Let's Talk with Leaha & Rhonda

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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 hear do not represent the views of 91.5 Jazz & More, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. of higher education.

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Miss Leah, how are you doing this morning? I am here.

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I am absolute.

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It's absolute.

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It's beautiful weather.

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It is beautiful weather.

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I see we got a little rain this week. We got a little rain, but you want to know what though?

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That was an amazing day.

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I slept in a little bit.

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Yeah.

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It was good.

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It was good.

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It was good.

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It was good.

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All right. Did you work? Well, you're not working out, are you? I'm not. As you know, I had a little slip and fall and so I have about two I have about two more weeks before my doctors are allowing me to go back out to the gym. Okay two weeks you sure two weeks? Two to three. Two to three. Something like that. Yeah but I'm feeling better. You feel better? I'm feeling a lot better but I've been eating a lot of nonsense sitting on my couch because I haven't been able to exercise. Well have you been drinking water? I have been drinking some water. That's some water. Some water probably not enough but some. Okay. But I've been taking some great vitamins, a lot of zinc and garlic, fresh garlic, fresh zinc, just a lot of fresh things I've been putting to my system to help me get better. You know, when you overturn your foot, it's inflamed. So all of those natural things help get the inflammation out, helps you heal quicker. All right, so you gotta get the inflammation down in order for it to heal. Yeah. Okay, well we are, can you believe we are in August?

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We are in August, and the kids are back in school.

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The kids are.

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And you want to know what? We apologize to everybody out there. We know traffic in the morning time has been different. And you know, but we've got to be careful. Watch those school zones, because you've got to be careful about children crossing the street. They're, you know, new grade, new year. But I can say as a parent, please participate with your schools because I know the superintendent sent out an email or a message this week, wanting parents, encouraging parents to get involved in the school district because it takes all of us to improve our school district. It really does. All of us to improve our school district. But today we have a very special guest. This is a woman we have known for a very, very long time. We do a lot of stuff with. We do have a special guest, but I do want to tell some of the entrepreneurs about some of the grants that are out there. Okay, so we'll wait. Okay, come on. I'm sorry. We'll wait. I'll wait. Entrepreneurs, Hello Alice has several small grants for small businesses. Right now, Hello Alice has teamed up with the NAACP to provide $100,000 in grants for valuable business, to be used for valuable business resources. This initiative is to support entrepreneurs of color nationwide in achieving their business goals. To be eligible, the business must be a majority 51% or more owned and operated by a person of color. Applications are now being accepted through September the 1st at 6 p.m. You can contact www.helloalice.com So hello Alice. So hello Alice.com so when you think about it because I You can apply for this $5,000 grant. People always, as entrepreneurs, we're always looking for grants. Let's see if we can get some winners in the Las Vegas market.

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That's right.

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And now, if you have any business owner friends in Hawaii who are being hit by all of the bad fires and whatnot, the SBA has a disaster lending program. So if they have lost their business due to the fires, the SBA has a home disaster loan with higher limits and they give you a year to begin payment back. You can get that information at sba.gov. They've raised the limit so now you can get from $300,000 to $500,000 to help get your business back on track because we know the people in Maui are suffering right now. Right, okay. So again, if you need money, we like to repeat stuff twice.

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Yep.

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The SBA website, you'll see it. You, again, in Maui, and to those people, send you all the love, and love and support that we can from the mainland. So if you know anyone in Hawaii, that money is out there. I'm sure they're getting information, but if you talk to them and they don't know.

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That's right.

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That's fantastic. You got anything else for us? Let's see. School has started back so the programs are getting ready to start back up in September. The 100 Black Men Virtual Youth Cooking Class is taking place on Tuesday, September 26th. And the celebrity guest chef is guest chef Jeff Henderson. Yay! So you know we're going to be making something that tastes very, very good. Because he likes to put together a Creole recipes. And so we always make something interesting. You can sign your student up today. Students can participate from five years old to 18 years old. You can sign up today at www.eventbrite.com. So eventbrite.com. And you look for the 100 Black Men of Las Vegas cooking class. Sign up. And let me tell you about this process though. So once you sign up, please check your emails. Check your emails because you have to go pick up your food.

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Right.

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You have to come and pick up your food. And it's normally the Saturday before, the Saturday or Sunday before, where you have to pick up the food. Again, the cooking class is on a Tuesday. You pick up the food on Saturday or Sunday. The recipe is there.

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The food is there.

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I do it with child or not. I participate Because people that know me and know me well know know me meet me in the kitchen have a challenging relationship We're getting better though. We're getting better. So Please have your children participate. It's an amazing program. It's over. I think we had about 70 80 kids Yeah on the calls. All right. Are you guys doing the other classes are starting also. So Crossroads I mentoring for 15 and 16-year-olds will start in October, but the parent and student orientation will take place in September. And the Pathways to Public Service will start in September as well. And so this is for students who are thinking about a career in the public sector, as a police officer, a fireman, a DEA agent, or anything you can think of. Pathways Public Service will be teaching children about all of those jobs. You'll hear from the professionals who do those jobs because maybe one day you might want to do it. I love it. I love it. And we'll have more information about that every week as the program unfolds. Exactly. Figure out how you sign up, how you get your children involved. Again, get engaged because if we expose them, now, possibly because remember, the children that were out there crossing those school walks and all crosswalks are the children that are going to be making decisions for all of us.

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For all of us.

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Real soon. In about 15 to 20 years. That's right. So we need to take care of them to make sure they can make good decisions. That's right. Good decisions. Now can I introduce our guest?

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Yes.

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Okay.

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Thank you very much.

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I would like to introduce our guest as I did.

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I thought I did a wonderful job the first time but this is the someone that we have known for a very long time and she is in this community and you you name a group. She's in it. If you go to an event, she's there and sometimes I have to stop and say, do you sleep? When do you eat? If you call her about a topic, she's knowledgeable and can tell you, well, no, call this person. I'm going to call them for you and then I'm going to have them call you. I'm like, where do you find the time? I get tired of looking at her on Facebook.

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I do.

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I have to go back. I see she's out there. Let me go take a nap and I wake up, she's somewhere else. Capucine Holmes, how are you? I am doing excellent. I'm here. I'm with you guys.

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I'm doing great.

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Oh my God.

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This is my Pisces sister, man.

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This is my Pisces sister. Love her. Love her energy. Love everything she does. And when I know when she's in the room, that's the room I need to be in. Talk to me. Tell me, because you listed up a bunch of organizations, and I got tired. I got tired. Who are you volunteering for now? Well, you know, I've been here in the Valley for a long time. I've been here for a long time. I've been here for a long time. I've been here for a long time. I've been here for a long time. I've been here for a long time. I've been here for a long time. I've been here for a long time.

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I've been here for a long time.

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I've been here for a long time.

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I've been here for a long time. I've been here for a long time. I got tired. Who are you volunteering for now? Well, you know, I've been here in the Valley for over about 20 years. And you know, I have gotten to see it grow and gotten to see it change. And you know, when I think about it, I think always about the history of Southern Nevada. And can I tell you, she looked fabulous at 830 in the morning.

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No, no, no, not Kappa Santa. She's got glitter.

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She's got glitter and fingernails and jewelry and just looks fabulous. Go ahead, Ms. Kappa Santa. Yes, she does. Well, thank you. And so I look at the history. I look at the legacy and the commitment. And when I came here, I just believe that you should believe in the people that make up your community and really make an impact and make a difference. And so that's how I live my day. You know, I kind of always say that, you know, what you want to be and you need to give that and resonate that towards other people. And you'll feel that energy and it just makes you glow and shine as you see other people glow and shine. And you do. Let me just tell you because I would call myself sneaking in a restaurant sidebar. You know, ain't nobody going to be here. I walk in the restaurant, who's sitting at the bar? Really? Really? I'm like, so I just, oh you on a number of occasions over the years. I'm like, okay, you want to know what I'm going to try somewhere else. Let me just see if she going to be here glowing and growing and stuff. So organizations, let's go through them because they do a lot of fabulous work in this community. Well, I'm on the board of the National Association of Women Business Owners. I'm on the board of the Urban League, the Urban Chamber Business Success Center, the Hannah Brown CDC, You Serve, We Care organization. The National Association of Women Business women business owners, we are a certifying body to make businesses certified as WBEs. Now, a WBE, let's talk about what a WBE is first of all. A WBE is Women-Owned Businesses and being certified as one gives you the opportunity to be able to go after government grants, going to being in suppliers for corporations. It gives you the certification that you need to grow your business. And I believe that people need to know that. You want to make impact when you are a business owner, not just as your business, but even in the community in which you have, in the community in which you serve. And so with the Urban League, and we're actually with the National Association of Women Business Owners, we have a revival that's coming up on August the 30th. And it's at the Sahara. You can go to NAWBOSNB.org and sign up to come. It's a revival. It's to revive the businesses and to show impact and to network and to give strategies and planning because we as women are strong. We are nurturers by trade. We we empower the world and this is an organization that allows you to do so I told y'all Again cap So with Nabo on August 30th at the Sahara. Mm-hmm. What time it's at nine o'clock to twelve Of course is having some great food and mimosas and really feeling revived because, you know, after COVID, businesses had to go through transitions and it's time to revive our businesses. It's time to think outside the box. It's time to collaborate. And this will be able to have an organization that's behind you to gear you into being stronger, gearing you to be certified and to grow. I appreciate that. So that's NAWBO. And we'll come back to that because we're going to talk about that again. NAWBO is one. Go to the next one. Urban League. Urban League. I'm an Urban Leaguer.

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I'm an Urban Leaguer.

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Urban Leaguer. Urban Leaguer. Urban Leaguer.

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And so with the Urban League, we have community programs, but we also have an entrepreneurship program that assists and gives scholarships to non-profits, have workshops as well. It's an organization that's been around and true to my heart was Jacqueline Shubshire who was instrumental in bringing that here into Nevada back in 2003. I just know that the impact that the Urban League makes across the country, but to have that here and being part of that just makes me feel good. I'm amazed because you are Urban League. I was a YP. Yeah. Urban League. Yeah. Mr. Dino Brown runs the entrepreneur section of the Urban League. And he does, like Cap said, he has different workshops for entrepreneurs at no cost every month. He's posting on the Urban League's website. And then the 100 Black Men of Las Vegas always post all of his events on their Facebook and Instagram

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sites.

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So yes, if you are a small business and you have any questions about anything, Dino Brown and the Urban League has an entrepreneurial division and they can answer your questions. All right, come on. What's next? The Urban Chamber Business Success Center. Well, we know about the Urban Chamber. We have an incubator program as well and to assisting organizations to become members within the membership within the chamber, as well as doing workshops, giving support and things of that nature to build entrepreneurs. And if you want to start a business, the Urban Chamber has a program that will assist you in doing so. And I just think that the Urban Chamber Business Success Center gives us the opportunity and business owners the opportunity and community. They do so much as far as getting businesses and to corporations and following them through to make sure that those things are accomplished. So I know with Urban Chamber, just a shout out to Jaron Gray, who is the current chairman of the board. Yes. And Shondell Newsom, who is past chair. Ken Evans, who is past president. And then we've got the fabulous Cameron C.H. Miller as the new president. And I know the staff over there works hard. They work hard. They work hard in what they do. And they, what I can say is several different programs that I do want to talk about that they are doing, they're doing Toastmasters. So for Lunchtime Talkers is their Toastmasters group. And at Lunchtime Talkers, if you don't know how to articulate your business, that elevator pitch, just 90 minutes of personal development every other week is huge. And then we do different events so that we can make sure that our entrepreneurs are articulate. That's right. And can talk about what they do. That's one thing. Then they have a workshop series that's going on now. If you go to urbanchamber.org, this workshop series is free. They're doing time management, bookkeeping, personal development. It's nine classes in the series. They're doing that free of charge, and there's more stuff to come. So they're out here trying to ensure that our entrepreneurs have the resources to be and the reason why I know because I'm an Urban Chamber member and I've been an Urban Chamber member for about 15 years. Yes. Easily. And Kapp and I both sit on the board for the BSC. Okay. And it's a heavy push. It is. It's a heavy push. But we get it done. and they are working and making an impact in our community.

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What's the next organization?

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The Hannah Brown CDC. Oh boy, no that was a... And so, you know the Hannah Brown, she's been here, she is Miss Las Vegas. I call her Miss Las Vegas. And Mama Hannah is really into educating and to making sure that, you know, legacy is there and that we provide it to our youth. And if we don't give to the youth, we can't find where our future is. And so she has the Hannah Brown CDC, which gives out scholarships and makes sure that the youth are connected with people who can empower them and they can have mentors. And I just love the organization because it follows them through for four years, you know, four years of getting scholarships. And so I'm on that board as well. Okay, let's start with Hannah Brown, because they have something special coming up. They celebrating 25 years.

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Woo!

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That's wonderful! They have been, even though the CDC has only been around for about 13 years, they have been, Hannah and Jerry Merritt, Bank of Nevada, every room Cap is in, Jerry's across the room all the time. And Jerry's, you know, Bank of Nevada, small business owner. She was chairman of the board for the Urban Chamber of Commerce, along with Help of Southern Nevada, a whole bunch of other organizations. And she, I mean, she understands children are our future. You know, Jaron, as we talked before, Jaron is one of the babies that came up through all of this.

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Yes.

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And actually, you know, he volunteered at the chamber. He did different things with the chamber. He got on the board, and now he's chairman of the board. But he's, you know, groomed.

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He's put in the work.

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He's put in the work. And that's what, as entrepreneurs, you have to get out there, and you have to see, you know, what's going on and get involved. So Hannah Brown CDC does amazing work. Okay you still got more come on. You Serve We Care. You Serve We Care is an organization that assess veterans who have went through trauma, PTSD's, but you know there's a lot of programs to say hey let's get veterans jobs right but they have a program of entrepreneurship that says, we will help you, but we want you to look at how to start your business and how, as a veteran-owned business, and getting involved in doing your own business and making sure that you make the impact in the community in which you serve. They also have a technology program that's assisting people to learn how to cope, because Sometimes individuals need to have that sector where they're by themselves, and this allows them to do so. And so being part of such great organizations and really making sure that you're making impact into your community, but really being passionate about it is key. Don't just be involved because it's just something to do, but be involved and be impactful. And so that's my my mission and I truly feel that that's how you should be if you're going to get involved in any organization. Okay and then you just joined one this week. Oh the Women's Democratic Club of Clark County. I say where there is power in a room, right? And so part of that organization as well as a member. Okay. All right. I see you. I see you. So if you know, I mean you being here in Las Vegas, what pushed you to get involved? Well, I came from Michigan. I was involved in Michigan. I was brought up like I was brought up in the NAACP, the Black Caucus. I was brought up in that. And so with that being said, coming to a city where there is a community of learning everyone from every part of communities, right, here in Nevada and really seeing where you can see where you can add your value, that is something that anyone who comes in this town should do. You should add your value to a city that you love and the people that you love and so when I first came here I think people when I would go to the grocery store and I would say hey how you doing and give you a hug that was genuine because that's how I was raised. You got to love other people to love yourself. You have to do that.

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I love it. I love it. I love it.

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So you started there then you're involved in these organizations just doing things in and around the city when you sleep. I'm always thinking I think Rhonda knows that I'm always thinking I'll call her in the middle and I know it's late, but you know, so you don't know I don't sleep. I don't sleep barely, but I'm always thinking and I think that the key of that is is that you just got to have passion. In our world today with so much going on, we have to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. I think that that is something if we could take heed of that model and that mission, if you love your neighbor as you love yourself, the world would be such a better place.

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Love your neighbor.

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That's right. Love them. Love them no matter where you live in. Love on them. Yeah. Love on them. Okay. Well I appreciate that, Kat. So what plans do you have in the future? I mean tell me what the next year looks like for you. Really being engaged in the organizations that I'm in and really making an impact of where I see there's a need. Like you know we have a lot of homelessness that's going on around town. We have a lot of different issues that are here, and I think that we will have the capabilities of me within this year to make that difference and to put that time in. And I think that if we set out time, even as business owners or working or whatever you do as far as your children, everything, make an impact. Think about what can you do to make an impact, and that's my key of really doing that. But I did want to tell everybody, if you are suffering from, like, PTSD, YouServedWeCare are having a PTSD seminar on the 24th, and you can go to WeServedWeCare.info and sign up for it. They have gift cards that they'll be giving out as well. And it'll be a great opportunity for veterans that need to be around and learn and be assessed.

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So it's only for veterans? Only for veterans.

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So it's only for veterans. So for veterans. So if you know a vet and if you are a vet and you're suffering from PTSD, you can go to we served we care dot info that is we served because you did serve and we care dot info. Love it. And you're going to give out. They're giving out gift card. They're giving out gift cards and there's assessments. And it is something that will have be able to have the opportunity to get better. Get better. I love it. I love it. I love it too. And for you veterans who are entrepreneurs, there are lots of funding out there for veteran-owned businesses. All you have to do is go to Google and look it up, but it's so much funding for veteran-owned businesses. It's not even funny. So if you are a veteran and you have not taken advantage of any of the funding that's out there, you should. You really should consider it. And you serve, we care, our assisting individuals by doing so. They have a program that will assist them as well. That's fantastic. I love it. I love it. I love it. A lot of information for a lot of different folks today. And hey, all you entrepreneurs, if you're not doing any volunteering with any of these organizations that we mentioned or any of the many more that are out there, you never know who you might meet, but it will also make you feel so good. Make you feel so good. And being involved in as a business owner is important because it shows that you care about the community in which you serve. You know, to ask people to buy your products and to expand your businesses is great but when you give back, that is total impact that will show the community that they should support you in so many ways. Well, I can also say that I know with the Urban Chamber members when they had to do this, when they were looking for the vendors for the stadium for the Super Bowl, a lot of the members did the work and they got the letters. You know, even with the other chambers, they were actively involved and they were doing different things and they got those letters. And I watched, no, shout out to Danette. I haven't talked to Danette in a while, but I see Danette. Danette has grown that business, funnel cakes. She's franchising funnel cake business. And I remember when she started. I remember when Chandel, me and Chandel started at the same time. And Chandel has done some amazing things, but it was getting involved in their community. Henderson Chamber of Commerce, they have a, I mean, just all the different things find out what works for you and then get involved and and don't just you know show up Show up show up and show out right let people know like when you walk in the room people know your name That's right, and they know you're there and you're there to do the work And they want to do business with you, and they want to do business with you because I know that's how my business grew I didn't I didn't know advertising And it was just showing up to a luncheon every once in a while and I would get new business every time I went. And you know that Vegas is literally three degrees of separation. Is it three?

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I don't even think it's three.

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I don't think it's three.

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It might be two.

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It's quite possible.

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I say one because I, well, it depends on who you are, right? Where you are in town because for me it's one. Because I know somebody that knows everybody. Right. If I, I know multiple people that know every, yeah, so it's not, but you want to have a good name when your name is circulating right through that part that's very true you want to have a good name so what I can say as a business owner is if you grow you want to grow strategically and you want to grow where you can exceed the expectations of what people you know have for you you know so you can't say that you got a bad business. Bad business. Bad business. You went in follow-up. Fortune is in the follow-up. Communication. Communication is key. Communication is key. Well I can tell you ladies that we do have something that's coming up as soon as we get in the works because we're bringing back the National Association of Black Accountants. All right. So we are working on that now. And all entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs, accountants, it's not just accountants anymore, it's entrepreneurs, business owners, you know, and I'll give you more information when we're going to have our kickoff because the National Convention is coming here next year. Fantastic. Well, Ms. Kaposine Holmes, thank you so much for being our guest today. Thank you for sharing all that wonderful information about all those nonprofits you work with. Hopefully we'll inspire some other entrepreneurs to get out there and join. You've been listening to Let's Talk with Leah Crawford and Rhonda Nolan. I'm Leah Crawford. I'm Rhonda Nolan. Thank you for joining us this Saturday. Thank you for joining us this Saturday. See you next week.

Transcribed with Cockatoo