#TheGrind

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. Good

Eric James 0:15
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. What's up? What's up? Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. All right, we're back again. You thought I was going somewhere. Y'all don't know me like that. I'm back. I'm coming back, and I'm bringing you another fire show today. I got three new guests that are going to blow you away today, and we're going to get right into it, because this could, this is an hour show, and I got to find a way to fit it into a half an hour and make these people shine. So I'm gonna start because I have two gentlemen with me today, but ladies are always first on my show and in my life. So you know, I'm trying to put, give me some props out there. Hey, put a shout out to all the lovely ladies out there in the world. So my first guest today is Miss Cara fame. Now, I've known Miss Carr for a while now. We've been friends, and we I've seen her through some good and some bad times, and I've seen her through some good and some bad men, y'all so we talk real on my show here, so I'm gonna keep it real on my show, so we're gonna talk to her about her business hustle today and learn more about her. Because, you know, as long as I've known her, there's still things about her I don't know and things that I would like to know more about her, and maybe, you know, bridge some of those gaps and make us stronger as friends and as business colleagues. So Miss Cara, can you tell people a little bit about yourself and what you do, and then I'm gonna ask you some questions and see if we can get to know you a little bit

Kara Faine 1:53
better. All right. Well, thank you so much for that introduction, Eric, I am a I'm currently a broker salesperson with real team, one group and I have been selling real estate for the past seven years, and I like to bridge the gap between being able to help families not only purchase properties, but also make sure that their assets are protected. So I try to be a one stop shop when it comes to making sure that families are protected, just to keep them from probate and all those other legalities when it comes to purchasing a property in Nevada. So what's the name of your company? My company? Well, I work for Realty, one group that's my brokerage, but my entrepreneur company name would be Cara fame, P LLC. Okay,

Eric James 2:37
I like that. I like that. Now keep in mind on this show, we invite entrepreneurs, politicians and people in the grind and the hustle. So when she says she's a broker, y'all need to recognize what that means. Tell people what that means, as opposed to just being a real estate agent or licensed real estate representative.

Kara Faine 2:55
So that basically means that I've been able to take the education that I've had in college, as well as the amount of years in the business, and bridging them together to bring my expertise to people wanting to buy and sell. So it's the experience level. Okay, so

Eric James 3:11
like I said, we're going to find out a little bit more about you, because, you know, I take notes on the show, and I like to throw my guest off a little bit something they're not expecting, or something on a regular show, they just ask them business questions. I like to get down to that nitty gritty and go back to old school and see, see what they really about. Now, when you were growing up, my understanding is your father introduced you to the timeshare business. Is that correct?

Kara Faine 3:33
Yes, my stepdad, my stepdad and I like to just differentiate that, because my father had passed during covid. And so my stepdad, he did help to raise me so I represent and appreciate the both of them, but yeah, my stepdad, he introduced me into timeshare right at the time that I really didn't know what I wanted to do. I was currently working with some doctors in medical esthetics. I was running the practice had been there with them for so many years. They got in trouble. Actually ended up going to federal prison, and I was left trying to figure out what I was going to do next. So I was actually going to join the Air Force. And my stepdad, he called me, and he's like, Hey, come see me at work. So I go to this place. It was called Planet Hollywood towers at the time, I saw this whole sales floor, he showed me, you know, the model, and I'm looking at all these good looking people. I didn't realize that it was timeshare. I didn't even know what timeshare was. I just thought I was actually getting into real estate. So that was kind of I saw a condo, I saw people buying, and I thought I was getting into real estate because I had saw someone else get into real estate, and I saw that they can make a lot of money. So I'm thinking that I'm going to sell real estate and I end up getting into a timeshare position.

Eric James 4:49
Now wait, I've been down to Cabo and I've been solicited timeshares. Got some free meals and some boat rides. Now, what were y'all giving away to make me sign on that dotted line? Because, you know, that's a lifetime commitment. These timeshares.

Kara Faine 5:00
You know, they were giving away either a free dinner, either their stay was going to be for free if they did the presentation, or they were getting tickets to a show, to Cirque sole show, or something like

Eric James 5:12
that. Okay, so what was it that said, Okay, it's time to exit this and move on. What was the point that you said maybe the market had changed. Your person, personally, it was time for you, emotionally, to make a change into a new field or a new environment. What was the motivating factor to go out and make a leap? Because it's not easy being a realtor. I mean, the competition is fierce. To be an entrepreneur and then to take the next step past that and become a broker, that's a big shift. What was the mental shift that changed for you?

Kara Faine 5:45
So I was very lucky enough to be around the right sales people to teach me the business of timeshare, and I was able to actually get promoted, within like five, six years into the business to actually being a sales director. So being the Sales Director, I was the company's first black female sales director at that time, and it allowed me to learn how to run a business, handle people, and I was at the top of the top, running two properties, and the thing that I was lacking was having a life, so I wasn't able to, like, keep a good, stable relationship, and I didn't have time for my family. I didn't have time for anything. So it was just,

Eric James 6:30
wait, wait, wait, I gotta interrupt you now, because you're I've known you for a long time, and, you know, I try to keep it PC, but you're a beautiful female. You've got a successful career. What do you mean? You was having trouble keeping a successful relationship. That had to been the men that were the problem, and I ain't gonna call out no names, but that had to been them dudes problem, because, I mean, you working it and you hustling, you on your grind, they should have been lining up at the door.

Kara Faine 6:55
Well, I was in a relationship for a very long time, and because I was not available, it allowed that person to have other options, since I wasn't available and that, you know, I didn't feel good about that, but I was doing what I had to do to take care of business.

Eric James 7:11
Okay, so, all right, I'm not mad at you. Get that hustle and grind. I always be a man around if you got the if you got the paper and you got the looks. So I'm not worried about that. And fellas back up. She got a big, big old rock on her hand, so none of y'all stopped calling the show or trying to call in here, trying to, like, well, who is she? Was she about that? No, nope, she taken so somebody came along and saw what they needed to see and and they doing right by it. All right, Miss Fang, we gonna come back to you, but I gotta move on to my second guess, because, you know, we got a lot to pack in, but we got some more questions to come back to you on a minute. But I want to introduce my second guest. This is Mr. Ronald Reed. Now his bio because he's from, he's from Chicago, and so, you know, he got an interesting story, because with that Chicago connect, and the Detroit connects that come out here to Las Vegas, that's a whole breed of individuals that come out that way, because they got that East Coast swagger and they come out to the West Coast, has to be some acclimation or change that makes them vibe here and to build a successful business here. Mr. Reid, tell us a little bit about yourself, sir,

Ronald Reed 8:13
sure. My name is Ronald Reed. I work with a company by the name of the loan factory as a loan originator. I also have a business, which is Team USA Financial Group with loan factory. I help people to purchase properties, whether residential property or commercial properties, or build from the ground up, fix and flips. I do all type of mortgages. I'm representing over 200 mortgage companies in helping people to purchase properties. All

Eric James 8:43
right, so tell us about your growing up in Chicago a little bit. Tell me something now, because you did get me, because I do, we ask every guest to give me a little bit of bio, because I want, again, get to know them a little bit better. You had some family tragedy, your sister Shirley, and you gave it to me, so I'm putting it out there. So I don't like to put anybody's business out there that doesn't want it out there, but he gave it to me. Your sister certainly died of cancer. At what age were you when this happened?

Ronald Reed 9:08
I was 5050, years old. She passed from cancer. Yeah, devastating, devastating situation. Cancer is a pretty bad situation for anybody. Just recently, we saw a celebrity that just passed from cancer, she had cancer of the lymph node glands, and not to go off into the medical terminologies, but lymph node glands are all over your body, so that means it was all over your body.

Eric James 9:32
So how do you work through those type of things? How does that not derail because that was your only sibling, correct, that's correct. How does that not derail your career or your path to where you're going as an individual? Well,

Ronald Reed 9:47
as far as situations occur, a number of things have happened in my life that being one of the major ones, I work through it. A lot of times I'll see people that will stop I like to work. Kind of helps me get through situations, helping people to buy properties. I focused on that I like to help people to achieve their goals. Me helping them achieve their goals helps me achieve my goals. It's nothing like a family building generational wealth by buying property. And not only have I helped people to buy properties, it's an amazing feeling when I've seen your child run around as I helped you buy a property. Now this child is grown an adult, and guess who they come to to help them buy a house? Me and I can't beat that. I love it. I love helping people do that. It's just a beautiful

Eric James 10:40
thing. So that's what keeps you motivated. Because, you know, as an entrepreneur, as most folks notice, listen to the show, I am myself. And some mornings when you're the boss, it's easy to, you know, you can roll over and watch a few more minutes of ESPN, or this, that and the other thing, depending on what you watch. You know, how do you how do you have that motivation every morning get up out of bed, or is it that big King Corso dog of yours that comes and pushes you out of the way and and makes you get up and move? He's like, I'm hungry. I need to pee, or there's gonna be a problem up in there,

Ronald Reed 11:11
man, you hit it on the head. That's amazing that you would know this. Wait, the reason

Eric James 11:16
why I know it is because I have 140 pound half grade Dane half bull mastiff and his big dumb butt, which I love him to death, but his dumb butt when he wants something or he needs you, he big enough to impose his weight and his strength on you, and he's, he's, he's diesel as a bull. He swims laps in my pool, in my backyard, like one of the kids he is. Just so I know of your dog. I don't know how heavy is he. He's over 100 he's a bit excited. So when that dog says, Hey, yo, Ronald, we hungry. It's time to eat. He gonna let you know.

Ronald Reed 11:53
It's amazing that you would say that, because I made the mistake of feeding him at six o'clock in the morning and four o'clock in the afternoon, you would think this dog's got a clock. I mean, it's six o'clock in the morning. He got his head on the bed. Like, hey, it's time to go. And it's like, you know, I mean, he's not playing, I'm ready to go. Or four o'clock in the afternoon. It's like, hey, it's four o'clock, not four or five. Where the food at? So, I mean, he's on a time schedule. I feed him on a regular basis those times, but, and, of course, but what I do? I get up in the morning, I start working out. So that kind of gets me going. Because a lot of days like this morning, I didn't want to get up out to bed. I wanted to stay in the bed, but I knew I had to get up and do the little workout I do early in the morning just to get the blood circulating and get going. And the main thing is, I have to not turn on that phone, scrolling and all that. I have to think positive thoughts as I get my day started, because the negative stuff is going to come. I wake up trying to be positive so I can get at it.

Eric James 12:52
Okay, so your bio says that you were insurance representative, you know, you know, that's my primary field, along with my other businesses, have my entertainment company and now open up my home inspection company. I found this, you know, insurance hustle to be a pretty good hustle, but you left it from the mortgage. What made you transition to a new field?

Ronald Reed 13:14
Well, I love insurance. I never thought I would ever get out of the insurance business. It's like, I never thought I could do anything?

Eric James 13:21
I'm glad you did, because that left some room for me to come in. But go ahead. Yes, sir.

Ronald Reed 13:25
Well, I tell you, insurance is a wonderful business. It's an opportunity. I mean, where else can you buy something for, say, $20 and I've had situations where I've sold policies to people for, say, $25 and before I could even deliver the policy, that person got killed. Where else are you going to get $50,000 from giving somebody $25 it's an amazing field. At the time, I started with a company. I don't know if I could mention the name. I started with Prudential. I was Prudential insurance representative. Did my life, health, property, casualty. Even got my series six, I was making good money doing insurance, but I had an auntie that was working with the bank at the time, and she was making more money than me, and I'm like, Well, what are you doing? She says, Ron, I'm a mortgage person. I do mortgages. And at that point, when she showed me what she was doing, I said, Well, hey, I like doing mortgages now. So I switched gears, and I still held on to insurance. I still have people call me now, Ron, I need insurance on my car. I need this, that and the other. I refer them to someone else, which would probably be you.

Eric James 14:29
I'm raising my hand right here, Ron. Ron, let the phone ring, bro, hey, shoot, I got kids, I got Bill, I got a I got a little master defeat, yes. And you

Ronald Reed 14:37
know, the wonderful thing about that is your clients become family. I mean, these people were, I mean, it was like family to me. They just, I love to go see them. They love to see me. It was, I loved insurance. I can't say anything negative about it.

Eric James 14:50
See, now you got me over here, questioning my career choices here. Now I got to rethink my whole strategy here. All right, Mr. Reid, we gonna come back to you. We're gonna end it both for you and. And MS Fang, we'll let them, at the end of the show, make sure people know where they can find you, and tell them how to contact you. But I'm gonna get to my third guest, because he's sitting over here, and you know he's he's on a different phase of a type of career. Now, I know this gentleman, personally. I've broken bread at his home, his lovely wife, I was invited to their wedding on an hour's notice. I'm gonna put it out there on and I showed up, so that lets you know what kind of friend I am and what kind of friend he is. On an hour's notice, I got a call said, I'm getting married. I want you to be there. And we dropped everything, got figured out, our schedules, dropped everything, and drove over there and was there at the wedding. So I am going to introduce my last guest here, Mr. Peter wise, world famous, world renowned, active director, producer. He is a he got so many titles. Introduce yourself, sir. Because if I get my mouth dry trying to explain all the stuff that you do,

Peter Wise 16:01
I'm gonna hire you. My name is Peter wise, casting director, producer, actor, writer, yeah, I've been doing this for about 50 years now. I grew up in it from being a kid, 17 years old in New York and getting the opportunity, someone came to the gym and asked people, did they want to be in the movie? And I laughed at everybody, but it changed my life, because I wasn't going to sign up. I did, and from that, I went into audition. I thought we were just being extras or background, as they call it. I auditioned for the director, John Barry, rest his soul, who spoke into my life. I came down to the finalist for the movie out of all the people that were seen and from that and I was up against people who were trained actors in New York, who've been studying. So I was a newbie. The director said we they had us in a conference room. So this young man has a lot of potential, and he has a gift, and that inspired me to continue on. And so that's why I said he's spoken to my life and from that. And the movie was called Claudine, with James Earl Jones and Diane Carroll, one of the stars of the show who got the role, Lawrence Hilton Jacobs, became a very close friend, and my mentor embraced me and and the rest of the industry embraced me from that got written up, which I was a ballplayer. I played basketball and football, and here I was written up as a in entertainment, which was totally different and which was out of the ordinary for the back in the 70s, there were very few of us in in that position as actors or thought about being active. My parents were like, but why don't you be a post office worker? Take the post office test. You know, you're gonna be an actor. You'll never eat and well, I saved my money during the summertime. I got pictures and resumes, and from that, people took to me, and I started modeling and doing catalogs and 17 magazine Butterick patterns, simplicity, Montgomery, Ward, JC Penney's. I did all those, and then I started doing a lot of

Eric James 18:24
commercials. Wait, wait, wait, Peter, and you're showing your age, because some of these kids don't know what JC Penney's and Sears and and those kids, they googling stuff right now, I'm drunk. You messing the demographics of my show up people like, I don't know, none of that stuff he but is that? Is that? Is that a social media influencer or somebody like that? But here's the Okay folks, their parents know,

Peter Wise 18:51
what is the age of the show anyway? Because you old

Eric James 18:58
show, I admit to it every show I'm grown. So I've been doing this show for a little while now, and I enjoy doing it, so I want to keep doing it. But he was the first guest that ever talked about having a writer or having he wanted to know what craft services we were going to have on the set here. And for those that not in industry, caps, craft services is food, drinks, water that snacks acquire. So I went out personally, got him some Skittles. And you know, only the Divas in industry, you know, he started talking about which color he I needed to pick out of the Skittles to make sure he would show up and not not act out on my show. So he's a beautiful gentleman. What I do want to know more so about is, how do you crash have somebody? How do you know that that's the person for a role? How do you look at somebody that you've met for 10 minutes and in a string of 1020 people? Or how many people are going for that particular role and saying that's the one I see, for my vision, for this role, or for this

Peter Wise 19:57
part? Well, I know your show is short, but that's. What I was telling you about the journey Okay, from being an actor, I was a trained actor. I was on a soap opera. I did wonder woman, Hill Street, blues, Colombo, anatomy of illness. I was on the doctors with Alec Baldwin, Kathleen Turner. I had studied with, yeah. But from that, from training, I learned acting, and so God, that's what I was saying, that God put me in a position. I never wanted to be a star. I wanted to be respected and make a difference. And there was very few of us behind the scenes, of people of color. So when the casting came along, they asked me, because I did so many commercials and did work as an actor, I saw my friends who were tal do with theater actors who didn't get jobs. So I took on the position to cast from that I pray on it that God uses me to be of service to bless the person he wants to bless. So I'm just a conduit. So when you're talking about, how do I know it's it's my spirits, my training first of all, but my spirit voice tells me who I'm supposed to hire. I like that, and I like that. Okay, so it's on, it's on a frequency level.

Eric James 21:16
Now you have, I don't want to miss categorize it, but you have an acting school or an acting classes that you do now. Can you tell me a little bit about those?

Peter Wise 21:28
Yeah, I Well, I have PWA studio, which I've out of LA and I've been doing that for over 13 years, and I started it out here in Las Vegas, since I moved during the pandemic, also, I started an outreach program at Vegas stronger, which is a nonprofit which helps the homeless, the people who've been incarcerated, and people been on drugs rehab, because they're gyms like myself, Like was telling you, beginning, somebody gave me an opportunity, and I asked God to use me to give other people opportunities. So that program I really love, I enjoy giving back. I'm seeing some breakthroughs with people with social skills, who who have I'm the voice for the voiceless, you know, and what I do, but my acting school have some great students, that was my bag, who were trained, and I'm looking for committed people. My show House Divided which I was nominated for. Emmy is on all black. We won five seasons. I used a lot of my students for that show. I would hire people who took class with me and put them in and give them opportunities, small roles, some got big roles based on their audition, but it's all about giving people opportunity. So

Eric James 22:51
where can people find you, or come to your school? How do they find you? Well,

Peter Wise 22:55
I have a website, PWA studio.org, you can look me up there, or you gave me on Instagram at Peter wise 10, and you can reach out, send a message

Eric James 23:06
now, give them give them that again, because I'm always one where somebody says something, I'm trying to write it down and give them that information one more time.

Peter Wise 23:14
PWA studio.org, is the website, and my Instagram is at Peter wise 10. Okay,

Eric James 23:21
so as you can see, Peter, Peter could take up the whole half an hour. We could sit here and have a conversation. No, no, that's a compliment. So that is, that is an incredible compliment, because your accomplishments are phenomenal, your history. And you and I have sat and talked for many hours and and poolside at your home. He has a lovely home and beautiful grandchildren and stuff. So I would love to have you come back another day again to see me talk some more. But we are getting closer to the end of show. It goes by very quickly. I want to get back to Miss Cara. Here. I want where can people find you, ma'am,

Kara Faine 23:57
so my website is LK, Vegas realty.com, and if you would like to follow me on Instagram, my handle is, I am. Cara, pain. Okay,

Eric James 24:11
now, Cara, we've got just enough time. What sets you apart from other other folks in your industry? Because you know you did both hip hop and volleyball in high school. So you were an athlete and a dancer, and you were doing your thing at an early age. What sets you apart from the other people in your industry?

Kara Faine 24:30
I would say that I do care about, you know, what the client is wanting and needing I am because I don't have to live like I do, live on a commission based type of business, but I'm not desperate for it. So it allows me to have those hard conversations and make sure that the clients are, you know, in a good position to be able to move forward in the industry. So What sets me apart is I really do care, and all the other characteristics about. Me regarding my hobbies and everything, just really shows that I am a fun person, and I really do work on having a really good experience with my clients.

Eric James 25:09
And that's the one thing I can vouch and I'm thinking of, how far back do we go back? How many years? At least a good like 15 years. So I can vouch she's one of the sweetest, kindest people that I know, but she's a grinder, she's a hustler. So now I'm in with you, Mr. Reid, to close up the show, because we got about another just a few minutes. And so I'm gonna give you a little bit more time here to tell me what makes you different than anybody else, and what what do you bring from Chicago's South Side that that has allowed your swag to have you survive and prosper in an industry that is just full of sharks and is very competitive.

Ronald Reed 25:48
Well, the thing has allowed me to survive and thrive in this business is I have a mentality of helping people. I'm a go getter. I help people even when the people come to me whose credit is a little bruised. I don't say bad credit. It's just a little bruised, and I need to help them clean up their credit to the point where they can buy a home. A lot of loan officers will walk away from people because they have less than perfect credit. Well, I help people to get to their get their credit scores up to buy a property. I just love helping people, and it shows and, you know, God blesses me by sending me clients that either need help, and I love the clients that come in with money.

Eric James 26:32
Don't get me wrong, we all love them.

Ronald Reed 26:35
Those are the good clients. Nothing like a client coming in and saying, Ron, do I need to put down 100,000 or would to be better? And it's like, hey, those are the ones I love, don't get me wrong, but the ones that are challenged, I love helping people to buy properties that thought that they could never buy a property. I had a client a few years ago. They were like in their 70s, and the man had promised his wife a house all of his life he had been renting and couldn't believe it. I was like, you've been written. Why can't you buy Why didn't you buy a house? Well, I'm too old to buy a house. I was like, What are you talking about this? You can't discriminate. You on age, you can buy a house. The man bought the house. He didn't have to put any money down. He literally walked out of the clothing with money in his pocket, and they're sitting there at the table crying. Everybody's crying at the table because he knew he wanted to buy his wife a house. And they never had bought a house. They rented their whole life. And the man had over 700 credit scores. And I couldn't believe it, he never bought a house because he thought he was too old to buy a

Eric James 27:31
house. That's a shame. There's too many people out there. Now you have a degree in political science and economics, which is my degree as well, so we have a lot in common. Now I didn't play tennis in college because I just, you know, I was more the football side of things, but I think those are some of the unique things that people can pick up from you. You have the analytical side to you. You have a personality that's genuine, and it comes off very easily when people approach you. How do people find you again? Tell people where they can get a hold of

Ronald Reed 28:01
you. At you can look me up under loan factory.com and my name Ronald Reed, which is spelled R, E, E, D, loan factory.com

Eric James 28:10
Say it one more time. Case they missed it, loan

Ronald Reed 28:13
factory.com and the name again, is Ronald Reed, R, E, E, D, all right. Great. Look forward to hearing from

Eric James 28:21
you. I want to say thank you, because we're just about out of time to all three of my guests today. It was a pleasure getting to know you a little bit more, talking to you, and again, your stories, your grind, your hustle, is what this show is all about. You stand out from the average person that took that nine to five you bet on yourself and you went through the struggles to be who you are and where you are today, and I want to thank you and congratulate you on those. Everybody have a beautiful day out there, and hope you guys tune in next time. This is Eric James, your host. Anybody needs to get a hold of me? 70283609537028360953, peace out. 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