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Leaha Crawford and Rhonda Nolen are business consultants that discuss the current struggles of small business owners and entrepreneurs. Each episode covers steps necessary for smaller businesses and business owners to grow and prosper.
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You're listening to locally produced programming created in KUNV Studios on public radio. KUNV 91.5.
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The following is a paid program sponsored by Crawford Management Group and Smart Time Consultants. Please be advised that the voices and opinions you may hear do not necessarily represent the views of KUNV Las Vegas, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
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Hi, this is Leah Crawford.
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And I'm Rhonda Nolan.
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Welcome to the Let's Talk with Leah and Rhonda show. We're here for you and we're ready to go.
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Let's do it!
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Good morning, Las Vegas!
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Hey, Miss Leah, how you doing? I'm amazing. Thank you Miss Rhonda for asking. How are you? I am super fantastic and the only problem I'm having has just been a little cold lately. Okay, I know we say that right? I know like that's cold. Honestly this week was It was different. It was different. It was different. I can't remember what day it was when the wind was blowing. Oh, let's see that. And it was snowing, and then it sleeted ahead a little bit. That was like Tuesday or Wednesday or something. I don't know. I think it was Tuesday.
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It was Tuesday. It was actually Tuesday.
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It was Tuesday. I can only tell you, I wasn't prepared for that at all. And I was driving to work when all of that was going on.
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Oh, wow.
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So driving to work, I'm just like, oh. OK, and holding the wheel with two hands. Yeah driving real slow like 10 miles an hour Taking the city streets trying to be careful only because not knowing but the wind blowing like that right mm-hmm I just have visions of tornadoes and cars, and I just I that's exactly types of things went through my head I went out that morning everything was fine. I got back home Let's say I know it got dark outside, and I heard the wind and I was like is it a tornado? Oh, wait a minute. We're not in a state where they have tornadoes.
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I was like, well, what is going on?
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What I can say, I'm glad everybody made it safely through it.
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Yes.
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That's a good thing. But we are in the middle of February. We are 2023, middle of February.
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We are.
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And we've had some amazing guests. I just wanted to give another shout out and thank you to Marcus Allen for coming on with the Barber Shop. So if you have any children or young adults and you want to become a barber masterpiece Barber's Barber College that is an option You know go check them out. They're doing amazing things We had Alicia Taylor on last week powerful powerful. Just talking about entrepreneurs mm-hmm and First of all her being an entrepreneur She said she was retiring in another two years so shout out to Alicia But also talking about buying a house. Buying a house. And I know a show prior to us that, you know, she talks about buying homes, but the reality of it is, me and my daughter were talking about this last night. Mortgage prices and rent prices right now, if you buy a house, are probably comparable. Right, rent is about 2000, and most starter homes now are about 2000. The thing is, if you buy a house Your mortgage is not gonna go up right rents are going to continue to increase every year Cuz I remember and I I tried to give my daughter the example. She's like you're comparing apples to oranges I said, what do you mean? She's like you're talking about your mortgage from all those years ago I was like you're right, but when I think about it back when I purchased my home my house my housing price was the same amount as rental costs around that time. And I'm still paying the same mortgage. Right, exactly. I'm still paying the same mortgage, and rent is still increased. So I want to bring Alicia back on, though, so we can talk about how do we, as entrepreneurs, get ready if we are not homeowners to become homeowners. Next week, though, I am going to do a podcast, and I'll give the details. I haven't worked it out, but we're gonna do some podcast about that Rhonda. Fantastic I'm gonna do some podcast about that because You had to buy a house being an entrepreneur and it wasn't easy. It was not it was not it was a process It was a process and Alicia said it last week. If you're looking to do something, well anything You have to plan it. That's right. You have to plan it. You have to begin with the end in mind. So if you want to purchase a home for X amount of dollars, there are some things that you have to have in place. And you have to get ready so you can't wake up. It's not like buying some shoes. I'm gonna wake up today. I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go into the mall because I'm gonna buy some shoes. No, it doesn't work like that unless you have a 900 credit score. And most entrepreneurs do not have a 900. They have something good, but not necessarily 900. 900 credit score. But for most of us, we have to plan and that brings us right. I know we're bringing Jesse on sooner or later. And just talking about I know Zandra saw on her show was talking about relationships. Jesse talks about loving relationships and part of that is building the life plan as an entrepreneur having a plan. And what I love about him is that he maps out for you how to do this plan. I know we've had them on a couple of times but this book, How You Leave Them Feeling, Loving Relationships, and it's black and yellow. It's on Amazon. You can get an audiobook. You can get a hard copy off his website JustTalk.com and he maps out for you how to do a life plan. Like where do you want to be in 30 years? And when somebody asked me that the first time I had to think about it. Because you didn't know. I didn't have a clue. I didn't have a clue. I didn't have a clue. I mean, because living and not existing.
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Right.
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But if you ask me now where I want to be in 30 years, I probably can give you a dissertation.
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Right.
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About things that I want to have accomplished in 30 years. But I don't know as entrepreneurs because we get so caught up in doing the business that we don't think that far. We don't begin with the end in mind. Sometimes we don't, but that's something that we should be thinking about. Think about it. Like, are you building this business to sell this business? Right. Are you building this business because you want your children to then take over this business? Are you going to sell it to your children? Are you going to... well, most people do sell it to their children.
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Yeah.
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Are you going to sell the business to your children, you know? But is this your children's passion right I know I find I meet a lot of entrepreneurs and various different businesses where their children don't have the same passion as as their parents did and so that that that wonderful little family business is now sold to someone else outside of the family and maybe to other corporations or maybe to a competitor just wants to shut you down. So it's really interesting. And then you have those entrepreneurs whose kids fall right in their footsteps. They go to school, they get the education, they go work for other people, then they come back and use their skills to continue to run the family business.
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So it's one of those things.
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I mean, it's give or take, but as entrepreneurs, there are so many moving pieces like the legislative session. And I know we were talking about that. We always talk about elections during election time. Right. So entrepreneurs or if you are driving in your car and you've moved recently, update your voter registration. Mm-hmm. To where you you're living now. And do that stuff now. Right. While it's not, you know, nobody's really thinking about it. All the elected officials are in their positions. Nobody's running for office. And our legislative session is in. So I didn't realize, or I did realize it, but we don't really talk about it a lot. They have a website that you can go to and you can see what's going on in the legislature. It's called Nellis, N-E-L-I-S, home. And when you Google it, it'll say leg.state.nv.us. And on this site, because as an entrepreneur, you need to watch what's happening because they're making laws now. They're changing things now. You need to know what's going on. Right. Give you an example. 2017, let's lay the session. We now have to have a doc prep certification if you are not a CPA, an enrolled agent or an attorney to do tax returns.
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Oh, wow.
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It's called doc prep, right? And I just knew because I was watching what was going on, saw something new when I was on the Secretary of State's side, and I was like, oh, what's this? Read into it, I was like, oh, got it. So if you are going to someone to do your taxes and they are not an enrolled agent, certified public accountant, or an attorney, they should have a doc prep license. Okay. Okay, because you have to get fingerprinted, you're bonded with the state, and if there are any complaints about your service to the state, you're bonded. So how easy is it to get that license? It's easy. It's easy. It's easy. It's simple application fingerprints, minor background check, but for tax repairs. But again, if you are not, only if you don't have an enrolled agent certification, enrolled agent license, a certified public accountant license, or an attorney's license. And those are privileged, you know, those are privileged licenses. Right. Yeah. So because those are those are tests taken and a whole bunch of other stuff. Oh, yeah, get those licenses. But again, it's now 2023. And just, you know, keeping up with it because every year you have to get it renewed. You have a five year bond. You have just different things. So again, you want to you want to know what's going on in your industry. You know, you should know what your interest is for your industry. What is the NRS? That's what NRS means. Nevada Revised Statute. So whenever you see around town where it says this per law dot dot dot, NRS statute dot dot dot, Nevada Revised Statute. That's what they're doing right now in the legislature. Those Nevada Revised Statutes. Oh, okay.
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Okay.
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Okay.
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All right.
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When you did that LLC and you went to the Secretary of State and it says NRS dot dot dot and this is why Nevada Revised Statute. Got it. Got it. So when you see things change in a state, Nevada revised statute. Okay. That's what they're talking about in the legislative session right now. So how long is the legislative session? It normally, okay, so it starts in February, normally ends in June. Okay. So they are there and they come back and forth. They do updates. That's something we can think about too for, I mean, for commerce and industry and see if we can find out who's on the committee and bring them on to see exactly what's going on because you have several different committees you have the Senate side and the Assembly side several different committees but you need to know in your industry what committee governs your industry right you know so because you want to know what the law what the law you gotta know what the laws are. I know the people in the real estate business, they are, especially people who have apartments
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and things of that nature, they are very close to what's going on.
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Oh yeah, no, they really keep on top of it. I mean, because Marcus brought it up when he was talking about with the barbers. I know theirs because they said it so much to me, 640. NRS 640. So 640 governs the barbers. And that's bad because I don't know by hand which ones govern accountants. Right. But I know which one governs, you know, the actual, okay, accountants is 628.
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628.
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All right.
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628.
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So, okay. And it's a chapter and it's everything that is listed for what you have to do to be licensed as an accountant. What are the requirements? everything that is done in this state for the most part is governed by the Nevada Revised Statute. Okay. And that's any state. Right. You know, but that's legal, you know, it's legal too. But I can tell you as an entrepreneur you need to just be aware of what's going on. Yep, and we said that last year when we had, you know, all the folks running for office that you need to go out and meet your people that represent you in the legislative legislation and so we still say that today they still have offices here even though they are gone from February to June they're in and out they have offices here so if you have any questions about anything you can always reach out to their offices but then also know what office handles what yeah that's that's the big part just know what office handles what because you don't want to go to a city council person talking about a school district issue.
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Right.
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Or somebody, you got a problem with the school district, but you're going to a congressperson about it. So you want to make sure that the person that you're talking to is in alignment with the issue that you're having. Now they have relationships with each other. But you want to make sure that you're going to the right agency. That makes sense. So yeah, no, just being just us being as entrepreneurs, just being a little bit aware, more aware, and knowing, you know, what we're doing, how we're doing in our businesses. Yeah, that's cool. Okay, so what you got going on? Oh, my god. It has been a busy February, as you know, February is Black History Month. So let's see let's talk about the 100 Black Men of Las Vegas and Howard University Alumni Association is having a Black History Month happy hour on the 24th of February and we're very excited about that. We are inviting everyone to come out and participate. The Las Vegas Urban League and NAACP, the D9 and all the African American organizations, we are inviting you out to come out and have a toast with everyone to celebrate Black History Month. So where is it? Well, that's a very good question. And I want to make sure I have that information. And I'm going to share that with you in one second. I'll just tell you that the place is a new place that's owned by Mr. Devin Moore. Mariposa. Mariposa. Okay. Mariposa. So Mariposa, Saharan Decatur. Saharan Decatur. I really can't. I don't know the address. I just know Saharan Decatur. It's right on the corner. You can't miss it. I saw it yesterday. Right. You can't miss it. It's on the corner of Saharan Decatur and it's actually, that's west, that's west, it's not yes it is a Southwest corner and that shopping center that's where Mayor Post is that would be an amazing event also you got to use the cooking class coming I do but but back to that that's from five to eight if anybody wants to join on the 24th of February also real quick I want to talk about the coalition the National Coalition of 100 black women are having their African Fashion Show.
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And that's taking place on February 26th at the Paris Hotel.
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At the Paris Hotel.
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And it starts at 2 p.m. So if you want any more ticket information, just visit their website. 100 Black Women. National Coalition of 100 Black Women in Las Vegas. It's N-C-B-W. That's it. That's it. N-C-B-W. National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Las Vegas. That's right. And then 100 Black Men that particular weekend, they're doing their leadership conference. So for high school students who are juniors and seniors, and for college students who are freshmen and sophomores, they are doing their leadership conference on the campus of UNLV in the foundation building, and that will be from 12 until 5. So if there are any future leaders out there that want to get some instruction and a leg up on some things about moving and shaking in the community and moving and shaking in your school visit the leadership the 100 Way workshop and you can sign up for that at eventbrite.com and then you also ask me about the cooking class and you know I love the cooking class the 100 Black Men of Las Vegas is having their monthly cooking class on Tuesday the 21st of of February and this month's chef of the month guest chef is no other than chef Jeff Henderson. We love him you know he is from New Orleans and and he does a lot of Creole cooking and we love it so we're very very excited that we will be working with him on Tuesday in the cooking class and I think you you probably you missed a sign up for the class but you have to catch us next month. And we need to put that out there so that they can go to, I think it's on Evite? Yeah, Eventbrite is where the registration is and it's typically the last Tuesday of each month. But we moved it up this month because you know, Chef Jeff is well known and he speaks all across the country. So we have to work with his schedule. Well I love, and you want to know what, he is amazing with the children. He is. He is amazing with the children and I you we do a lot of stuff with children. We do. A lot of stuff with children because just understanding that just just keeping them active and busy because with the let me tell you about the cooking class so that the next class we are going to announce it and you guys go sign up. It's virtual you have your cell phone, it's a Zoom meeting, the food is provided. So you go pick up the food, take the food home, all you have to do is hit the button and prepare the food in the house and eat a meal with your family. And you can plan it out because for February, I think we missed it again. January, I think we did have some additional people sign up. But next month, we will put it out there so you can sign up and just be a part of it and it is actually Fun in the kitchen with your family. That's right with your family and you can plan it out. That's right So and you don't have to buy the food. So it's no cost to you. You get the food Rhonda Rhonda meet you you'll meet Rhonda in person. She has pretty bags for you Food all packed up and she already measured it. How about that? Food is already packed up and measured. So it's a good time for the family. I know Niles and I have been doing it for a while. You have and we're so happy to have you guys in the class. Yeah, and it's so funny because now he cooks. See? See now he cooks. No, honestly, he cooks. He measures and you should see him in there reading the box, then measuring. Mom, is this right? I don't know. I didn't read the box. You did. So, but it's actually a good time. It helps children with all of those skills with the reading skills and math skills all of that fun stuff and it's just fun because you're working but you don't know you're working. How about that? How about that? Well I can say that it is tax season and if you need to get your taxes prepared or if you have back taxes or tax issues you can get in liens, levies. Don't know exactly what to do, how to do, and it's heavy. Because I know when those IRS notices come from most people, it's heavy. Contact us. 702-382-5737. Again, 702-382-5737. I've been doing this now for about more than 25 years, almost 30.
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Wow.
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It's almost 30. Because I started off just doing tax returns and doing accounting and stuff like that, and then got into the tax resolution piece, resolving issues for people and thinking through strategically on what we, on how to minimize your tax liability and helping people to plan. That's what I love about our office because when you're there, we're helping you plan. We don't want you to just come in one time and that's it. No, we want to be there for you. Most of our clients then come in as renters. A couple of years, we planted their homeowners. Then they're starting businesses. Then they're investing. Because we're your partner in this. And we want to make sure that you are living the life that you want to lead. We're sending them to Jessie's book. If you want to build a life plan, because I'm realizing you do need a life plan.
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You do.
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You need some goals. Need some goals.
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Need some goals. You need some goals.
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Because if you're just waking up just going, you have no goals. You're just going. You're just existing. I just tell you, I've always had goals because I've always worked for corporate America and I had bosses who said, you know, what's your three year goal? What's your five year goal? What's your ten year plan?
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Where do you want to be?
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They ask all those questions. A lot of people don't get to work for corporate America.
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That's true.
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Sometimes they don't. They don't get to work for corporate America. But you can still, your mentor will ask you these same questions. But what if I don't have one?
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You should get one.
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You know, what if I am, and I think that is, I mean, and that sometimes is the gap with people, not having exposure to it. Because you working in corporate, they told you that. They asked those questions. You know, we got asked those questions on Howard's campus.
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Correct.
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You know, what is your, what's the plan? Now, some of us didn't listen. What is your short term? Oh, what is your long term goal? You know, you talked about that, right? And But a lot of people I never been to college. So what I don't know that But that's why you should get a mentor in the business that you're in So that you can always have somebody to pop questions off of you know Because we don't know everything every entrepreneur doesn't know everything. It is I learn something new every day. But I also have people I can call across the country to ask, Well, what do you think about this? Well, I'm thinking about expanding my business. I'm thinking about going in this direction. What do you think about this? Do you think that would be profitable? Do you think it's something that my company should do? I actually ask people's opinion because I like to hear what they have to say, especially people who've done what you're doing. So how do you get? How do you meet those people? Yeah, meet them? Well, whatever industry you're in, there's always a conference. If you're a nightclub owner, there's a conference. If you're a tax attorney, there's a conference if there are all types of conferences, all types of groups and all types of groups. If I'm a cashier, if you're a cashier, I'm sure there's a group there. And there might be a conference for that might be a retail conference. And I guess that's and I guess that is that's the concern because it's like, how do I get from from a to B. You know, I'm a cashier at a grocery store. This is not where I want to live, but this is what I have to do right now. Well, are you a cashier? Are you in school part-time? Hmm, okay. Are you in school full-time?
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Hmm.
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What are you doing outside of being a cashier? What are you doing to take your, what are your goals and what are you doing to take yourself to the next level? So I'm a cashier at said store, but I'm attending UNLV taking classes in business. You know, one day I want to run my own business or whatever it is. You have to have the education to do what it is you want to do. And then once you get there, you have to continue to educate yourself. That's why they have a lot of these conferences, lawyers and doctors and everybody.
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They go to conferences to refresh.
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We go to conferences regularly and we think, I mean, and it is like I went to this past week that a society of CPAs had a luncheon. And went to the luncheon and learned some amazing, I was like, oh wow, met some amazing people as well. But it's one of those things where you're right, you have to be around people that are consistently growing and not stagnant. That's right. That are consistently moving. And if you see yourself around these, you know, just you're not growing, then maybe it's time to change some things. That's right. Like coming up in March is Black Enterprises Women of Power Conference and they will have women from all walks of life and all types of businesses there talking to other women executives and other women who are middle management, teaching them the things they need to know so they can come up through the ranks. So that's a good one. If you're an entrepreneur here and you're a lady, that conference, that Women of Power conference is taking place March 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th at the Bellagio Hotel. You can find out information at BlackEnterprise.com. And that's a huge conference. Huge conference. Because they bring in women, that's a powerhouse of black women. I mean, if you're in finance, they have the ladies there from Morgan Stanley, they have the ladies there from Merrill Lynch. I mean, they have the ladies there around the country around the world. It might be from around the world. It might be from around the world. With Black Enterprise. Writers, authors, you name it. All types of companies that are with with the ladies that run their businesses and they're there to help mentor all types of ladies. What I also notice is is that most people most people want to help you but what I also know is you need to be serious You have to be serious you because they because they're also time conscious. Yeah, don't waste their time. Yes, don't waste their time I know with most entrepreneurs. That's why it's hard for us to get them in here, right? Don't waste their time and they have to see a value in What you're doing? Mm-hmm And I know we've been I mean It's just been amazing for us to be able to get the people that we've gotten in here and more to come Yes, and they want to come that's right, you know and but time time management Huge and I know we talked about it. Right? And what I've learned to do now is because At some point in my life time was managing me. I wasn't managing it Wow, right? It was it was managing me because I was always late. I was and not that I don't wake up I just wasn't getting dressed Right in Right? And but when I learned to block time, what times were better for me to do certain things? And I started managing time and time not managing me. Right. You know, and and just being able to block time out enough time to do whatever I was doing. Now I block out everything, everything. And it's working. everything and It's working. That is one of the reasons why I became entrepreneur because I wanted to be in control of my time I was here and I was working and I was working for organization and I was traveling all over the world for this organization But I decided to go back to school to work on a master's degree And so now I'm traveling all over the world and taking two classes when you're in graduate school two classes is full-time It's a lot. I was taking two classes and in both of those classes. You had to have papers due every week I was getting my butt kicked. I was like, why am I getting my butt kicked? And you had no children. I mean, children, exactly. And the other executives who were in the class, you know, they had offices they could go to and close their door and they could read on their lunch hour. Where I worked, we had open cubicles and stuff. Everybody was everywhere. You could hear everybody talking on the phone. There was no place for me to go to escape on my lunch hour to read said, you know, papers. So you had to make a decision.
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So I had to make a decision. So I decided at that point I don't need to work for anybody because I needed to be, I realized I was fresher in the morning when it came to reading journals and things of that nature and retaining information. I was fresher in the morning. I was not fresh when I got off work.
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So you need to find out what works for you. That's right. Build your plan out.
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That's right. Work your plan well.
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Everyone, I want to say, it's been a, was this the end of our show, honey? It is. It is. Time just flew.
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It did. It did.
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It did. But what I can say is if you're an entrepreneur, let's start to build those plans. And we're going to talk more about it. Let's start to build those plans. And maybe for a couple of minutes every time we'll talk, you know, set that 30 year, 25 year, 20, 15, 10, work it backwards. And then let's work forward in planning our life out so that we can reach those goals. All right, Las Vegas, it's been amazing talking to you this morning. It has been super fantastic. And, you know, I can't help. I know I know it's cold, people, but don't forget to exercise. Entrepreneurs, don't forget to get up and get that walk in every morning and get that blood and heart pumping. Entrepreneurs and future entrepreneurs. That's right. All right. You've been listening to Let's Talk with Leigh and Rhonda. I'm Leigh Cross. I'm Rhonda Nolan. And it's been our pleasure to speak with you today. with Lea and Rhonda. I'm Lea Cross. I'm Rhonda Nolan and it's been our pleasure to speak with Lea and Rhonda. I'm Lea Cross. I'm Rhonda Nolan and it's been our pleasure to speak
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with you today. We'll see you next Saturday. Peace!
Transcribed with Cockatoo