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The Grind, hosted by business entrepreneur Eric James, is a talk show about local business professionals, entrepreneurs, politicians & people of interest, that chose to bet on themselves & embraced the daily hustle that we call the Grind.
#TheGrind, channels the stories behind successful individuals by exploring their ideology of what it takes to manifest a successful business in an ever changing economic, pollical and social media environment.
Announcer 0:00
This is a KU NV studios original program.
Eric James 0:04
The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Good morning and welcome to the grind. I'm your host extraordinaire. Mr. Eric James. What is the grind? Simply put, the grind is a half hour conversation that speaks to local business entrepreneurs and explores their take on where our local economy is heading, and asks them to tell us their own story of the sacrifices and work ethic that it takes to have a successful business. Good morning. Good morning. We're back with another banger for you folks, I know every month you listen in and you keep calling me and asking me questions, and I keep throwing you off because you keep thinking you're going to know what we're going to do from month to month, week to week, day to day, but I'm always going to throw you a right curve, a left curve, and a little hook and a jab, just to keep you off balance, but also To let you know that you can't predict what we're going to have and what kind of guests we're going to have, I got some incredible guests for you. Last month we had the Attorney General of the State of Nevada who's running for governor, Mr. Aaron, Aaron Ford on and this month I've got a whole set of different casts for you, folks for you we have for those that you don't know, we have a new international arena football team here in Las Vegas, Nevada. I know we're at in sports. I was just at the Desert dogs game the other night and had a great time. And I'm hoping, you know, because I got the coach and QB one on the show here today that they go hook a hook a brother up with some tickets. But you know, I'm gonna leave that on them. I'm not gonna pressure them like that, but, you know, drop a few tickets. Let me come out of support. Also have a good friend, John Richard, odd. He is an entrepreneur of philanthropy, philanthropist, and he is a businessman with an acumen all the way from London, England. Well, not officially, from London, from Bradford in England. So we're going to introduce him and our coach, which is known by coach Hollywood, and our QB one, Mr. Arbell Nelson, to the show. So I want to thank all you gentlemen for coming on, giving us a little shout out here this Sunday morning. And I'm going to start with Mr. Richard, because his story is very interesting to me, and his bio, you know, because I asked each guest for a little bit of background information. So I got to have some talking points. But he's got such a unique background that I really want to focus in on some of that he, as I was saying, He's not, he's not your average American businessman. He is a transplant all the way from overseas, from Bradford, sir. Can you tell me a little bit about your hometown. From what I know, the population in your hometown, 29% of the population is below the age of 20. Now, if I was a young man growing up there, that have been a little dangerous situations for me, knowing that all those young, young ladies and young folks was there to hang out. I mean, the whole population is, as of today's census, is only 564,000 so I remember when Las Vegas was only 300,000 when I was growing up as a kid. Is growing a lot. Now I think we're around 3 million or so. But it's interesting always for me to see people that come from a small town or small place, that that develop and expand or scale to become global or worldly, and how that journey is about. So John, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you made this journey all the way here to Las Vegas?
John Richard 3:31
Well, Eric, thanks for for having me here. Really, I'm flattered. You know, you know, growing up, born in Nigeria, essentially, I'm sure you knew, you knew about that, but growing up in London, it's absolutely a different, different ball game, right? So I'd call London really home. Yeah, went to Bradford, which is university, you know, for uni, but, you know, spending all that time abroad, you think that becomes norm, and then you come to America, it does feel as though it's a different planet. I'm not sure enough the readers here that's traveled, but when people do ask me, What's the difference, I just say my literally feels like a different planet from your toilet, which is gigantic, right? I'm not sure if you've been abroad, but out there, we've got toilets are very small. You come out here, you've got this big old toilet, your your your roads here, massive, huge. We've got six lanes that's unheard of right on rail, but mate, it's it's a land of opportunities. No matter what people say about America isn't great, but this is probably one of the only countries you could go to from absolutely grass to grace in no time, as long as you've got the work ethic and you you're humble really, the sky is the limit.
Eric James 4:52
Now I wasn't forgetting your Nigerian upbringing. What I what part of my question leading into that was growing up? Between those two cultures. I mean, going from Nigeria to the Europe, European, European cultures now to American cultures, all are so different in the different ways we go about things, the things we celebrate, food. How have you been able to blend all those things together and flourish in those separate environments?
John Richard 5:21
You know, I think it's William Shakespeare that says this, who come at the time, come at the man, right? As a human being, we do underestimate our ability to adapt. And as an individual, if you are not good in adapting, then you can only go so far. Similar, similarly in business, right? If you're not good in adapting, then you can only go so far. And for some of us, you know, we've been prepped for lack of a better word to adapt. And you know, goes back to secondary school my parents just I recalled my parents growing up telling us we are preparing you for the larger world, and hence why? At the age of 10, they send you off to boarding school, for instance, to go figure out life in boarding school, where it's sink or swim, essentially, and that's for high school, but those things just prep you. And you know, doing that in Nigeria, doing that in London, doing that in Las Vegas, doing in Alaska, wherever country you go to, it doesn't matter where you should be able to adapt. You're
Eric James 6:33
gonna get dropped in the middle of anywhere, and you're gonna dominate that room. Now, what I know about you have six siblings. Where do you rank your oldest, youngest? In the middle and having six siblings? Was it a competitive environment Always? Or how did you How do you get along with your brothers and sisters?
John Richard 6:51
Yes, I'm actually number two. So it's three boys, three girls. And coincidentally, it's girl boy, girl boy, girl boy, which, I don't know how, what's the recipe? Switch
Eric James 7:05
sides. Every now and then he leaned to the left. Sometimes he leaned to the right, put his leg up and got got the opposite effect.
John Richard 7:11
I've asked him, I need, I need that code. But no essentially being the first, the first son in the Nigerian culture, as the first son you automatically seen as the leader. So I was entrusted with that leadership role at a very young age, looking after the siblings. And it's very competitive, right? You know, you come home, your siblings have friends. I grew up in a home where to always very busy. You know, my dad being who he was. There was all this stuff going on, so you've got to have that sort of command again. That's, I'll probably say, helped prepped me to where I am today. Now,
Eric James 7:52
you said your father, who he was, who was your father? A person of significance. Let the let the let the folks know where you come from. Let him know what steps you're standing on.
John Richard 8:05
My father was a politician and businessman, and eventually he became a bishop. So he's someone of faith and someone of he's all right, I'm gonna
Eric James 8:22
use that one moment. He's alright. He did a few things in his
Eric James 8:26
time.
John Richard 8:26
That's what I've learned from Americans. He's right. That's what you lot say out here. But yeah, he's alright,
Eric James 8:31
okay. So I'm come back to you because I got some more questions for you, but I want to make sure I make, I give enough time to fit in our other two guests. Now, gentlemen, you know, I got coach Hollywood here, and I got QB one for our new arena football team, expansion team out here in Las Vegas, Nevada. These boys are coming, coming hard. They come out with that Rough Rider. I might be from his old Richmond days of that Rough Rider instinct, or maybe even throwback to his Waterbury patriots, Pop Warner days, which is as far as I made it was the Pop Warner because my old man wouldn't let me do it in high school. He wanted me to get the grades and whatnot. But I got coach Hollywood here, and I got Mr. Arvell Nelson. So we're gonna let these gentlemen introduce themselves, talk a little bit about their team, a little bit about their background, and I got some questions for coach, because, again, I'm a hammer on that Pop Warner stuff. So Coach Hollywood, he came into the studio all blinged out, looking fancy, like he a big man. He a big boy. So you know, I know he had, he got him a little food and grub before he got here, and he coming, he they gonna come bring it for you. So I'm gonna ask him a few questions. Let him get let him talk to you about what we got going on here in Las Vegas as our global entertainment background expands. WNBA coming and more, arena football, desert dogs, everything Vegas is becoming that legitimate entertainment and sports. Capital world coach, talk to me. Tell me about this background. Tell me about who you are, what you about. Puff your chest out. Let folks. Know who you are.
Coach Hollywood 10:02
Oh man, first off,
Eric James 10:05
he
Eric James 10:05
can't come humble. Now
Coach Hollywood 10:07
after that intro, love up there, he's supposed to dunk that down. I try to stay as humble as possible. Thank you so much for that intro. Yeah, but I'm Coach Hollywood all the way from the great state of Connecticut. I don't know if you ever been over there to the coast. If not, you want to come over have some pizza, for sure. Okay, well, yes, played. Got my start playing arena ball, actually, for the owner of our league. Now, Tom Mitchell, he was actually the owner of the team that I play for in California. He actually gave me also the nickname Hollywood. So I went on to play and became a coach and had some success, and made success the standard and and we had some success in Richmond, which Mr. Arbel was with me. We had some success in West Virginia and arena as well. And just trying to bring that same kind of success here to Las Vegas. We understand that this is the entertainment capital of the world, so that's what we're trying to do, trying to add more entertainment to what's already here in Las Vegas. Um, very humble, but we are used to winning, for sure. That's how I got this job. So we like to win, and we like to do winning things on and off the field, and just trying to create, uh, something fun for family and friends.
Eric James 11:20
Well, tell them the name of the team and tell them how you guys ended up here in Las Vegas.
Coach Hollywood 11:25
Well, we are the Las Vegas rockers. We play out of the Orleans arena. We're professional arena football team. How we landed here in Las Vegas, that is a very good question. How we live here in Las Vegas? Like I said, we wanted somewhere where there would be fans. It'll be excitement, it'll be fun. So we wanted to come here and just to be a pillar in the community, on and off the field. So, but Las Vegas rockers, it's, it's, we're all over the place. We're trying to do great things in the community. And, yeah, we love it.
Eric James 11:54
Okay? Thank you. Thank you, sir. So like I said, I know you from small town, yourself. Both of my guests come from small town, Waterbury, Connecticut, from what I my research says 115,000 people. So again, you was a big fish in a small pond. How do you go from Rockford all the way to Sacred Heart College and then coaching at Sacred Heart and now to Las Vegas? That's an extraordinary journey. And of course, your story is not all the way told, but your journey is as phenomenal as the progression of where you're going and where your career is going. Where do you see yourself next?
Coach Hollywood 12:32
The goal is always build a better man. I believe that's my purpose in life, giving back to the youth, being that that road mountain figure that I needed growing up, coming from the trenches. Now, I know Connecticut might not sound like there's a trenches everywhere. So being one of those young men early who was counted out, who was, you know, I mean, kind of thrown to the side to be nothing. I just crawled and climbed and scratched until I got to a place, and always told myself if, once, if and when I get to that place, I was going to be what I needed growing up. So yes, we had a hard fought journey, but we're here now and just trying to build better men everywhere I am,
Eric James 13:15
you know what they say? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. So if you had to climb out, it sounds like you've climbed out and you found a better path. Well, let's go over here to QB one. I mean, we got a good looking young brother here. I know the ladies in Las Vegas gonna try to eat him up. Now, don't get caught up in this. So I'm from Vegas. I born and raised here, so I did my dirt back in the day, but you a little younger than me.
Eric James 13:37
I gotta
Arvell Nelson 13:37
stick with me.
Eric James 13:38
Yeah, keep that stick off, because, you know, I don't want to see you in a couple years. Talk about she on housewives of this, housewives of that, because she used to be with Mr. Nelson, and now she trying to hit him up for this check or that check. So Mr. Nelson, tell me about your upbringing. I know you're from Cleveland, Ohio, and you and a coach sound like you're connected. Have some history together, which probably allowed him to bring you with him to Las Vegas. So tell me a little bit about you and your upbringing and what you're about.
Arvell Nelson 14:06
First and foremost, thanks for having me. I'm Marvell Nelson, come from Cleveland, Ohio, been playing football my whole life. Come from a winning culture. Always had men in my life that you know showed me winning ways and how to be a better person, Me and Coach Hollywood, I connected in 2018 was it? And, you know, you know, share similar interests, share similar winning ways come from, you know, the trenches, like he said, and we've been connected since. So, like he said, we come to win out here. Okay,
Eric James 14:39
so what have you always played quarterback, or is this something you migrated to?
Arvell Nelson 14:44
So I actually played pitcher, you know, we lost in the playoffs. I walked over, you know, walking home, walk through the field, tried
Eric James 14:51
out for the team.
Eric James 14:52
How were you when you was fusion?
Arvell Nelson 14:53
This was eight. I was eight years old,
Eric James 14:55
okay,
Arvell Nelson 14:55
yeah. But always was a football guy. I mean, got that story? Where we I was in the receiver line. The coach overthrew it and I threw the ball back.
Eric James 15:03
He was like
Arvell Nelson 15:06
playing quarterback ever since, but I played everywhere. I played safety, receiver, linebacker, but always was the quarterback.
Eric James 15:13
Now quarterback, you get the glory, but you also get the the damage control. When things that, when the pressure is on, everybody's looking at you.
John Richard 15:21
You
Eric James 15:22
feel like you're type of individual that thrives underneath that, that kind of pressure.
Arvell Nelson 15:25
I do. I do. I come from it, you know, man, like I said, I come from and understand it. So I'm always cool under pressure, always calm. Now, when it's time to get active and get on boys head, you know, me, I do that too. But you know, I understand that with this games, there's so many ups and downs. So, you know, I try to stay calm and stay calm for everybody else around.
Eric James 15:45
Okay, so tell me you got siblings. Tell me a little bit about the family back home that
Arvell Nelson 15:49
that helped too. I come from a big family. My mother had eight kids. My grandmother had seven kids, and everybody got kids. So, you know, I come from, you know, big family reunions, big, big, big house parties where it's okay, 30 of us in the basement, you know, okay,
Eric James 16:05
movie, family reunion. Got the barbecue in the back. Now, does Coach? Coach Hollywood, throw anything on the grill for the fellas every now and they try to make it feel like back home.
Arvell Nelson 16:16
I do it. I do as well. We had actually had a party, a little party at the park after we broke camp, and, you know, we all got on the grill and broke
Eric James 16:26
bread,
Eric James 16:27
got on the grill, and you got on the grill. Who does, who did the grilling, and who claimed that? You know, they had the best, best stuff.
Arvell Nelson 16:35
You let
Eric James 16:36
them come at you like that.
Coach Hollywood 16:40
Really took over the grill.
Eric James 16:41
Okay, okay. Now we have anybody bring some mac and cheese, you know, some home, home cooked meals. Any moms, you know, teen moms? Anything
Arvell Nelson 16:49
we're working on? Yeah, we're working on
Eric James 16:53
that. All right,
Coach Hollywood 16:53
I think we'll be fine the next
Eric James 16:55
one. All right, Coach, we talk a little bit more about you, since you're the man with the plan here. So again, the odd thing about my two guests, both of y'all came from like industrial towns, Westbury, Connecticut, considered the brass brass city in the brass capital of the world. And Mr. Richard, Your hometown is also a town full of city of Bradford. Again, you're from Nigeria, but you grew up in England. Your your town is also a manufacturing textile town. You know, how did that affect those, those hard working environment? Because there's a difference of like Vegas fans are different from like Pittsburgh fans, where it's an industrial town, you know, Cleveland fans, they're a little grittier than the folks here. They got a little bit more invested in their culture and their town, because it's kind of a connection a part of who they are. So for you coach coming from a city that has that industrial vibe to it, do you think you embody that in your coaching style?
Coach Hollywood 17:57
No,
Eric James 17:59
no. Okay,
Coach Hollywood 18:00
well, the reason why I say that is because my coaching style came from a little bit of all the coaches I've had, right? And I took a little bit of the greatness of all the coaches I had and put my own little twist into it and my personality. So my coaching style is very kind of unorthodox, right? Some of my players call me bipolar. I have a really good ability of keeping how I like you personally and how I like you when you perform on the business side. So I could cut you a smile at you all in the same breath. So,
Eric James 18:35
wait, wait, where QB one is like, Yeah, well, when he
Eric James 18:40
get cut. So
Coach Hollywood 18:43
definitely have the standard, and I'm paying you to upheld that standard, and if you don't, we have to make some decisions.
Eric James 18:53
Okay, so how does it work when you do have to cut a player? I mean, obviously you get attached to your players. I mean, different coaches have different relationships with different players, but I'm sure you've become close to some players, but at the end of day, it's a business, just like all of us are in business entrepreneurs or the sports is a business. When you have to come and let a young man that you've been mentoring or guiding through his career, how do you go about that? I mean, is it just all business, or is there a different conversation?
Coach Hollywood 19:21
There's definitely, there's some really great men that I have to cut right but I've always keep in contact. Always keep in touch. Maybe this season is not the season for us. But again, if I'm making a business decision, it's based off your work on the business side of the house. So yeah, but I definitely, I'll give a reference. My phone is still always available. You can call me. We can chat anything you need. I will be there for you as well, but it's just at this moment, this is not our season when it comes down to being a player for. The
Eric James 20:00
case. So if some folks out there want to get tickets, where do they find tickets to the games? What's the schedule looking like? I know you said you played at the New Orleans arena. We used to have a minor league hockey team. They used to play there back in the day, so I'm familiar with the arena. But when's the next game? Tell people how they can get a hold and that way they can come out and support
Coach Hollywood 20:19
next game is May 31 at the Orleans arena. We play a team from Europe, stugart stallions, and they're coming over, and that game is May 31 believe it starts at 2:30pm where you can get tickets if you want to come. We love to have the community. There will be Las Vegas rockers.com or all social media outlets, Las Vegas rockers.com
Eric James 20:45
Yeah, repeat that one more time because, you know, somebody was writing that down. They didn't get it all so make sure
Eric James 20:49
they
Coach Hollywood 20:50
find you. That is Las Vegas rockers.com
Eric James 20:53
All right. All right. Mr. Nelson, we're gonna get back to you now. I need you to give a little shout out to your teammates, let them know that you're representing them, and then I need you to call out this team you're gonna be playing next month. Let them know they cut they come in a long ways just to lose. So let them know what you're about.
Arvell Nelson 21:08
This to all my guys on the team. You know, we took a hard loss the first week, but we were building, we recruiting into still guard a You're welcome.
Eric James 21:21
Come catch us out. All right, so I'm gonna go back to my first guest again, because I got more questions for him. I want to know a little bit more about his business acumen. And so John, tell me about your business. Tell me a little bit more about what you do, or how you do it, and how you help businesses grow and expand and scale
John Richard 21:42
Absolutely So essentially, what we do is we are revenue operations, as you obviously know, starting off, I started off in finance, and, you know, essentially moved on from there. What got me into entrepreneurship was getting a contract. A lot of you guys might know, you know the World Cup coming up when they when Qatar won the World Cup in 2022 the Qataris and the Emiratis, which is UAE, like some of my clients at the time, pushed me to help them recruit and get some some folks and to have them build the stadiums out there in Qatar. And that's what launched me into entrepreneurship. So did that for a while. And again, Brock came out to Las Vegas, which is what brought me out here. And you know, we ran a few things, some of the most popular trade shows, B to B trade shows out here in America. We conceived those things and scaled those stuff, and obviously saw them exited. But now, having done that for a lot of people, now we're just doing that for entrepreneurs, for businesses, if anyone needs anything, with regards to marketing, with regards to sales, with regards to the big elephant in the room now, which is AI and software development as well. Might the team we all help organizations, Mom and Pop organizations, all the way to Fortune companies, help them scale of our clients have VCs? Yes. So essentially, anyone that's looking at growing the organization, they come up to us, and we help them with that, putting the stuff in place.
Eric James 23:24
All right, what's the name of your company?
John Richard 23:27
Referee, so rivare, which is revenue, R, E, V, A, R, R, I,
Eric James 23:34
what can I find you? Tell me. Contact email, tell social media. Tell folks out there where they can contact you.
John Richard 23:41
Yeah, so our website is just rivare Again, R, E, V, A, R, R, i.com and same with Instagram as well. You go on that you can always book a schedule, a calendar, on our calendar, go on a calendar there and put in your request, and someone will be in touch with you rightly.
Eric James 24:00
Now are you a family man yourself, sir, I know you, we talked about your siblings, but are you a family man yourself?
John Richard 24:06
Yes, I've got a daughter, actually, 14 month old daughter, ah, beautiful,
Eric James 24:11
beautiful, little baby girl. How is it? As a entrepreneur myself, I remember the days when I started my first business. I'm a serial entrepreneur. I've had multiple business now do a radio show in front of my guests. I have a card game. One day, I decided I wanted to do a card game, and never done one before. I said, I'm, I'm gonna do this, you know. I've done everything from the running of the bulls in Spain, you know. So how did you become an entrepreneur, as opposed to, and what the core of this show is about as opposed to getting a nine to five job and or following in your father's footstep as a politician, what made you become an entrepreneur?
John Richard 24:49
You know a lot of people when you know yourself right, and I know I went to school to become a medical doctor, as a matter of fact. It. And halfway through, I knew that this was not for me, just because I'm not a clinician myself, and I knew that my soul of calling and what I enjoyed was essentially building stuff, and that's essentially what catapulted me and got out of that, obviously graduated, but went straight into finance, and ever since then, really, I just love building, love creating things human. Human Capital Development, as my dad would say, it's just developing people, developing organization, just seeing something grow from nothing and becoming big stuff. And
Eric James 25:37
I like that term, human capital development,
John Richard 25:40
correct.
Eric James 25:40
I'm still that. I always tell my guests, I'm still that. So don't when you hear me use it later on. Don't act like I didn't tell you beforehand. Because, but I do like the term. I like what it connotates, human capital development. I think as a coach, Coach Hollywood, that's what you're doing. Human capital development. You have to develop the individuals around you, because if you can't impart your vision or your mentality or your work ethic on them, you're not developing them as human beings or as stars or athletes. So I think that. So I'm going to give Coach Hollywood the last question of the day, because we're running out of time. Show goes by fast, and now folks also realize hashtag grind is a global radio. We bring feet. We got people coming from Germany, come get their butt whooped on here. We got we got entrepreneurs from Nigeria, from England. We are global radio show and podcast. So we doing a big time. But Coach, this is, I want you to tell me what, what does a perfect day look like for you, non football? What's a perfect day for you outside of football, because you've been doing this, you know, your whole life. That's part of who you are and part of your DNA makeup. But if you take a day off and there's no football, what does a perfect day look like for you?
Coach Hollywood 26:54
Oh, wow. Oh, that's good. Perfect day for me. No football is two really good workouts, right? Two really good workouts, one in the morning, one in the afternoon. A really good a really good lunch. I'm not a big breakfast eater, right? So I eat
Eric James 27:13
your
Eric James 27:13
big dude. Look like you enjoy breakfast. I gotta put
Coach Hollywood 27:16
that. I definitely, but lunch and dinner, I definitely eat heavy, maybe a steak dinner, but just and also on my days off, that's when I take the time to really decompress and figure out what's next, right? What's next for me, what's next for my team, what's next for how can I be better as a man? How can I be better as a mentor? How can I be better as a person, as a father? I have a have children as well. I have eight year old and I have a 21 year old son. You doing? I'm about 21 myself. So ask me how that happened, but definitely just try to build myself where I can be able to pour in to the young men and the gentlemen around me every day. So that's a typical day for me.
Eric James 28:04
I like that. I want to thank all you gentlemen for coming on. I'm rooting for the team, and like I said, if some tickets happen to fall my way, you know, I'll be showing up for games. But if not, I'm gonna come support anyway. Mr. Richard, I thank you for your journey, for your story, and everything that you've done to get here to Las Vegas and bring your knowledge with us. Yo, Mr. Nelson, I want you to go out there, bang them German boys up, let them know represent for your country and for your team and for your boys on the team and coach Hollywood, keep sparkling. Keep bringing that bling to the scene. And gentlemen, thank you for coming on the show. I hope to all have you back again. Hashtag the grind. Hashtag the grind. Hashtag the grind. We are thanks for listening to the grind again. My name is Eric James. We hope that today's show was two parts entertaining with a dash of education. Feel free to reach out to me at my office at 702-836-0953, and remember to always stay on your grind. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai