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 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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Music

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Hi, this is Leah Crawford and I'm Rhonda Nolan. 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. Let's do it!

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Good morning Las Vegas. Hey Leah, how are you doing on this bright, sunny Saturday morning?

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It's cold. It's too cold. Yes, that is correct. It is quite chilly outside.

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But this is a good time to go work out.

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It's a great time to work out.

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It's a great time to get up this morning and go out and do your once around the block or

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two or three.

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Whatever works for you.

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Whatever works. You got to get that summertime body.

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You got to get ready.

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Hey, cruising season is right around the corner and we got to get ready for swimsuit season. Well, you know I tell you all the time, you never know when swimsuit season is going to be. You should always stay ready. That's right. But if we have to get ready. If you stay ready, you don't have to get ready. However, if you ate a lot of stuff during the holidays like I did.

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A bunch of pound cake and ice cream and things of that nature. Well, we need to go work out a little bit.

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Well, I want you to say congratulations to me because I just today is my last day of the 21 day Daniel Fast.

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I had no meat for 21 days.

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How do you feel? A lot of praying, a lot of meditating. But that's part of the fast, right? So it's about praying and meditation. The diet just goes along with it. I feel lighter. I am very happy that I made it through. Tonight at midnight, I got a lamb chop waiting. I got a lamb chop waiting. Really?

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At midnight?

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At midnight.

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You're not going to wait until the next Sunday morning to have turkey bacon or something? Nope.

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I need that lamb chop at midnight.

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And I might even set my alarm clock to go put them in the oven. I might put them in at about 11, 30, 45 so I can make sure that I can eat it at midnight. It has been an amazing experience. I look forward to doing it again next year. Mm-hmm. You know, I know you got some stuff going on because you got the cooking class coming up. You know, I love that. Oh, yeah.

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So the 100 Black Men in Las Vegas has their virtual youth cooking class that's taking place this Tuesday, the 24th of January. And I'm going to be the guest chef for the month to kick off the year. So it should be fun.

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What are we cooking?

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We are, well, it's a surprise. I can't tell you. Okay.

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You know what?

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It's a surprise.

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See, y'all, she got all these surprises, but what I can tell you is can they still sign up for the class?

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You probably have until about 5 o'clock today to sign up. Okay. And that's really late because we pass out the food tomorrow, which is Sunday morning, always by a little bit extra. So if you have a child between the age of 7 and 18 and they're interested in cooking, please have them sign up at Eventbrite, www.eventbrite.com for the 100 Black Men Virtual Youth Cooking Class. 5 o'clock is probably the last time you could do it for today because I'm going shopping when I leave the show. I've got to get all the food for all the kids and then we're going to pass out food tomorrow at our usual location.

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Okay, so I want you all to understand this because Rhonda, how long have you guys been doing this?

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We have been doing this since 2020, since the pandemic.

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Since the pandemic and the most ingenious idea because you set your computer up and you zoom the meeting and you are in your kitchen. They supply all the food so you have to go meet them and get the food but you're in your kitchen cooking and it is so funny. It's so much fun.

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I think we've made dumplings and chicken and dumplings, chicken noodle soup, chicken noodle We have made Italian pasta dishes. We've made desserts.

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Right.

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And one time you gave all the children Williams and Sonoma aprons. Yeah. Because I got a Williams. I got one because I have a child.

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William and Sonoma has been a proud sponsor along with Albertson Vines and the Southern Health District has been sponsors. Southern Nevada Health District. Uh-huh.

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Southern Nevada Health District. They all have been sponsors and have been part of it. Also, Sears Entertainment has been a sponsor as well. So, yeah, so the kids get nice little gifts sometimes of aprons and spatulas and those egg whips. Well, nobody's buying eggs now because they're $10 a carton, but prior to when people were buying eggs, when eggs were, you know, $3 or $4 a carton, we had egg whips and whisks and all that fun stuff. Right, so I can tell you guys. So, again, Rhonda, let's talk, you can go to Eventbrite.com. Look for the 100 Black Men Virtual Youth Cooking Class. Also for you college freshmen and sophomores, we have a Career and Professional Development Club that's getting ready to happen. It's going to be mentoring young people and teaching them how to do their resume, how to do their cover letters, how to interview one-on-one, how to interview in a group setting, personal development, kind of guide them in what they need to do, what types of internships are available, what types of jobs are available. And then after this whole 10-week class of professional and career development, if you need an internship, we'll be able to place children with internships. And if you need a job, we'll be able to place people with jobs. Okay so say that again where do I go sign up for that? So that's on the 100 Black Men of Las Vegas's website and that's www.100blackmenlasvegas.org. Now is LV spelled out or is it Las Vegas is spelled out? So the number 100 is spelled out and Las Vegas everything is spelled out. Got it. Alright so that's amazing kudos to the 100 Black Men of Las Vegas because you are doing a lot of work in this community, especially with our youth.

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Thank you.

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Thank you very much.

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I really know I see you because you I know the cooking class and I look forward to it. And I know can we cook and Nas and I think one time we were even late and we had to hurry up and rush and get into it because we were late to the class. But thank you Rhonda because that's that that's huge and it's virtual.

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Yeah, you're very welcome. I just you know, when when COVID happened, I just said what can we do for the kids that are sitting at home? Because everybody was at home. I was at home. We were all at home. And I was like, you know what? I know that when I was a child growing up, I spent a lot of time cooking with my mother and my grandmothers. And that brought me joy. And it helped me because when I got to college, I could actually cook because the cafeteria food was horrible.

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So I figured if I liked cooking when I was a kid, I'm sure these kids would like cooking.

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And they do.

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And they do because I think the list is getting larger and larger. Every month, we get more and more students. And what we love about it at the 100 is that it's not just the students, it's families. Because at first it was the kids by themselves, then it was the kids and their mothers.

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And then the fathers start cooking.

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No, because it was cooking.

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So the whole family is in the kitchen.

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We had all the family in the kitchen. And you see a whole bunch of different kitchens and stuff.

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I got some decorating ideas.

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And then they compete.

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You know, so everybody's making their own dish and they're like, mine's going to taste better than yours, yours is going to taste better than mine.

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I'm putting secret ingredients in it. And then you have some amazing chefs that come on.

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We do.

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We have, oh, Chef Jeff Henderson has been fantastic. He is our celebrity chef that works with us. And then we've had chefs all over the country because not only do we serve as kids in Las Vegas, we have kids in Chicago, Miami, New York, and D.C. that participate in the class. And even though the class starts at 6 p.m. and it's 9 o'clock on the East Coast, they still cook. They still cook. I love it.

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I love it. Well, thank you, Rhonda, for all you do. So if you got those young chefs, those aspiring young chefs, and again if you're a local here in Las Vegas, they supply the food. I'm just telling you all, they supply the food. All right, so we have a special guest.

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A very special guest.

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I have been waiting to get her. I've been asking her for a while to come on one of our shows, and we got her here today. So I'm going to let her introduce herself to you, Las Vegas, and tell you all about her business. Good morning Las Vegas. Good morning. Thank you so much for having me ladies. You're welcome. So what is your business? So first introduce yourself. Absolutely. My name is Krenisha Fink. I go by Kree and I am the proud owner of Nail Therapy Beauty Boutique. It is a black owned full service nail salon. We're located in downtown Las Vegas. Yes, yes, yes. And we are on the boulevard. Our address is 804 South Las Vegas Boulevard. And that's by Las Vegas Boulevard. And so we're right on gas and Las Vegas Boulevard. If you go past Charleston, you went too far. Okay. But if you're coming from South you got a pass trial Yes, you have right and this is the next one and if you go past gas you went to Far, so yeah, so we're right on the boulevard I like to say if you know where the famous Pawn Stars is on the boulevard right across We're right across the street from there And that's a kind of a landmark where I like to give people a direction and we're open six days a week 10 a.m.. To 6 p.m.. We're closed on Sundays only. Got it. So what made you get into nails? Well first of all, you're a licensed cosmetologist. Yes. Why nails? So nails has always been a passion. Cosmetology is the full spectrum of the business. So with cosmetology you can do a little bit of everything. You can do hair, you can do nails, you can do aesthetics. And so, I loved having that opportunity to be well-rounded, so that's why I decided to go for the full cosmetology license, because you can just go for a nail technician license. And how long is that? So if I wanted to sign up, how long is that? So it varies from state to state, but in Las Vegas, it's 1800 hours. Okay, in Nevada, okay. Yeah, in Nevada, it's 1800 hours. It's 1800 hours to be licensed. Is that six months or a year? It depends on what school you go to and your schedule. If you want to go night and day classes, if you just want to go just straight day classes, so it depends on what school you go to their curriculum. I was fortunate enough to go to Votech. Okay, yes, yes! What up Vegas? Right, right. So I actually got my cosmetology license from Votech, which is now Secta. Oh, nice. Yeah, so it's a trade school here in Las Vegas, and you can go there for health occupation, automotive. I went for Cosmo, so I've actually been licensed since 2003.

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Oh wow.

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I gotta say, not only did you get a high school diploma, you got your cosmetology license. Yes ma'am.

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That's very smart.

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You know what, that's huge.

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That's very smart.

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That's huge.

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Yeah. That's huge. And that means you got that through CCSD.

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Right.

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Yes ma'am. Okay, so all your loans or any, got it. Okay. All you do is you pay for your kit and it's a two year program. You go through it while throughout your cosmo throughout your high school you take your your core classes the first part of the day and then you take your cosmetology classes at the end of the day that is huge yeah it's amazing that is huge it's amazing and I'm always telling my clients who have young girls who aspire that are you know that live in Vegas and they're they're trying to figure out what high school they want to go to if they're interested interested in cosmetology to definitely look at Votech as an option. Wow, it's an amazing. So the sector still do the same sector still does the same thing. They still do the same thing. I was just there last year visiting with them. My teachers are still there. Oh, actually, a smart if you have time in high school to go to cosmetology school while you're there, and they pay for it. And even if you go on to college or anywhere else you still have that training. But you're graduating with first of all, because honestly, remember in college that's how a lot of girls made extra money. That's what I was getting right saying. Young ladies who are taking cosmetology in high school, when they got to college they was good because they could do nails on the side and make extra money. Extra money, absolutely. And the people who could cut hair. Anybody who could, you know, the men who could cut hair, things of that nature. Now do they do barbering too or no? No, it's Cosmo. That's a different school. It's just Cosmo. Alright so that is huge so let's talk about nails why would because you know women do a whole bunch of different stuff why would why should I come get my nails done? Well for us at Nail Therapy we are a boutique style salon so when I say that it's a more personalized intimate feel you have a lot of one-on-one with your account, your, your, I'm sorry, your, your technician. It's more personalized service. We educate you on why certain products and certain things work and they don't work instead of just doing what, you know, you think is the right thing. But then at the same time, you're probably thinking, well, this isn't working for me so we educate you on why it's not working. And offer solutions.

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Can you see?

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Can you see?

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Can you see?

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Exactly. When I turned around I was like, you see these?

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Y'all can't see.

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So Liz's nails look absolutely gorgeous and she has been a client of this salon for a very long time. And she enjoys this salon.

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I do. She loves it. Let me just say and I tell people whenever you're dealing with professionals like we talked about Kim with hair. Mm-hmm You have to be respectful of their time. That's right, and I always book my appointments. Mm-hmm, and I book my appointments I think my appointments might be booked for the whole year. Yes For the rest of the year, right only because I want my and I had every other week slot, right? But like she's talking about with the education, so it was, well, try this service because your nails will last longer. And what I love is it wasn't about the money, right? Because most people will, you know, I want you to come every other week. Because I was an every other week client, but they showed me something different. They said, well, now you can come every three weeks. And one time I pushed it because I guess life got busy and it was four weeks just one time. And I was like, oh my God, my nails still look good. So I love nail therapy and I thought it would be awesome and amazing for just the valley to hear because it's a boutique salon.

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I think it's four nail stations.

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Yeah, we have four nail stations and five pedicure stations. So it's small.

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You also have the esthetician.

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Yes, we do have an esthetician now. We just added an esthetician this year, the beautiful Dani Nicole, skin by Dani Nicole. She's also a black-owned businesswoman, and she specializes in, again, educating the clients and why things aren't working out for you instead of just doing the service, giving you the facial and sending you on and telling you, okay, I see you in the mind like no she educates she helps you she orders your products for you she follows up with you she checks in with you make sure you're doing your your nightly your nightly cleaning and I learned at the Haraway that the nightly facial I mean the nightly cleaning the nightly cleansing is actually more important than the morning clinic oh wow okay so again that that union that we collaborate the same, like we have like-minded in educating our clients and not just like Leah said, it's not about the money. You know what I mean? But you wanna make money. Of course, we do wanna make money, but that even generates money for us, because it's word of mouth. You're doing, your nails are looking so great. You're gonna tell this person, your skin is glowing. You're gonna tell that person. So the money is going to come once you know if you're delivering a premium product. So we have Miss Cree on here from Nail Therapy Boutique Guys. And I have

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questions, questions. So what type of nails do you do? Tell me the different

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styles, the services people could get. So we're full service. So we do everything from the classic manicure, basic manicure, classic polish, all the way to the new trending gel ex extensions. We do acrylic. We do full service spa pedicures as well. We offer upgraded pedicures, paraffin wax, CBD infused. Nice. All things, yeah. Yeah, we're you know nails have revolutionized yeah like you can't go nowhere without somebody talking about nails on TV or or whatever so nails have revolutionized and so we did we want to keep up with you know what the trend and we want to keep up with what's going on in the industry because it's important that's right and with our location we get a lot of tourists, you know, so you might get somebody from Milwaukee or you might get somebody from Chicago or from Europe and Canada, Canada, you know, and that's wonderful and they want, you know, different designs and different styles. So we try to keep up with what's what's going on, you know, in the in the world so that when we do get those clients we can make sure we can provide the proper

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service. So if you would like to make an appointment to come see Ms. Free and her team, you can contact them at 702-685-4515. Alright, say that again. 702-685-4515. Now how about parking, downtown?

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So parking. But fortunate for us right now, parking is free. Still free. Still free. On Gas Street and on Hoover, you can still park for free. So we're still fortunate in that arena to be able to still provide free parking in downtown. And like I said, every three weeks, I pull up in the same spot. Yeah And I love it. That's a perk. Yeah, it's a perk and and I love the fact of how you guys schedule Yeah, so you're not waiting to get your nails done when you come in this line. You're getting service Yeah, and for you small business owners remember time is money time So we need you to go to professionals like Cree who can get you in and out in that time frame for whatever service you're getting. Yes, yes. Because a lot of our clients have busy lifestyles and you know, they want to, when they come in, they want to get in and get out. They don't want to sit, you know, for 30 minutes with their feet in a pedicure bowl. Right. Because you're trying to finish up somebody's nail. And you know, at times, you know, things do come up or you know, somebody has a nail repair and it's not booked or something like that where it does take us a little time but it's not every day. I have never honestly I have never waited in a salon for you guys. Yeah and I've been yeah it's been probably about how long have you been down there? Four years. Oh wow. I've been coming to you for four years. I've been coming to you for four years. Yeah because we have come to her almost since they opened. Yeah four years. Yeah and what I can also tell you is your nails. So when even though now I'm doing gel X and it was a process for them because you know they've they work with me and my crazy. Yeah. When they soak off and not pull off soak off the gel X my nail beds are still healthy. Oh that's good. So you know sometimes with the acrylic you see the lines in your nail beds. That's wonderful.

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It's nail care.

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I think Cree looked at my nails one day, she was like, your nails, oh my God, they look like, oh my, I'm like, yeah, because it's taking care of them.

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So Cree, tell me, COVID-19 for a small business owner, how did you survive COVID-19 and all the shutdowns and things of that nature?

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It was very interesting because we had just opened. Yeah. So literally, we had just opened and we was like, it was just me and one of my other technicians and we was just like working every day, seven days a week trying to build a business. Yeah, that's my need. This is me Anita working every day, every day networking and then it was like, what am I gonna do? I got rent to pay, I got shop rent to pay, house rent to pay. Right, right. I got all these bills and you know, especially being a small business, you don't know what your landlord is gonna do. You don't know. Right. It was scary, but at the end of the day, it all worked out. We were closed for three months. Okay, we did close down for three months. But we we we make it. We made self care kit. So a lot of people were trying to figure out how to get their nails. Right, right. He's doing during the pandemic, because pandemic because they got like I remember I vividly remember one of my clients kind of like oh you guys are open I'm like yeah we'll be open and then literally 10 minutes later they went on tv and was like no y'all closed it and I was like oh no and so we had to get creative so we made kits and we put it on our website and we would drop them off or you can pick them up at the shop and we would hand them out through the door and they were removal kits and they had acetone, foil, nail polish, cotton, everything you needed to remove your nail. So we had to pivot but it worked out. I think the first day they opened. Mm-hmm. It was, no, the first day. They were lying down the door. No, didn't matter I was in there. I knew you were. You know I was. I was sitting there. I was like I don't care. They said they can open up on one day. Mm-hmm. I need my appointment I'm first I need these done. Yeah, it was amazing. It was crazy. And then you know, California opened after us Oh, so we have people driving from California Yeah to get their nails done because see just like our hair our nails are part of us And so you you know small business owners, you're out networking What we're doing is not but we're doing well We were on zooms, but we still needed to have our hair and makeup done. And our hands done. We still needed to look professional on our Zooms. And I have some professional clients that were still essential. Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. The doctors, the ER drivers, the nurses. They had to go to work. They had to go to work.

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What am I supposed to do? You know what? I'm just going to wear the gloves.

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That's what I'm going to do.

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Yeah, they were buying Amazon kids and all kinds of stuff trying to keep it together.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So it was it was a difficult time, but we we managed and we you know, we pivoted a little bit to try to keep a little revenue and did your business landlord work with you?

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Yes.

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Oh, that's great.

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Yes.

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That's right. Yes. He's yeah, he's amazing. Yeah, he worked with me. It was just like, you know, we'll catch up on the back end It's it was everybody, you know, so that's what wasn't like it was just you Everything yeah, so he was they were very cool. Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah, we'll get it on the back. What did it do for you well what did it do for you as far as now after pandemic because I know at first it was the distancing yeah you could only have so many people in the salon yes how was that? Because we're boutique and we're already It was manageable.

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Okay.

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It was manageable because we try to provide that one-on-one service anyway, so there's not a lot of people. The shop is only so big. Right. It can't be that many people in. So we did stagger our scheduling a little bit to allow for one client to kind of check out and walk out and then the other clients coming in. But you know, that was that wasn't a really a hard feat for us. I think managing the the walk in traffic that was hard. That was hard. Yeah, that was hard because you got a lot of people wanting to get things done. And we can only take so many people right at a time. And so it was just like, we had to go to appointment only. Which helped us now because now we have people just pre booked out. That's beautiful for like, okay, so what's the blessing? It was it was it was it was it was it was so now we have that aspect of you know, appointments being booked and, you know, and then we still have the blessing of the walk ins again because of the location.

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Mm hmm.

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Got it.

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I love this.

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So made it through the pandemic. Congratulations. Yes. Congratulations. Congratulations. Yeah, that's a huge feat. That was a huge feat. That was a huge personal care services.

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Woof. It was it was hard. It was hard.

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And then you're thinking about it because you're talking about something where, you know, pandemic people talking about touching you and all that other stuff.

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Right. Yeah. You know, but I. Yeah. I'm back on the book. That's right. I have a question. Does your esthetician do lashes and eyebrows?

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So she does do eyebrows. She does not do lashes.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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We got somebody else.

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Okay. Got it. Oh yeah, we got somebody else.

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We can bring them on.

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Okay. You know, this is my thing.

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I got into the personal care thing and just ran with it. She has all the beauty experts. Just run with it. But good services right? Right. Because we have a good time. Mm-hmm. On my Friday, I know y'all can't have it, my Friday morning appointment. Oh yeah, we got a little crew. We got a crew that's coming on Friday morning. Uh-huh. And we, and actually get upset when the other one's not there. I know because you're used to seeing your friends while you're there. Oh yeah. And we have good dialogue and stuff. And we laugh. Yeah. It's just a good, good conference. And don't know what we gonna talk about. Right. And the good thing is it stays there. That's beautiful. You know, it's amazing.

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That's a beautiful thing.

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Yeah. So we have, we are so happy Cree that you are here today. Cree's business is Nail Therapy Boutique and she is located at 804 South Las Vegas Boulevard. And if you'd like to call to try to get an appointment, because Leah has all the appointments.

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So contact, I just got my Friday. I just got my Friday. Don't hit on the Friday. Leah has the whole schedule booked up. I do have my schedule booked up through the end of the year. Don't play. It might be next year too. Leah, what's the number? You got the number. 702-685-4515 One more time. 702-685-4515 You've been listening to Let's Talk with Leah and Rhonda. I am Leah Crawford. I am Rhonda Nolan and thank you for joining us this Saturday morning. Thank you Cree for being our super guest this morning and hey everybody check out Cree Salon. Please do.

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Until next week.

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Until next week.

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Peace and blessings Las Vegas. Peace and blessings Las Vegas.

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you

Transcribed with Cockatoo