope, we don't have the website. It's not public yet. Okay. Yes. LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. All of the millennials are on each of those platforms. So that's how we're able to get directly to them. So you can follow us on LinkedIn Instagram or on Twitter at uplift legal.com Fantastic, but the website is coming soon. It is it's coming. It's around the corner. All right. Fantastic. Thank you so much And we also have another special guest in the studio with us this afternoon. Mr. Jaron Gray, and he is the chair of the Urban Chamber of Commerce Welcome Mr. Gray, how are you doing?

0:07:59
Thank you, thank you, thank you for having me.

0:08:01
It's a blessing being with you two ladies and having a special guest today, Ms. Aliyah. Thank you so much. And I'll just add a quick note. We have a member on our board that graduated from Howard, Mr. Atar Hasibulu. He serves as the state director for the ACLU. So the ties come full circle, right? So this is serendipity for me to be here today, right?

0:08:26
Fantastic Fantastic. So tell us a little bit about your background. Where did you go to school? What did you study and and what did you do for all these years before you got to where you are today?

0:08:35
Oh, she said all these years made me feel old. Okay Yeah, my background is not too spectacular, right? I grew up in a single-parent household My parents were both in the military. My mom came back to Vegas. She's a graduate of El Dorado High School. I'm a graduate of Clark High School. I was actually in the Academy of Finance. So it was kind of full circle, right, to go through the Academy of Finance, and I became a banker. Geri Mary, who has her stamp on me to this day.

0:09:03
Woo, woo, Geri, Geri, Geri.

0:09:04
Yeah, yeah, yeah, has her stamp on me to this day.

0:09:06
We love Geri Mary.

0:09:07
We love Geri Mary.

0:09:08
We love Geri Mary.

0:09:08
We love Geri Mary.

0:09:09
And everybody's had, if anybody knows Geri, has had that mama voice said to you at some point, that Jaren, now you know better. And so Ms. Jerry's definitely got her stamp on me, made sure to give me my first job in banking as a teller, kind of worked my way up through my education and then also working in the bank. I was able to get through a management training program very early in my career, which was very cool, which they don't do much of anymore, right? But definitely helped me out a lot to get through the end of my career where I became a loan officer, went on the sales side, and I focus now today mostly on SBA lending. I work for a company based out of California called Lendistry. We're actually a black-led company that focuses on helping underserved businesses, which aligns very much with my other job, which I don't get paid for, which is the chamber.

0:09:59
Tell me about it.

0:10:00
It's a lot of work. I think I got three or four jobs. I found out I'm on like three or five more committees today that I didn't know about But anyway, that's a whole nother topic But yeah, I definitely love what I do and I love what I do for work and I love what I do with the chamber As well, that's fantastic So, you know Leah and I always say if you're a small business owner, you need to join the chamber

0:10:15
You need to look at all the chambers and figure out which one you think would be best for your business Leah and I are both members of the urban chamber and we love the work we do with them. We love the other business owners we meet with them. And yeah, and you do a lot of work with them, Leah.

0:10:34
A lot.

0:10:35
He knows.

0:10:36
I mean, Leah working on that.

0:10:38
No, for real. No, honestly, he's right because it is when you, especially when you have a passion for something and my passion is small business owners because I think that, you know, we wear all hats. So I am the marketer, I am the accountant, I am the CEO, I'm doing everything. And when you can go in a room with somebody else that's doing everything as well, you know, and you can, you know, you share a war story, like this happened to you, but it talks about having a mentor through the Urban Chamber, me being a member all these years. And Jerry Merritt is also one of my, she has her stamp on me. I came here not knowing anybody and I had a young child. Aaliyah had to be young. I can't remember how old you were.

0:11:21
I'm just going to say young.

0:11:22
It's okay. I'm about nine years old, right? So she's in elementary school and I want to be this entrepreneur, you know, and Urban Chamber. So what I can tell entrepreneurs is you've got to get with a good network, a good network of people that are going to help you grow your business. Through the chamber, I've done VCOS, Valley Center Opportunity Zone, and VCOS, I don't even know what VCOS, I'm not sure if the funding is still around, but... It is. Okay, so VCOS, you're a small business owner and you are in this area, because they have an area that they serve, and the map is on their website, you know, they were given grants years ago.

0:12:06
Right, right. Exactly.

0:12:07
They were given grants years ago, but you had to show that your company was sustainability and they had membership, I mean, input from the Urban Chamber, the Asian Chamber, and the Latin Chamber. And, you know, you got these funds to help your business. I can tell you, working with Jaron has been amazing because I've seen him come up through the ranks. So Jaron didn't just come in as chairman of the board.

0:12:27
Right.

0:12:28
Okay.

0:12:29
So Jaren did the work and we talk about doing the work.

0:12:32
But Jaren, share with how many positions, I mean, what all, it's been years. How many committees were you on?

0:12:36
How many committees were you on?

0:12:38
My goodness. So I'll be honest with you. I actually started as an intern for the chamber. So when I was finishing my degree here at UNLV, I was working as an intern with the chamber. I went through the downturn with my bank that I was at the time, ended up going through a transition period and ended up being an intern. And I'll share a quick story with you. One of the funny things I got to meet Hannah Brown through that. So meeting Hannah Brown, one of the things I told her is I had aspirations of going to law school. The first thing she did is she walked me into the dean of the school over at Boyd Law School, walked me into his office, no appointment, no nothing. Did that. Then said, you got time to hang out with me? I said, yes, ma'am. She said, OK, I'm going to take you to the provost's office. Boom. We in the provost's office, no appointment. This is all off of the strength of me being an intern at the chamber and telling her I had these aspirations. Unfortunately, I didn't go to law. I don't say unfortunately, but I didn't go to law school. Right. Had a different career path to what have you. But anyway, that being said, I end up serving on the business council, which at that time we were we were dealing with programming and also situating businesses around the GTA, the Greens High Awards, excuse me, I use my three letter words, but the Greens High Awards and some other things that we had programming wise. Then moved on into the role as a treasurer.

0:13:49
I remember, but you worked with me as treasurer.

0:13:51
Yes, yes. And they always want to make the banker the treasurer, right? They want us to be in control of the fund because usually for the most part, we ain't gonna steal no money.

0:13:59
Right.

0:13:59
We ain't gonna mess up no money, right?

0:14:00
Right, you ain't gonna mess up.

0:14:01
The bankers are usually pretty good about that, but that being said, it went on to the role of interim chair and then the chair. So one of the greatest things I can say about our organization, our chamber, we were so intentional about the path to get me here, and it was very intentional. We talked about doing this next generation of leadership many years ago. And so when we started talking about, okay, what is that transition going to look like? That succession plan going to look like, we were very intentional about, okay we're going to put people in certain places. Now it wasn't always going to be the fact that I was going to be the chair. My board voted me to be chair and I'm so proud to say that it happened so organically. It wasn't a process of, you know, the current chair named me the chair which is Shondell Newsom, our past chair or whoever that said Jaren's going to be the chair. They voted for me to be the chair. I want to stop you right there because

0:14:51
you hit on some very important people. Hannah Brown and anybody that knows Hannah Brown. We need Hannah Brown. So Hannah Brown just being able to walk you into the law school then walk you to the Provost's office. I want to say that side note if anyone has knows a high school senior right now Hannah Brown scholarship is out. So Hannah Brown scholarship will be out until April 17th And I want to say it is on your website link is on your website

0:15:21
You can go to the urban chamber org website. We have it posted Hannah Brown CDC scholarship still available to students to students

0:15:29
And what I love about the scholarship, so Ali is a four-time recipient Oh, I'm undergrad of the Hannah Brown scholarship what I love about the Hannah Brown scholarship is for Clark County School District students, you apply your first year in 12th grade, you renew every year by sending in some documents, but if you are a Clark County student in high school, you can apply. I mean, I'm sorry, in college, as long as you graduated from Clark County School District, you know, because that's what we look for, Clark County School District, you can apply for the funds.

0:16:02
That's wonderful.

0:16:03
We do a breakfast to award the scholarship recipients. And it's fabulous. It's at the Luxor, and I'll talk more about it. But if you know any high school seniors, especially, looking for scholarship funds, there are a number of organizations that give money through Hannah Brown. Apply. Apply. This is probably one of

0:16:30
the simplest scholarships to do. Yeah and I'm so proud to say there's so many people that have their stamp on me right. So I was an Omega gentleman in high school. So shout out to Damon Hodge. He made sure to give me money for my books my first semester and Ken Evans remembers me from those days and Ken Evans was our past president. He's also on Omega as well. We had so many people that have their stamp on me, it's ridiculous. But like I said, that's what happens. It takes a village. Exactly. That's what happens when you put a village around a child, right? What can really be achieved by that child, right? When you put

0:17:04
that village around it. And I know your mama is listening to this. I want to tell your mama hi. Because Miss Ramona Gray, I haven't seen you in years. This is Leah Crawford. I thought, I'm not going to lie, I said, is that your sister? And he was like my sister. He said that's my mom. Okay all right. Tell your mom. I definitely. Your mother is an amazing. Your grandmother. Yeah. So you three generations here in the Valley and just watching Jaron, Jaron go, Jaron go, Jaron go, and Jaron wanted, Jaron wanting to be inclusive because they have a vision for the chamber. Do you want to talk about some of the things that the chamber is doing?

0:17:42
Yeah. Oh, my gosh. We're doing so many things. We have a lot of moving parts now as a chamber. And the way I kind of explain it to people, we are an enterprise now. So, once again, being very intentional about where the pathways were going to go, we understood that things were going to change from a funding aspect and the needs of our business owners. And at the end of the day, all I care about is meeting the needs of our business owners. I don't care how it gets done, but we have to make sure we service them and we provide that work. So one of the things I talk about now is access to opportunities. So we talk about access to opportunities, the technical assistance and the advocacy work. How does those three things, how do those three things get met? Right. So as an enterprise, we do it from the chamber aspect. We have our business success center, which Leah serves on that board. And then we have the Hannah Brown CDC. And eventually, we'll grow our PACT, right? And the PACT is a political action committee that allows us to do more advocacy, where we can start putting funding behind candidates and things of that nature. But one of the things I'm going to put out here in the next couple of weeks, I'll kind of give you all the highlight, is doing a legislative session highlights, right? We've already spoken and sponsored many bills, many initiatives that really support our small business owners, but then when you talk about the Business Success Center and what they're doing, oh my goodness, like from a programming aspect, I'm just gonna say it myself, there's no chamber in the city that does what we do from programming. And I'm also gonna say there's no chamber that's as diverse as ours. Not just from a membership standpoint, but a board standpoint. When you look at our board makeup, when you look at the board of the business successor, the board of the urban chamber, and you look at our membership makeup, we are so diverse. We cover many industries, many demographics. And I know people use that word diverse in a very general term, and sometimes they limit it to old age, or we have most males and women on the board, or whatever. We cross every kind of division you could think of when it comes to diversity. So I'm very proud to say that I serve a very diverse board. And I'm proud of the work that we do from a mission standpoint. Because if we're meeting those three things, we're giving them the advocacy, the access to opportunities, and access to capital, we're doing great work. And I'm very proud of what we're doing right now.

0:19:53
That's fantastic.

0:19:55
Because I know right now, it's a few programs going on. And we'll talk more about the BSEs, the Business Success Centres Programs. We'll go through and we'll talk about those as we launch them. Because they're not being launched yet. We're still working on just the logistics of it. But when we launch those, those will be huge for entrepreneurs. Because we're going to hit every angle. We're talking about the marketing. We're talking about accounting and finance. We're talking about computer technology, access to capital. But y'all do that now though.

0:20:25
We do all that. So we're expanding on it and just to have a little bit more conversations. That sounds good. A lot more conversations. So for any small business owners that are looking for any type of loans to keep their

0:20:37
business moving and shaking, do you have any products right now at the bank that you work

0:20:41
with? Yeah, yeah. So a little bit about where I work now. So actually we're not a bank technically because we don't accept deposits. But what that means for a small business owner is we have a larger credit box. So if anybody's ever dealt with a bank and had to go through their underwriting process, understand the fact that not every bank is made the same. Not every bank is going to say you fit in our little cube and you can get a loan from us. So what that does for us makes our little box a little bit bigger, right? So not by being a bank. But I'm so proud to say I work for a black led company. We specialize in 7A lending, which is the largest 7A, right, SBA 7A, which is the largest program under the hospice of the SBA. It allows for so many diverse different things like working capital, equipment, buying real estate. And one of the big things that's happening right now is the transition of businesses. So one business to another person buying that business, which we call them business acquisition loans, but definitely a big part of what we do right now. And I'm proud to say our lender is like, we're active. We're active. You probably heard some of the news lately. I'm a couple of banks unfortunately have failed recently. And they're in a strange situation, right? Because if anybody remembers that scary time of 2008, 2009, the banks that just recently failed don't meet those metrics. And I don't want to nerd out on you, but it's a different situation. But I will say it's going to change the landscape of banking as we go forward. We're going to need more lenders that are considered alternative lenders, like my company, to fill that gap. And I'm proud to say we have chamber members that are filling that gap, like Access Community Capital, Access CDFI, with Nick Steele and his company. We have a few different opportunities to fill that gap, the Women Business Center, Leanna Jenkins. There's a few folks that are trying to fill that gap between what banks are saying they will do and what they won't do. But like I said, we all work in conjunction. I'm proud to say we have a good community of a network of lenders. I can't just talk about myself because there's so many of us that fill that gap.

0:22:46
So tell me about the SBA 7. What are the qualifications for that loan and what's the interest rates like?

0:22:56
The qualifications are very minimal because we'll do startup lending. So we'll work with someone that's never had a business in day in their life. We work with people with lower end credit scores. And I say lower end is like 640 and lower, right? You know, just looking at a credit profile, 640 and lower is typically lower. But we'll work with different businesses and different parts of their business life cycle as well So yeah We don't have a lot of exclusion but with the 7a program the problem that you run into is you have to find a lender that meets what SBA says is allowable and what they say they're willing to do and then how do they marry those two things up and say I'm Gonna deploy capital into my community So those are those what you have to kind of figure out and one of the things we always talk about with Capital Connections, one of our major programs with the chamber, is interviewing your banker, interviewing your lender. Going through that process of saying, just like you interview someone to buy car insurance, do your taxes or anything else, I'm gonna interview you to give me a loan.

0:23:53
Okay, so let's talk about that because Rhonda and I always talk about relationships and the real relationship. How do I interview, what am I asking a banker? Yeah. What kind of questions am I asking a banker? I don't know.

0:24:08
I always tell people the easiest thing to do is come in understanding what the ask is. Understand what you're really asking for. Are you coming in saying, OK, I need working capital? OK, if I need working capital, what do you need working capital for? Is it payroll? Is it inventory? Because inventory is not technically working capital. Is it to pay rent? What does that really look like? Understand what the ask really is. What are you trying to accomplish at the end of the day? One of the first questions I always ask people is, okay, one, what are you trying to accomplish? Then two, what keeps you up at night? So if I'm dealing with an existing business owner, one of the things I always ask them is, what are one of the things you worry about when you start talking about I need more funding? What

0:24:47
do you worry about? I am a new business owner and I don't know what I don't know. What can, I have to know my ask. And you're right, you got to know the difference between working capital and assets. Because inventory is an asset, inventory is not working capital. But I don't, I mean, how do I even know what bank to choose? Because you hear the things about the big banks. What banks are even friendly to small business owners?

0:25:12
I always tell everybody, start with the bank you bank with. You've already started building a relationship with them And even if you never even went in and talked to a banker they have your money You got your deposits they can go through your account and say okay This is how this individual uses their account on a day-to-day basis or a weekly basis They can start doing an assessment for you right off of that And there's so many tools that say like a Chase Bank or a Bank of America America has now built into their systems where they can start doing certain assessments for you. Start there. Number one. Number two, if they're not meeting your needs, they're not responsive. They're not answering your questions. They're not, they're not not giving you that due diligence period or what have you, as you go through the process and you, you're not feeling comfortable with them. Please, please, please interview other bankers. And the first thing I would say is, okay, if you came to me and I know you came from the bank down the street. The first thing I'm going to ask you is why did you come from the bank down the street to talk to me?

0:26:07
So let me ask you this as a banker.

0:26:09
I'm telling you from a 16 year banker's experience.

0:26:11
I'm going to ask you something as a banker and this might be, you know, you can not answer this if you don't want to. You as a banker, do you go to your clients and ask them for money? As far as what now? Just ask them. I mean, you just ask your clients to give you money to help out? I'm not sure what you mean. Okay. Okay. No, because he don't do it. That's why. Yeah. No. Okay. No, I just know because I guess what I people you have to know who you're dealing with as with a banker. And with a banker, like I send everybody to Jerry Merritt, because Jerry Merritt takes bank of, I mean, the bank takes care of you. And other banks, you know, other other friends that work at different banks, because you want to know someone at the bank What you did that you're working with?

0:26:54
Well, I know I've been offered kickbacks. Don't get me wrong. I've been I love the way you answered that though Yeah, I'm gonna offer a kick back. So I never my integrity is worth more than that, but But as you say, but at the same time, it's like I'm a big believer in I'm a very altruistic person It's the reason why I serve in the role is the chamber is the chair of the board, right? You have to have a giving heart. If you don't, you can't do this work. You can't, you can't sit there and listen to a business owner say, Hey, I went through a loss of 50% of my income during during 2020. You can't listen to a business owner say I'm going through a divorce right now. And I'm going through this mix up with my business and not feel passionate about it. So that's that's where I get my passion from. That's where I get my energy from because I want to hear those stories. Most people can't take I want to hear it I want to know why why do you want me to help you?

0:27:44
Cuz I'm around with you as fast as you run, so let's get it done. I love it. I like it, too

0:27:49
I like it too. So mr. Jaron great. Thank you so much for being our special guest on the let's talk with Leanne I'm to show this beautiful Saturday morning. Hey, Las Vegas. Have you guys been out to exercise? You know, I always like to start the day with exercise

0:28:05
I know you always say that cooking class Yes cooking class from 100 black men of Las Vegas is having their youth virtual cooking class on Tuesday March 28th You can go to event right comm to sign up yourself or your family member. I promise y'all I'm telling again Rhonda because okay, so y'all don't understand. It's gonna get y'all to food. Go Rhonda.

0:28:26
What's the one thing again?

0:28:27
You can visit us on the Facebook page, 100 Black Men of Las Vegas, or you can go to the eventbrite.com and look up the 100 Black Men of Las Vegas, and you'll see the link for the youth virtual cooking class. It's open up for children from 7 to 18 years old,

0:28:40
and it is a family affair. It's a family affair. And with that note, we are out of here.

0:28:44
We are out of here.

0:28:45
Mr. Leah Armani, it's always good to see you.

0:28:49
Thank you. Thank you.

0:28:50
Thank you. Yeah, this is great. And Mr. Sharon Gray. Oh,

0:28:53
pleasure. Blessings. I appreciate y'all having me. We're gonna bring you back. We'll bring you pleasure. Blessings. I appreciate y'all having me. We're gonna bring you back. We'll bring you

0:28:56
back. You got more information. Thank you so much. Peace. Peace.

Transcribed with Cockatoo

Navigating the Path to Small Business Success: Insights from a Banker and Chamber Chair
Broadcast by