Wesley Knight  0:00  
This is a KU NV studios original program. 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.

Tanya Flanagan  0:19  
Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan, I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started. You

Tanya Flanagan  0:47  
Good morning Las Vegas, and welcome to another edition of the scoop with me. Tonya Flanagan right here on 91.5 KU NB jazz and Moore, I am so excited. It's the Sunday after Christmas. I'm still full of cheer. It's the Sunday before the New Year rings in. I know we often stop and we look back to say, what are we reflecting on? What's our New Year's resolutions? Some people abandon them because it's so hard to keep them and they feel super guilty. And the first what month, the first 30 days when you just like, What happened to my I'm going to go to the gym or walk the dog or read a book, or, I don't know, learn how to cook something new every week. Resolutions, but we are not talking about New Year's resolutions today, but today we might before the show was over, but I am happy to welcome to my show. Welcome back. I think he's been here before the CEO and President of the Las Vegas urban chamber, none other than he himself, the Cameron. Ch Miller,

Cameron "CH" Miller  1:47  
how are you? Hey, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. I am well. I'm well. I'm happy about, you know, just having a great holiday season and getting prepared for 2026

Tanya Flanagan  2:02  
I know it's crazy. I see you got the memo. You're wearing my favorite color.

Cameron "CH" Miller  2:06  
Well, you know, it's a good color. It's a good color. I love blue.

Tanya Flanagan  2:09  
And we got the memo because, folks, we have on sweats and we're cozy doing it. Thank you, as I said, for being here. I just wanted to kind of do a year review of how the chamber is doing. A lot has happened in this year we have a new presidential a new federal administration. We have seen changes to economy. I talked a little bit about economy, a lot about economy and investing last week. If you tuned into the show, you can hear any of the shows wherever you get your favorite podcast. So I usually tune back in on Spotify. But wherever you like to get a podcast, you can check out the scoop and you can listen to last week's show. We talked a lot about finances and financial planning. This week, I have Cameron here, and we'll talk a little bit about business, business development, what the chamber is doing in this space, because you do a lot to affect small businesses. So what can you say to us as we close out 2025 and go into 2026 in terms of the economic forecast, as you see it,

Cameron "CH" Miller  3:06  
what I can say about 2025 is we made it

Tanya Flanagan  3:11  
not be that easy

Cameron "CH" Miller  3:13  
like that. We made it you were able to weather the changes and the transitions that happened at a whim. You just got to celebrate that you have been resilient and you've done what it takes to be an entrepreneur and to sustain I often tell people, you know, as an urban Chamber of Commerce, we provide resources relationships, education, information, coaching, supports, we provide a lot, but it doesn't matter how much we give you as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, the success, the longevity, the ability to survive, is solely based on the entrepreneur's decision, desire and passion to continue, their ability to adapt and be resilient and so and to leverage what we are making available to them, we can't make their business successful for them. So anybody who survived and made it like a congratulations for those who didn't, if you're a true entrepreneur, that means you're going to start something again, and at some point, one of those things are going to take off. They're going to to be successful, and going to, you know, to endure. So the core of being an entrepreneur is about resilience and adaptability. And I think that what, that's what 2025 showed us, mostly as it relates to businesses, small businesses, nonprofits, anytime they turn off the faucet of funding at a moment's notice, and you have to navigate, you know how. You're going to pay your staff, run your programming, do all of the things that you were doing when you make it through those things, those who are dependent on government contracts, when government shuts down, all of that. It was a year that we should be celebrating the resilience and adaptability of making it through it right, and preparing ourselves for a 2026 mindset to say, You know what? You threw 2025 at me. If you were in business since 2020 you threw 2020 at me, you threw 2025 at me. I'm ready for what can 2026 do to me, other than help me grow and thrive and become a stronger, better business and so I say all of that because we're in a season of transition within business. We are going to have more micro and small like truly small businesses, right? Micro businesses, those businesses that are single member or maybe four or five member employee businesses, simply because of how the world the economy is changing, the focus the impact of AI and technology and the growth of that right, those who with the government downsizing, so to speak, those folks who are white collar jobs that are being lost due to AI, right? The expertise is going to drive those folks to consulting, and that is going to create a whole nother group of entrepreneurs who may never need to scale their business beyond five employees because of the power of AI and all that they can do. So it's going to be, I think, moving forward, it's just been 2025 reflecting 2025 has been a year of great transition. You said a lot, I did for a long time,

Tanya Flanagan  6:49  
and I think the crux, thank you for that. I think the crux, what I took from it, adaptability, evolution. It really ties into I feel sometimes, and I've said this before, the entire theme of what Vegas is built on. Because Vegas, if you do business in Las Vegas, and you watch business around you, and you see the moves constantly changing, constantly giving you something new, recreating, we literally implode. Casinos sell land or keep it and build a completely new concept to constantly generate new interest in business, in the primary business, at least in the southern portion of the state, right? So I think that in a way that drives the mindset and the mentality of people who do business in the city. But really you said it business anywhere, is the ability to adapt to change, to forecast and see what's coming, what has occurred, what's happening now, what could come as a new business, a person thinking about getting in to business, you're thinking, what commodity can I sell that people will actually want on a continual basis to create return client, you know, absolutely customer base, because that's what's going to keep You in business. So you said a lot about evolving, surviving the what has been 2025 what has been government shutdowns? What has been discontinuation of funding in government space? If you're a contracted in the micro business, if I'm just me, and I'm doing my own thing in that, in all of that, in the whole of that trends. I'm curious to know how you guys are talking about trends in business, trends in industry, trends in new business, and the appetite of the customer. What are they going to be wanting to bite on? Right?

Cameron "CH" Miller  8:56  
Yeah, so it, we do it in conversations around different sectors or groups. So we have several round tables. We have like a global roundtable, we have a healthcare roundtable, we have an IT technology roundtable, sports and entertainment roundtable. So of all the roundtables, they talk about those specific things, what's happening, what they're seeing, and what's to come in each one, and so that is kind of specific to what those businesses are actually dealing with, looking at and moving forward towards, because you can get something from an expert, but if the expert is not intimately involved in your community, your business, the people that you serve, they're giving you macro level information that you then have to decipher and figure out. How does it apply to my business? And so those round tables allow them to have those same discussions about trends, what's happening, what's moving forward, a. What they're seeing from a place where, like we're in Las Vegas, I need to know what entrepreneurs and people in the same industry that I'm in, how are they surviving? What are they doing? How can we trade and share information? And so those with are what those round tables are designed to do. Now, one of the things that I'm really excited about is our small business academy.ai. It is an AI powered learning system where you will be able to go on, take an assessment, learn. It'll give you a course path, and through the course path. There's also a coach with inside an AI coach, where you can ask us questions specifically about your business, because at the end of the day, what entrepreneurs don't have is a lot of time to learn information that they don't necessarily need or they can't apply to their businesses. And so when we take that same mindset about what's happening at the round tables and like, I need to know how this works for me and my business, we're applying that same thing to our Small Business Academy so entrepreneurs can go in. And I just need to know how to do a little bit of more digital marketing. But I don't need to know how they do it for online e commerce Store, when I have a brick and mortar pet shop, I mean or grooming business, you know, I need to know, how do I ask the questions and apply the knowledge specifically to my business? And so that's what the small business academy.ai is designed to do.

Tanya Flanagan  11:30  
I like the innovativeness of bringing people a new way to learn how to grow their business and how to stay relevant in this in this economy and in this business market. So kudos to you. I took my hat, congratulations. I know you guys recently launched the academy, AI, Academy, Business Academy. Ai, so congratulations to you for that. I'm wondering, as an urban chamber, how, what type of interface happens? Because people may tell folks, oh, you should join all the chambers, right? What type of interface happens between your chamber and, say, the Vegas chamber, or Henderson chamber, or no, there's women's chamber. There's all kinds of different, maybe 14 to 20 chambers in addition to you or the Vegas chamber with a specialization in what they're doing. Like, there's even, I think, a wedding chapel chamber that sort of brings that group together, but yet, that's still a small business that might want to belong to the urban chamber, depending on where you're doing business and who your clientele is. Was there like an interface? How does that work?

Cameron "CH" Miller  12:39  
So I think there are one we love relationships and partnerships with all of our chamber partners and that are in the community, because we are doing similar work. And I think it's really about businesses kind of finding what group, what chamber feels right and has that feels connects to them from a business perspective, maybe an identity perspective and a community perspective, right? And so when we look at the Vegas chamber, the Vegas chamber is like the Big Brother, Big Sister of all the chambers. They are the one of the most successful chambers in the country, one of the largest chambers in the country, and so the other chambers, we partner with the Vegas chamber in a lot of ways, but what we're able to provide differently, and specifically the urban chamber is, depending on what level your business is, we are a little more directly involved, accessible and focused. So I know for a fact because our, historically, the urban chamber, has focused on businesses with owners that I say, come from the most disadvantaged backgrounds. So those may be people of color, women owned businesses, different things like that. It may be veterans or disabled, whatever may have given them a disadvantage in being a business owner, that's kind of who we focus on, and majority of those business owners are also micro or small business owners. And so where we really focus is on micro and small businesses. Now we can help your business scale from whatever level it is to the next level, because we have the relationships with the same corporate entities that the Vegas chamber has relationships with, right? They're chambers. Most of those organizations are chambers of both are members of both chambers, because they do want to have that relationship with the small businesses and the community. So when it comes to that perspective, when you talk about interface, I think it is, it is the way that we are, it's what we're focused on. And then the other thing I would say is a lot of times people just say, when they join our chamber, and they've been members of other chambers, they say this just feels like a family, like I just I want to come to your event, just because I want to see every. Body again, and I think that's one of the most important things, because it's in that continuing to show up to events that you end up finding natural connections with other business owners that helps your business grow scale, get to the next level. And so creating that atmosphere for our micro, micro and small business owners is what I think we specialize in the most.

Tanya Flanagan  15:22  
I think that's wonderful. You talked about that at the beginning of our conversation, and when you were talking to snap made me think boutique, you know, like we are, we love focus. We love a concentration on who we are, what we're about, and how to enhance and bring more color, make it vivid. So it feels like boutique rate business support and business development. And I love that about what you said, and you talked about at the beginning, the need to work the environment. So if you are an entrepreneur and you're a small business owner, the relationships that you are able to tap into by being a part of the urban Chamber of Commerce and how much you work, that is how well you grow your business. You've been in Vegas. You're a native, born and raised, but you don't see a lot. You see more of it. I think I feel like I meet more natives now than I used to, right? I've been here for 30 years now, so I feel like I meet more now. I've been here longer. Well, there are more of us now. I don't know how that I don't know how that works, but maybe, maybe, yeah, kids and so now there's just more. That's cool. But I'm like to also let people get to know who you are, because you're more than just the president and CEO of the Vegas urban Chamber of Commerce. So how'd you come into that space? Because I have the burning question for those of you who don't know. I'm talking to Cameron ch Miller, who we know as the presidency but we also know as a former Nevada state legislator, yes. So a lot of hats, yes. Think some some additional background in film development too, if I remember correctly, yeah, yeah. So you know, you've done a number of things, yeah.

Cameron "CH" Miller  17:10  
So you know, first of all, it is God, and I'll say the leading and guiding of him into where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing, I believe very much so that when you are open to what he's presenting to you through life, then you can move accordingly. So everything that I've done in life doesn't always, doesn't seem like it lines up right, but somehow it all has come together. You're reading my mind very well. And so I was a hair stylist for 12 years. Right out of high school, I was a realtor for some time, and then went into investing in other things, but I then, I had always had this passion for film and entertainment, and that started, I wanted to be a news anchor. Never became a news anchor, but that's how it started. And then I ended up, you know, acting in producing projects. I became a film producer and produce. Ran a boutique studio out of Atlanta. We brought that here to Las Vegas and did some film training, specifically over at Nevada Partners. And brought, I think, the first film training for young people to the state. And so all of that then started to get me involved in a political world, right? And I have, you know my cousin who everybody, at one time or another hears me talk about, but his name was Tyrone Thompson, and he was a beloved Assemblyman, but community leader for a long time, and he wants, he posed the question to me about politics, do you ever think you would run for office? And at the time, I told him, No, I have no desire to run for office. I just like the fact that I can get y'all on the phone when I want to. And so it changes when you actually become a politician. When you get in office, you can't always on the phone, get those same folks on the phone, but that's another story. So So eventually, you know, he passed on, and we had a conversation again, where I said, you know, I would be interested in doing this. And so we talked about what it would look like for me to run. I eventually decided to run, even though he had passed on. I had to make that decision. Do you still do this? And I do so I did, and I became the Assemblyman for assembly district seven, which you now currently represent. So hey, and that, you know, it was, it was a natural fit. It just opened up at the right time. And then I came while I was in the assembly, I the job became available at the Urban Chamber of Commerce for President and CEO. And I thought, Hmm, I've been pretty much a business owner entrepreneur my entire life. I've been involved with the Chamber in community. City. Let's see what this is going to be like. And the time in the season was right, and I was able to apply for the role, went through the process, and I, you know, came out, President and CEO. And since my time being there, I realized what I know about myself is, when I come into a situation, it's time for transition. Great change, great transition is coming, and the Chamber has been operating, you know, under great leadership for 1012, years before I got in the role. But now I'm here. So what are we getting ready to do? And that was, prepare it for the next generation of business owners and entrepreneurship. So this is coming now. Back to my job. I know you want to ask me about. Ask me about me.

Tanya Flanagan  20:43  
No, I'm loving it, because I'm loving the conversation as it exposes the vision, right? How it exposes the journey where the culmination of all of the things that you've done make being president and CEO of the urban chamber makes so much more sense. Okay? It just because, if you don't know your history, you knew your history, right? So you knew what all the ingredients were that went into the recipe that created Cameron C H Miller made him who he was and who he who you are. But hearing that, it makes it makes so much more sense how walking into the role of presidency, of working with the Urban chamber, makes sense, because you have to have some understanding of what it's like, I think, anyway, to run a small business, because what is it like to have stood and those shoes? But more importantly, as a young person, because you are so relatively young,

Cameron "CH" Miller  21:40  
don't tell my kids that they don't disagree.

Tanya Flanagan  21:44  
And I say that because when we're in these spaces, you reach a point in life where you become conscious about what your responsibility is to leave something so that the next generation behind you has something they can work with and continue to move forward, and then in the space you occupy, to move the community forward, to move small business forward, what does that look like? And I think you bring this combination of talents that serve the chamber well, because even the academy, as we move into a space where we constantly see AI taking over jobs helping people, we are having conversations about how it's helping people, or is it mental health, right? It's helping social workers write notes on patients, yet you still have the human component. It is changing everything about the way we do business, absolutely, and how tapped in are we. So that's a space of vision, yeah. And I mean, hearing your entire life story makes the role you have and the roles you've had and who knows what's coming in the future make even more sense. Yeah. So you were talking about transition, yeah. And growth. So where, where are, where are we going?

Cameron "CH" Miller  23:04  
So, you know, 2026, 2026 is here. Everybody's gonna be on a new year, new me thing. So will the urban Chamber of Commerce. We are launching a completely new digital infrastructure. All of our members will get a new membership portal and back end experience. We have a new website, new member directories. When you go and you find somebody on our through our directory, their web page, everything is SEO and ga i o optimize, if you don't know what that is, that's generative, AI optimization. That's because so many people are searching through chat GPT or Gemini or Claude or one of those. So we're making sure that everything that a member gets is driving business and attention to their business. One of the things that I'm most excited about for the community as a whole is our community clicker so we're launching two apps in few days, and one of them is the community clicker app. And so anyone who's running a nonprofit, so this community clicker app is finally a community calendar that the chamber can host, where we can populate all of the events that are happening within our community of businesses and nonprofits that we regularly interact with. So no longer will you have to be like, Oh, what's going on today? We'll have a list for you. You'll be able to tap into it, and it will allow businesses who are members to self published to that so they can, they run in a special today, they're running an event. You got some put that on the community clicker, the nonprofits, we will allow you to go ahead and put all of your events on the community clicker, the reason that we want to do that is for a couple of reasons. One, we want to make sure that our community has. Something that brings them together to know what's happening everywhere, as much as we can possibly provide right? Secondly, it helps our small businesses be in the mix. When we have all of these events on the community clicker, and everybody knows to go to the community clicker, then a small business can say, hey, you're going to this event over here at this nonprofit. Well, if you go and you spend $25 over there, you gonna get a $25 discount or gift certificate or something like that. Over at my business, so that we're creating commerce and supporting our community, and everybody has somewhere to come together. So really, really, really excited about the community clicker, and then our business owners, who are, you know, members, they will get what's called, we're doing a bringing local back program, and they'll get an app that allows them to do all of their posting, eight using AI to create marketing pieces and all of that stuff, and then post to all of their social channels, as well as directly To the community clicker. Now people are already kind of doing this in different spaces, but what makes this unique is, as a part of their chamber membership, they won't have to pay all them different subscription prices to do it. They get that, plus being a part of a member of the chamber and all the benefits that are part of that. So I'm really excited about how we are moving the chamber forward for 2026 and how we're preparing for the next generation of business owners.

Tanya Flanagan  26:27  
Kudos to you. I love it, because for so long you've heard people have conversations, even just the other day, I had someone saying saying to me how there needed to be a directory of business, right? How do people access information? How do we stop overlapping effort? And you may never stop overlapping effort, because as the city grows, the population is increasing and you have more people doing more things, and there's only so many days in the year, so many opportune months and times at which to do it. So you're going to see the overlap, but it's really nice to hear that the tool is is alive, and it's coming and it's about to be unveiled, and kudos to you for unveiling it through the urban chamber to meet a need. And that's part of what we talked about at the very beginning. This has been the greatest conversation of full circle, because I opened up talking about New Year's resolutions and things people intend to do, and we're at the end of the show, and we're telling you what the New Year's resolution and what the new looks like for the urban Chamber of Commerce, and what you can expect to get from it, and how you're going to gain and glean. We're almost in the last minute and a half. I want to make sure people know where to find you, know how to find you. So please unleash your social media, your website info, go yes.

Cameron "CH" Miller  27:45  
So the urban chamber you can find at Urban Chamber of commerce.org, urban Chamber of commerce.org, you can find me on all social platforms. At ch Miller speaks. At ch Miller speaks, or you can google or put in Cameron C H Miller, and that'll usually bring me right to the top, and you can find me anywhere,

Tanya Flanagan  28:09  
folks, Cameron C H Miller, I cannot say enough how dynamic and exciting it has been to have you on the show talking about new things. I think this has been a perfect and I couldn't have planned a better final show of the year, getting ready to go into the new year. It's the time that we, as I said, pause and reflect. We've lost loved ones, gained new loved ones, seen babies born. Had to say goodbye to others that we love so much. I hope 2025 has treated you well or inspired you to continue in the fight and stay on the path as we get ready to welcome in 2026 folks, stay safe, stay well. Remember to tell someone that you love them. Remember to love yourself and to love on yourself and to afford yourself grace. It has been a pleasure to be with you in 2025 on K, U, N, V, 91.5, jazz and more, and I'll see you again in the new year. So until next time, bye for now and Happy New Year, I want to thank you for tuning in to the scoop with me. Tonya Flanagan, and I want to invite you to get social with me. I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle, T, a n, y, A F, l, a n, a G, A N. You can also find me on Instagram at Tonya almond eyes Flanagan, and if you have a thought, an opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tonya.flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai