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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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This is a que un the studio's original program.
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The following is a paid program sponsored by Crawford management group and smart time consultants. Please be advised that the voices and opinions you hear do not represent the views of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of Nevada System of Higher Education.
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Hi, my name is Leah Crawford. And I'm Rhonda Nolan and you're listening to the let's talk with Leah and Rhonda show for all the beautiful entrepreneurs
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out there. This was for us. Good morning Las Vegas. Leah. How are you doing on this beautiful Saturday morning
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is the last Saturday of March.
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It is your birthday?
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Your birthday my my birthday month is ending but it's okay because it is springtime. Yes. Even though the weather is a little temperamental? Yes. A little sentimental. You know, you don't know what you don't know what you don't know. Right? Watch it
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every day. Always carry your windbreaker always carry your windbreaker
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always carry your windbreaker. You had an amazing cooking class this week. Thank you. I learned a new trick. So I am going to start cutting bananas. Okay with a butter knife. Okay, sharpen my skills. Yes. So good tip. I can't wait. Well, I didn't make the I watched a class okay and prepared a food but I can't wait to prepare my chili. I'm super
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excited. Wonderful. It looked like it smells so good. I wish I was at some of the students when they were cooking it because I wanted to taste it to taste
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it. No, it did. It did. Actually, I think I'm gonna do it this weekend. I'm gonna sit down. I got some time this weekend because I was studying when the class was on. And people were coming by the house and I was trying to listen, but D is D young. I want to tell you.
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I love it. Excellent, excellent instructors. He's
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an excellent instructor. And it was a simple menu. There's something easy to do. When's the next class? Or have you guys scheduled it yet?
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Always the last Tuesday in the month. So that will be the month of April. And that date will be the 30th of April, the 30th Las Vegas, the 100 block went to Las Vegas have a virtual youth cooking class once a month, the last Tuesday of each month is for students five to 100. And as you know, we always provide the food and the more the merrier. And yes, Executive Chef Dr. Yang did a fantastic job. As you know this month is diabetes month diabetes awareness. And so we partnered with the Southern Nevada Health District, and they gave us that beautiful recipe for Turkey and veggie chili. And it was really, really good. So shout out to everyone who was part of it this week, we really enjoyed it.
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So tell the deer I got some bananas, I'm gonna practice because I had to cut up my vegetables in order to put it in my chili. I just you know, I wasn't sitting at home, I didn't have time to really get into it to do it. No matter if I'm gonna call Dee Dee, you have to walk me through this one more time. Walk me through how to do this. And I love it because it's virtual. Yes, it's virtual. You just have to set either a computer or camera up in your kitchen. And you're basically cooking with everyone else at the same time. So it's family time. His family time says six o'clock. pm on Zoom. Correct? That's right, one zoom. All right. Well, today. I want to say my first time meeting this gentleman, but I have known his mother for a couple of years now. And she you know, as parents, we always boast about what our children do. And she invited me to one of your shows I just wasn't able to make it. It was on a weekend when I had prior commitments. No worries. He
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came to meet me now.
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I mentioned Mr. Jonathan Inc. Welcome to the show. Welcome. I'm sitting here you guys can't see this. Again, arts in schools when children have to take a class. You know, Jonathan, he has these beautiful ceramic pieces. They are absolutely gorgeous. And they're made with love. Because he this is his, your idea coming to fruition? Right? Dope.
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Let's start from the ground up. It really just starts with like clay I buy in a bag and I'm like, what, what do I want to make here? And for when I was starting up, and I didn't really have the skills to be able to make what I wanted. It was like, Okay, great. I go online, I look at things. What do I want to make here? I tried to make it and it just falls over. It just falls apart. It looks horrible. I cannot tell you right. Um, and then gradually, just over time practice. I think most people they see art it's like you're so talented. I I really have to say it's so much practice. It's really not about talent. If you just put your mind to it and keep working at it. You'll get it eventually. So it just took time to practice. And then finally I can Don't close my eyes or look online and be like, that really inspires me. I like that I want to make something like that. Now I have the skills, I can figure out how to do it, make it. And at the end, I'm just super happy with most of the things I made. But it really took some time to get there.
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And see I love his last name because it's ink and I am looking at the bottom of the cup. And even the way he wrote his name at the bottom of the cup. That's dope. That's, I mean, honestly, it's like, wow, this is absolutely. Oh my god, this is this is so me. I love this. I would like it in pink and green. But I love this. I'm
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sure they'll have to make you a custom a custom and
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green. Yeah, absolutely. paint a painting something pink and green. So Jonathan, tell
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me So what inspired you to start your own ceramic business and make all these beautiful items? So
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the idea for the business side of things, you back it up, though? Okay. Okay. How'd you start? How did I start? Okay, I started my last year of high school. So it was my junior year of high school. And like the sophomore year, the year prior, you have to sign up for your electives. I was going to my junior year, I had enough credits to graduate, I was like, Okay, I just need to throw away class because I just need something else to do, right. And so I looked at the choices and I went down, I was like, Okay, we'll just throw ceramics on there. It's like my last option, I get tossed in the class and like, Okay, this is kind of fun, it's a little bit interesting. It was all hand building. So nothing on the pottery wheel, nothing spinning, just kind of using your hands and sculpting clay. And then naturally, like, on my phone, it would just start up with Pottery stuff, and then be more wheel throwing. And that's what really captivated me because I was like, you can make these like gorgeous round pots and everything. It looks like it goes really fast. Like people would make a bowl in five minutes on the pottery wheel where it takes me like hours. Just write by hand. So that's really what had me started. And then I think I just fell in love with it. Because like it was a place in the studio that I could get messy. I could just have fun. I can't even touch like my phone, I just have to put my phone away because your hands are messy. And so like I can turn off everything. Just focus on what I'm doing right now. And just like have fun with it is because there's no right answers at the end of the day, as long as you're happy with it. That's really the most important. And I think people understand that. Like, if you really like what you're making, and you can explain that to people. People will just see you light up and be passionate about something and then they'll kind of understand. Yes, that's that's something really cool. Jonathan, how
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old are you?
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I am 18. I'm going to be 19. And two weeks actually is
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fabulous. I'm so excited for you. We have a wonderful young entrepreneur in the house today. That is wonderful. Not even 20 He not even 20 He has started his own business, a business that he loves. That's, that's what entrepreneurs do. And that's what I love about entrepreneurs, we start businesses, we do things because we're passionate about it. And he really took a class and found that he loved ceramics in school in school by mistake by mistake.
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Just try to throw something you know, you know what, I'm just gonna do this, right? Is it soothing? When you are molding this clay? What's the feeling you get when you're I mean, because you get this lump of clay? What's the feeling you get?
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So truthfully, there's like a roller coaster of emotions when things go well, it's it's the best thing on earth because you sit down a lump of clay. It's all messy, whatever. You center it and it's like it's perfectly on center, you pull up a wall and it grows and like six inches with one pole. You're like, wow, this is all happening really quick. Now there's bad days where you go in and you try to center it, it doesn't center, right, you try to pull up a wall, you end up tearing the wall, it falls over and it gets really bad. But for most things, it's really peaceful and it's really satisfying because I just put on some like relaxing music or whatever I'm in the mood to I put my phone away, just let the music play. And I'm just there. And oftentimes, like I lose track of time, it's like I go in, I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna get an hour and a half of work. I'm gonna make like three or four things great. Next thing you know, I'm like, making seven eight different things. I check my phone. I've been there for three hours. But I really enjoy it. I love it.
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So tell me about some of the pieces that you make.
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So I specialize in kind of two different areas. One of them is Roku, which is purely decorative. It's not food safe. That's what this vase in front of it sorry viewers you can't see. But that's what this vase is down again.
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So what's it called
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again, Roku ra KU Roku, Roku. Roku with a it's a little bit different. It's purely decorative because the clay doesn't get fired enough to make it food safe. But you get a lot of different color variations with the glazes you use the glazes typically have a lot of metals in it like copper. And it's actually super interesting, I highly encourage people to look it up online and look at videos. Because actually, what you do is you heat up like your pot with glaze on it to 1800 degrees, it's glowing red hot, you take it right out of the kiln, put it into a can of combustibles, like newspaper, whatever. And the temperature shock going from 1800 down to room temp. And also with the newspaper, it catches on fire, and you put a lid on it, the fire burns off all the oxygen and it creates an atmosphere called reduction. So an atmosphere around the pot that started with oxygen. And that brings out all the metals right back to the surface and kind of changes their colors. So you can get beautiful like blues, yellows, pinks, magenta is all with one glaze. Like this is one glaze here on this pot. And yet you get all of these different colors around it. And it's really, really beautiful. Now the other part that I specialize in is making like food safe things and dinnerware. So I've been making a ton of mugs, a ton of bowls and plates jars, like anything that you can hold food in or even just things that you have around your house like okay, I need a little bowl to hold my keys and great. I can make a little dish, hold your keys and you just have it on your desk, whatever. And it's great for you. Oh, wow.
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Okay, so you've listened to the last talk with Leah and Rhonda show. I am Lea Crawford.
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I am Rhonda Nolan. And we are here with the wonderful Jonathan Eng. And ladies and gentlemen, if you'd like to see some of his beautiful creations, www in G dash pottery.com. That's www N G dash pottery.com. And he has his work online on his website. And it is just absolutely beautiful. He has all different types of vases, and he has mugs, he has pictures. I mean, he has some really, really gorgeous, gorgeous pieces.
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And he's 1980
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and he is 18, almost 19 years old. I love it. So tell me, where can we see your items in person.
Unknown Speaker 12:14
In person, I think it's the best way to see my items. Mostly you can find me your local market in the alley. You can find those locations online just market in the alley.com. It bounces around from different locations around the valley. So chances are good that at least once a month, it'll be reasonable drive for you to get there like 15 minutes or so to get to a location. Currently, like the next show that I'm doing will be in Henderson at the district at Green Valley Ranch. It's off of 215 and Green Valley right by a Whole Foods and Cheesecake Factory right there. Like directly off the freeway just to your right. So that'll be the next one I'm doing and then coming up in April I'll probably do a couple more shows like the first weekend of the month, the first Sunday of the month they have it at the young Commons it's right across from that new Durango casino in the southwest and then the weekend after they're going to Centennial springs. I believe it's way up north really far away from I live but it's another good show. Do you drive? I do. Okay,
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you know he's 1998 19 he's a teenager in the valley. Most of them drive Okay, most of them drive I can say that
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is wonderful. Okay, do you take cash or credit cards when a person comes to visit you at the access an alley?
Unknown Speaker 13:37
I can do cash I have changed on hand and then I also have a card reader so if people need to use our card or Apple Pay as well like I can do that as well.
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That's fantastic. Now do you have any assistance is it are any family members assist you when you're out?
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When I'm out at my show, I have the great support of my family. Particularly my mom, she she's really helpful. Especially when going shows there's so much equipment like we need a tent, we need tables, we need all the shelves to make the display nice. It's just so much like furniture that you have to bring to every show and my car it's it's a smaller it's a Ford Escape, so it doesn't really have that space to hold everything. So my mother she has a little bigger car, we take two cars, one with the pots that I drive and then one with all the setup equipment that she drives. And so she's really helpful. Sometimes she'll stick around and talk to customers. Talk to me if there's downtime, nobody's around. But she's really helpful at the shows when it comes to just making the pieces it's really just a one man operation. Like I take it from ball of clay that I get all the way to a finished product. And I'm really starting to try to switch over and have everything from the ground up be myself so I'm trying right now to try to find a local clay that I can use into decorating like a slip it It's clay in water so you can like paint it on and local clays it might have different minerals in it that can change glazes different colors that you can get at the finish it might become yellow, it might have more reds because of iron. So I'm really looking for that to use. I'm already with my glazes I partnered with a local barbecue place right by my house to kind of source wood ash from that they use oak wood for their smoking. I just I went I went in one day, I was super sweet. I brought a book that said like how to make Ashley's on it. I was like, Hey, I'm representing myself, right? And so I bring it in. I was like, you guys, you guys burn wood. You guys have a lot of ash. I'm sure you guys are a barbecue place. You can't use them. Okay, could I just bring in a bucket take ash and I'm gonna use it for glaze like, this is what I'm gonna make it for. And the cashier there. She was super nice. She said it's like, Okay, let me talk to my manager. I get a call the next day. Yeah, just come on. And bring
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me now because that's cool. How about that you're reusing the waste? Because there's nothing that they can do with it.
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Yeah. And they're super sweet. Wow. Wow.
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Just ingenious to write part of being an entrepreneur, being
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creative. Thinking outside of the box thing else.
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Don't want to box away. Just thought
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about the opportunities that are out there. You just have to like Kenai and just pay attention. Just pay attention. I really think
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I love that. So how long is it now? You've been doing this for about three years. Um,
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I graduated in 2022. Around two and a half years or so two and a half, three years? I would say though, so the class I did in high school. No disrespect my teacher. She was great. And there were wheels there. There was really no teaching on the potter. So everything I'm doing in some form or another is usually on the wheel. It was exposed? Absolutely. Um, I really think I started to learn things. Once I got out of high school, there was a local studio, right? That's probably like 10 minutes away from campus. Because it's right on Easter and Tropicana. It's called a waste of pottery. It's a local pottery. Oasis oasis. Okay, yeah. Um, I started going there. I was just like a studio membership, I would pop in for a couple hours. And I really started developing my craft, and it really helped when another guy he came in. His name is Joe. He's like an he was an older dude. And he'd done it in his 20s. And he was just getting back into the 60s. Right. He comes in one day, and I see him throwing and it's, it's mesmerizing to watch because I would sit here and I could send her and I could maybe throw but it wasn't even it didn't look clean. What
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is throwing because I mean
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what is throwing so in pottery, when we talk about throwing it's when you have something on the pottery wheel, it's most of the time and electric wheel that spins around, and you have your clay on it. And then throwing is the process of essentially just making something on the pottery wheel. So it's it's spinning around and you're using your hands to take it from a mound of clay to pull it up into like a tall little cylinder and then shape it out into different vases. make it wider, make it skinnier in some parts. And so that's the process of throwing it's what it's called. It didn't make sense to me when I first heard it. After a while you're just like, Okay, it's a term that they use. That
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they use. Just go with it. Alright, so you're listening to the less awkward Lea and Rhonda show. I am Lea Crawford. I am
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Rhonda Nolan. And we have the wonderful and young Jonathan a young, very young I'm so proud of you, Jonathan. I love seeing young entrepreneurs start their own businesses at a very young age and yours is profitable.
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And something that they enjoy doing because honestly you have a piece of him, right? I mean, he actually spent time on this.
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Beautiful we're looking at a mug ladies and gentlemen. That's why you we all got we both got quiet. It's a beautiful, beautiful mug.
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It's a blue and green. And it feels good and it feels and it's it has weight to it. A nice weight to it.
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I love it. And I love your signature on the on the bottom also,
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I love the last name ng real soft ng ng ng So,
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it makes it easy to sign right right in
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G dash pottery.com in G dash pottery.com.
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So for all you entrepreneurs out there that need some artwork for your establishment, you can check out Jonathan at www in G dash p o t t e r y.com. That's www N G dash P O TT e ry.com. And
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I'm sure as you become more experienced, because I mean it looks like you enjoy doing this because I'm sitting here looking at I am in love with this with this mug.
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He has some beautiful plates on here. Wow.
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Right Ah, just exquisite. Something a little bit different if you need something like a piece for your house or something just a little, because art right? A little bit different.
Unknown Speaker 20:09
And you never know. So this black and white. Randy at platter. Can you make several of them?
Unknown Speaker 20:17
I can. Okay, I definitely can the platter is it's probably around like 18 to 20 inches wide. So it's like a big Thanksgiving, you bring it out special occasions, okay, you really use this platter for like big, big occasions for that. And the plates are a little smaller, I think the ones on their green and they have like a little bit of red on it. Those are probably nine inches. So like small little salad plates for you. And currently like in in the works right now I have more plates that are coming out. That'll be kind of white and blue. And I think those, like all the things that I make right now. And just the new things coming out. I think this is the best thing I've made so far. Just keep at it
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always. Right, right. It's always the best thing. And this is the best thing. And this is the best thing.
Unknown Speaker 21:03
So where do you see yourself in five years? Oh,
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my goodness, I haven't thought about that. Short term, what I would like to do so like in the next year or so I would like to have my own kiln and my have my own home studio. So I can just make it on my own time. I don't have to drive. Because currently, I work at a studio in North Las Vegas and I live in Henderson. So it's like a 30 minute drive to get up there. But I would like to have like my home studio. So just like a little shed in the backyard. If I can get in five years. I don't know where it will take me. I mean, I see other people online that they'll do workshops around like that. They'll fly around the country, some people will go to like Carolina, some people will go to a big convention in Utah. And they'll just demonstrate what they're doing. And they'll have a booth there. So that is probably a possibility for me in five years. But currently I just getting started. I'd only started this business in January. Wow. I've only been doing this for three months now actually selling my pizzas really.
Unknown Speaker 22:05
So before you were making them you were making them for fun, but you weren't selling them. Correct. And then you decided to start selling them in January this year.
Unknown Speaker 22:12
Probably looked in the in the house and looked around the house and said, Jonathan, and I can here's my thing, Jonathan, what are we gonna do with these pieces? Because it's so I mean, because there's so much right so much I have. You've made me. Not another dish I can put in the cabinet. I have enough dishes. I have enough mugs. Yes. I have enough. Asus. Yes, exactly. Let's share with the world.
Unknown Speaker 22:33
I think I see Jonathan becoming a huge designer and designing some pieces for like Macy's and Bloomingdale's. Mr.
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Good. I mean, you know, just art around the world and just having these beautiful pieces in the middle of your table and custom doing this. Yeah, see it? Yeah, it's possible. You have a very, very bright view there a bright future very bright future, looking
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forward to live in it.
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I love it. Well, Jonathan, I want to thank you. Thank you for accepting our invitation to come on the show and talk to us about your passion. We really appreciate it.
Unknown Speaker 23:09
Thank you for inviting me. I had a great time here. Yep, I'm
Unknown Speaker 23:12
glad. I'm glad you did. So you're listening to the less awkwardly and Rhonda show. I'm Lea Crawford.
Unknown Speaker 23:17
I'm Rhonda Nolan. And we are so happy to be with you on this beautiful Saturday morning live what's going on in the community? Okay,
Unknown Speaker 23:23
so I don't know what's going on. But I know last weekend, I don't know what's going on today. Because this Saturday, I am going to I'm going to sit down. I'm going to go sit down. Okay. I might go see Jonathan at the mall market and Ally Am I run by there after we after we're done with the show? But last Saturday? The spelling bee? Oh, yeah. Oh my god, we had this Oh, we have a native son spelling bee. And announcement to all of you know, elementary school teachers. We are doing fifth grade next year. So we're going to third grade, fourth grade and fifth grade. There will be an announcement forthcoming but the Native Son spelling bee. It was absolutely amazing. Of course, we had our winners. For third and fourth grade. I am trying to find the the message now with the winners. But I just it was it's good to see young people in the room. Really spelling, you know, and their feelings get hurt and shots out, you know, China at the West Las Vegas Library and her staff there. Because they had games. They had computers laptops set up in the back. They were playing chess in the back. And when you know it's emotional when they spell a word wrong. But they started networking and socializing that they didn't want to go home. Wow. Yeah. So parents, like you know, parents feeling one way to know I want to stay because I'm having fun. And we made it a real good time for the children. It was from like 10 o'clock, so about no later than two in the afternoon. Okay. It was it was amazing. But we did have I'm trying to find a name shout outs
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to Reverend Kelsey West, He is the executive director of the native sound spelling bee. And shout outs to Mr. Devon Brooks, who was the founder of the organization. And he loves love love doing these spelling bees every year. How long has he been doing that Leah? Pastor
Unknown Speaker 25:16
Wes, but Devon, because of COVID desk was our ninth spelling bee. Okay, so next year is our 10th annual Spelling Bee night we have. Again, like I said, we're going to do third, fourth, and fifth graders. Next year, I'm trying to find the winners because I had the winners, I wrote them down and left the book. Yeah, you will know and that's what happens when you really know when you work. And when you really work and I wrote it down left the book, but we did we had third and fourth grade winners. And I love to see the excitement of the children and one little girl I wish I could find her name. I'm gonna find out for y'all next month because I want to get this little girl. This little girl can spell. Little girl can spell and she was spelling the word over and over. She was just she was spelling and it was alright, here we go. So in third grade the winners are third place was Angelique Robles. Second place was Micah Montes. And first place was Micah Jenkins.
Unknown Speaker 26:19
Fantana. All right, those
Unknown Speaker 26:20
were our third for our third graders for our fourth graders. First place what third place was Joey Bel Air second place was Aaron Showa and first place was hate and hate and forbear congratulate. So congratulations, it was an amazing event. A lot of work goes into, you know, just getting the spelling bee together to make sure all the children got trophies. So that was you know, they liked this whole piece at the end. And the you know, the first second and third grade was the first grade trophy is the same height as a child you know, that's the good thing. But what I can say it was an amazing event. I will bring pastor west on it, you know, because 30 secondary street theatre does HBCU tour a whole bunch of other stuff love to bring him on so he can talk about just the things that he's doing right and and about our community because I want to say, you know, the HBCU tours during spring break, and he has a group of children that that he takes to HBCUs every year every spring break. And how do we help children not only to be informed just to go see HBCU um, HBCU graduate, your HBCU graduate. So just to see him just a closure to it.
Unknown Speaker 27:31
That's cool. Well, Las Vegas you've been listening to Let's Talk with Lynn. Rhonda, our time is just about up but we are so happy you are with us this Saturday morning.
Unknown Speaker 27:38
I'm Lea Crawford.
Unknown Speaker 27:39
I'm Rhonda Nolan and we will see you next week. Peace
Unknown Speaker 27:43
and blessings. Thanks, Jonathan. Thank you. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai