#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. Good morning. Good morning. How's everybody doing today? Hey, I'm not even gonna talk much at the start of the show today, because I have so many guests in the studio. The studio, our studio tech is looking at me like I'm crazy. We are packed in here, but that means the show is going to be better than ever. Every month, I want to bring you something brand new, something better and more informative, and blow your mind so we can keep this thing, this train rolling. So we're going to start right away, because we got a lot to talk about and a lot to do. So I'm going to start with our first guest. Just introduce each individual person, and then go to our first guest, and then knock this thing out the box. My first guest, most of you know, because she has a show on, well, used to have a show at this time on the same radio station here. I think she's going to bring it back. She should, because she's phenomenal on the mic, but she's doing bigger and better things right now. So she is up in Carson City trying to change your life and my life as an assembly person. I got to make sure I'm politically correct and not getting myself in trouble, but calling her an assembly woman because I am very PC and want to make sure she don't get it. Get on me now. Tanya, miss. Tanya Flanagan, I have Lance growlich And I have a Claudine Owen and a special guest, Mo Owens, who's going to just get a shout out today. Oh, and I cannot forget my favorite guest of all. Well, he's not a guest today. He's going to be my co anchor of the show here, Mr. Xavier James, my own son. Now for some of you, if you remember, he was on the show last month as a budding entrepreneur, and He's launching his own company, which is not his first, but it was his third attempt, a third, third company. He has his own companies launching as his homework assignment from me over the summer, him and his sister are launching their own pet clothing line, online drop, shipping store. So Mr. James, can you just say hello to the folks? Good morning. Good morning. All right, so he's gonna, he's gonna back me up. He's got to learn how to do this, this podcast and radio thing, so he can take over the show when I'm old and crap it. And he can, I can pass down the church. So we're going to start out by just giving a quick shout out to my friend mo Owens. He is the owner, CEO, Boss Man, hustle, HR, marketing, everything. Because you know how it is when you own a business, you are everything, anything he's got his last shot, hydration, replenish, recovery, drink. Now we got a couple of flavors here because I invited them. That's how you get free swag. You invite people on your radio show. They bring you stuff. That's That's how, that's how we rock. Now I'm not going to say anything about none of y'all other people didn't bring me nothing, but so that's why he gets first shout out. So Mr. Mo, tell folks just a quick little verbiage about what your energy drink. Well again, hydration drink. I want to be clear on that this stuff is packed with a lot more nutrients and other things than your average drink. And he's going to be a future guest on our show, so we're going to let him talk for two quick seconds and get to our three main guests.

Mo Owens 3:35
Thanks, Eric for letting me come in and drop a couple lines. I'm a Las Vegas residents for 33 years. Business Owner for 25 years. We had last shot for 15 years. Public traded company. You can check us out on last shot. Official.com

Eric James 3:53
we have a hydration drink. Is no sugar, no calories, no carbs, milk thistle, dandelions. We have premium hydration drink. We're in about 30 states right now, and we're moving product. We're doing really big in Hawaii and our own backyard in Las Vegas, in the bars and stores, also the restaurants. All right, sir, well, thank you. Like you said, we're just giving him a shout out today. He's going to be a future guest. And because, you know, I'm run out of some of some of these drinks, so I got to have excuse to make them bring me some more. But I just wanted to have him come by. He's a good brother. I've known him for over 20 years now, at the very least, and we were able to reconnect about six, eight months back. And I wanted to have him come in and really let you folks know. All right, so assembly person, Tonya Flanagan, so Lance, Imma put you in between the ladies real quick, but I'm going to talk to Tanya first, because I've known her the longest, and so I'm going to give her her respect and let her go first, because I know as a busy, busy politician, she's got a lot to offer. Now the funny story I got to start off with this funny. Story for you folks. It was about three, four months ago. I gave Miss, Miss Tanya, a call. I said Tonya, you know what? It occurred to me, I've forgotten your father's name. And she looked at me like I was crazy. And what I had to tell her is I've been calling him daddy for the last 20 years. My own father passed away when I was fairly young, so he became a father figure to me, and over the years, I've stayed in his home. He brings me greens from his garden and jokes and gives me a hard time every time he sees me. And so I just took the calling him daddy for so long that I realized I had forgotten his actual name, and I didn't know if I should be embarrassed or honor Him and His graces over the years, the fact that I no longer knew this grown man's name, and I had just been calling him daddy for so long that that became comfortable and normal to me. Ms Flanagan, tell the little folks about what you're doing, about your life, your story, our history and your time, your new time in Carson City.

Tanya Flanagan 5:55
Well, first of all, thank you for having me on the show Eric as your friend of what 20 years we started the Urban League young professionals together in 2006 so almost 20 year anniversary for us and our friendship. So it's a delight to be here. I am the assembly member representing District seven for the state of Nevada, which is mostly North Las Vegas and a sliver of Las Vegas from Cheyenne to Lone Mountain Rancho and Jones to Nellis and lamb, if you're familiar with the streets and our city, continued to come on the radio and talk during the legislative session. We just concluded the 83rd legislative session in Carson City, lots of bills were passed. I'm sure, as you've heard, lots of bills were vetoed by Governor Lombardo over the years, I've worked in the community for a really long time alongside you, advocating for those who are less advantaged, and just also having some fun. We did camp brotherhood, Camp sisterhood together, and so just excited about this new chapter of my life, which allows me to advocate for the people on a daily basis. I always tell people, the legislature is very citizen centric. It is the most citizen adjacent branch of government and body. So it's just a great place to spend some time and to

Eric James 7:05
give Okay, so tell me something. What made you leave because, again, us being friends for such a long time, I've followed your history. This is you've run for office in the past. You had one of the most unusual losses of any politician that I've ever heard or known. I know many and you lost by a card flip. Can you explain folks how that work?

Tanya Flanagan 7:29
I ran for a city council position in North Las Vegas in 2011 and I tied in the primary and so on. Our books and law by law, ties are broken by a lottery system so it can be a drawing of straws, flipping of the coin flip, you know, pulling card. So they brought out a dealer, laid out the green felt table. Did some card tricks, laid out cards the Los Angeles Times came with so many people covered. It was on national news and everything. I pulled the low card and got put out of that race in 2011

Eric James 8:02
now second. Usual, that can only happen in Nevada. I've talked to politicians from other places, other states, and they looked at me when I've told this story. I do a lot of traveling and run my mouth a lot more. I have a radio show, but they looked at me like, You must be out your mind. I'm like, No, this really happened. And several of them thought I was spinning a tail or, you know, trying to be creative or artistic with the story. And I'm like, no that in Nevada, you could pull a deck a jack or a five or a 10 and win or lose a race. And they just were blown away. And I was at the time, because I sat in with you during that and, and, and I'm proud to say, this past February, I was on the floor in Carson City, the Senate floor for Miss Flanagan swearing in in Carson City, she invited me her father, daddy, and some of other family members that come and sit with her in chamber on the Senate floor for her swearing in. So I was honored. I respected everything she's done her history. But what I got to ask is, what made you leave that safe, cushy government job and run for politics, which I wouldn't. I wouldn't put that on in my worst enemy. It's a hard life. Well,

Tanya Flanagan 9:19
let me say I didn't. Well, we won't call my job a safe, cushy government job. I won't do that, but I do work for Clark County. I work for Clark County. It'll be 23 years in October, I still work for Clark County. So what I did was, I did make the sacrifice of taking a leave from work, so I'll leave without pay to spend four months, 120 days, or a little bit more in Carson City, representing my district, but really the state, people in the state of Nevada, and we've worked on things for a really long time, and I've always, I think even as a teenager, been called to respond to people, to bridge the gap, to work as a conduit. To connect people to resources, to identify solutions, and whatever I can, to orchestrate those solutions, to be instrumental in that process. So it was just a call to action, and it was a time in my life when a lot of things and a lot of choices were presenting themselves, and it was really too much to where you're trying to juggle all the balls and keep them in the air. And I just said, Dear God, this is too much for me, so whichever door you open, I will say, yes.

Eric James 10:24
All right, well, I don't know if I could do it any job they're not paying you for, and they want to yell at you and be mean. That's not a job for me. But you are stronger, stronger person, stronger woman and stronger advocate. That's why I voted for you. All right, we're going to move on. Keep the show rolling, because we have two other phenomenal guests, and I want to make sure I'm making sure I'm giving them, if they're equal, and enough time to tell their story and about their grind and their hustle, because that's what this is about. This is about entrepreneurs, business people, people that have left nine to fives or ventured out past nine to fives and taken that challenge on, as I've done myself, and I'm in the process of doing right now with a new venture, my new home inspection company, and we're working on our vo three AI generation production for my entertainment company, Black Rose dot media. You can find me on the internet with everybody else, but we're moving on to Lance. Growlich Lance. I recently met Lance at a wedding, and so I had a few drinks in me, I can't admit and him and I start chopping up. We happen to be sitting at the same table. Found out that we both had economics degrees, found out we had so much in common. He has his own podcast radio show. He hasn't invited me on it yet, but, you know, I won't hold that against him. So we working on some things. But this man is an entrepreneur extraordinaire. I have something special with him. He didn't know we were doing this because his bio resume reads he's one of the multi franchise originators of wing stop and Krispy Kremes. So you know what we got today? We got some Krispy Kremes up in here. Y'all Hold on. So he didn't know we were doing this. I'm sorry I blew that. Oh, my Lord, I blew

Lance Graulich 12:05
that. I did that too. It's totally fine. It is

Eric James 12:08
Krispy Kreme folks, Krispy Kremes, not pink, but my bad. But so I, I blew that. My bad. But donuts. Donuts? Are we gonna eat them anyway? So, so we so it was an attempt to be funny, but we gonna work through that. But Lance, tell me about your story. Because from what I know, you were, what 1213, when you started your first business as a as a paper boy is not right. So tell

Lance Graulich 12:34
me about True, true, true story. You know, I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs, and my father knew at a young age, when I was young, dad's like, you're probably not going to be employable. You're going to probably figure out how to be an entrepreneur early, like the rest of your family, Both my grandfathers. One was a Polish immigrant, barely spoke English. He was an early stage entrepreneur. So for me, at a young age, I had this desire to do something, do something on my own, and paperboy flea market selling Russell athletic sweatshirts at a young age, making lots of money, you know, valet parking as soon as I got my driver's license, running that whole thing, like the old movie The Flamingo kid. And then I fell into franchising. Years later I realized, you know, with my uncle, he brought me off of Wall Street, working for dad's company, kind of bored, didn't really love that needed the entrepreneurial spirit. Wasn't gonna get caught behind a desk any longer. And the long and the short of it is, I got lured to the west coast, from New York to Arizona initially, and I helped my uncle build a $200 million a year company way back in 1989 we started. Okay,

Eric James 13:41
so my question is, 13 from now? My son that's sitting next to me is 13 year olds as well. He started two other smaller business because I'm instilling that entrepreneur mentality in him, and he has the current one, your your first paycheck. What do you remember what you bought with your first paycheck at 13?

Lance Graulich 14:01
Well, to be honest, Mom was all about she was a school principal. She was all about me getting my education. She didn't like me working. Dad loved the fact that I worked all the time, so they took care of all that, those necessities. But I think, if I remember correctly, it was some sort of gaming console, old school gaming console, whether it was something for Pong, or one of those things in the old days, because we're about the same age

Eric James 14:23
well, so you know these young people, my son's probably looking at you like, what Pong? What is that? Pong was a good game. Don't, don't, don't, don't get fooled by its own there was good stuff back then too. Okay, so I know, and this is a funny fact, when I transitioned to Miss Miss Claudine, you're from a small town now, well, you went to a college in a small town and Lawrence High School and in Cedarhurst, New York. Is that correct? Yeah, absolutely. 75 now, I did my homework. I googled it, 7500 people. 7500

Lance Graulich 14:58
it is. Yes, it is a smaller town in Long Island, absolutely.

Eric James 15:02
So small beginnings to major that's a journey. You know, did you ever feel where you came from was too small for who you were or where you wanted to be?

Lance Graulich 15:12
No, we were pretty close to New York City. So if we wanted to feel the big city, we just drove a half hour, took a train and, you know, but for me, it was all about my journey to entrepreneurship, and when I had that option to get to the West Coast, I realized, hey, greener pastures, new life, lower cost of living. You know, when you're a kid, you don't think about that,

Eric James 15:33
but you made a stop in college. You're a college, and I found an interesting fact about your college, 62% female to 38% male. Now I don't know what it was when you went to school, but currently that says on its website, 62% I'm not mad at you that, that you had kind of an advantage going on there. You good looking guy. You know, you got the swag, but you didn't have to be a playboy to get a date when, when the odds are in your favor, like that.

Lance Graulich 16:02
I just like buying a franchise. I like the odds. So I went to the right college. I had had a good time, and I learned,

Eric James 16:09
okay, the one last thing I got to talk to you about is your pets names. Now Wesley, our sound tech, our engineer. I don't know how you bleep or do things, but Lance has two pets, one's named LeBron, and one name is and he's gonna bleep that out. So I'm not worried about I gave him warning, so he has his 10 second. But you try to tell me where you came up with these names.

Lance Graulich 16:36
My brother is a veterinarian. We grew up with a house full of pets. My wife also grew up with house full of pets, so naturally, when we started essentially getting rescues, there were some dogs that were certainly mistreated and had rough lives, and when to us, they attempted to call her Chloe, she was such a handful, I said that, and that's How that name came about. But man, she's loyal, she's sweet, and nobody else would ever take her but us, and she fits in perfectly.

Eric James 17:07
We're so gonna get in trouble the West League. Make sure you got that bleep button going to make sure we don't get put off the air. So all right, we're gonna move and we will come back to you Lance and Miss Flanagan, but we want to move on to my last guest to make sure I give her equal and valued time, because she is a fabulous woman. I've known her for a long time as well. We haven't been able to spend as much time early on, but the last few years, we've tried to make up for some of that, and so I invited her on the show so I could really represent her, her business, hustle and grind, and tell a little bit about her story. Miss Claudine. West Claudine, tell the folks a little bit about yourself.

Claudine West 17:47
Well, I'm also an East Coast girl, at glance. Grew up in Rhode Island, right on the border of Rhodey in Massachusetts, and I made my pilgrimage out west when I was 23 and I haven't returned. I've stayed here in Las Vegas. I've been here quite a long

Eric James 18:07
Well, you did return? Well, is that because you grew up in a small town as well? Wound socket, did I say that? Right? Woon socket, Rhode Island population, 43,000 people.

Claudine West 18:19
Yes. Very small. Too small. Couldn't wait to leave.

Eric James 18:23
So, so I asked Lance that question, sometime big fish small pond and vice versa, did you feel growing up that you were destined for something bigger, something greater than what the small town? Now, some people love that small town vibe, that that homeness. You know, everybody knows their neighbor. I don't like most of my neighbors. So, I mean, for me, that's not necessarily a problem. But did you feel like you were destined for something bigger or greater, and you wanted to venture the world? Because you've traveled, you did a mission in Haiti, you've studied abroad in France. I mean, you are global, worldwide. Vegas seems to fit you, but you have hometown roots, that's that humbleness, that's that genuineness that I love about you and enjoy when we spend time and drink wine with your husband. Because you know your husband, Bill, he likes his wine. Yeah, she's smiling right now. She loves his wine, and he's a connoisseur. So what was it that drew you to bigger and better things. I

Claudine West 19:25
was just bored of living the pastoral life in northern Rhode Island, very, very rural dairy farms. And you know, as a kid, you can't wait to get the heck out.

Eric James 19:38
So what was the first of where first place you visited, or once you decided to leave home.

Claudine West 19:44
I actually my first couple of years of university were in Washington, DC, and then from there, I went to LA Sabon in France. And then I finished up in Rhode Island. I graduated from Rhode Island

Eric James 19:56
College. Okay, so how did we get to Haiti? How.

Claudine West 19:59
Well, when I was 15 years old, I heard about this teen mission. It's called Teen mission, teen Missions International, and they send kids between the ages of 14 and 17 all over the world to do you know, community projects, and I was, I applied, and I was accepted to the Haiti program. I could have also gone to. It was Guam at that time, but I thought Haiti would be far more interesting. So it was through my church, and we spent we spent 10 weeks in Haiti. I lived in a Haitian orphanage in cap Haitien, which is in the north of Haiti, and my group helped build a retaining wall around the property and also built them a well, wow,

Eric James 20:44
that to me, that is incredible. I mean, you stayed in an orphanage that had to be at that age in an inspiring or awe eye dropping experience for a young person of age to really see the difference of what we as Americans take for granted, the quality of life, the opportunities that we have, and to see the levels of poverty and struggle or strife that some folks go through. How did that affect you?

Claudine West 21:13
It was definitely an awakening, and just from that moment, or after that summer, even as a child, I had gratitude. I mean, you know, living, sleeping with the kids on the floor, dirt floors, eating one meal a day, so incredibly grateful. It transformed my life.

Eric James 21:35
So the mortgage and my heart. So the mortgage business. You've been a mortgage representative, loan officer, loan rep, for how many years now? 30 years now. What company do you work for?

Claudine West 21:46
I currently work for movement, mortgage. I've been there for two years. My previous company, I was there 15 years. And then before that, I was with a few organizations for six, seven years, each

Eric James 21:58
very competitive market. How does it you've been able to survive the weathers of the 2010 economic crisis we're going through some things now with the housing market, with home costs up and interest rates were skyrocketing a few years ago, how have you been able to survive the ups and downs?

Claudine West 22:16
By keeping in touch with my clientele and always offering benefits to home ownership, making sure that the community knows about down payment. Assistance opportunities, staying in front of veterans, letting them know we can get you into this home for nearly, you know, zero down payment, and you might even be able to get the fellow to cover everything for you. So

Eric James 22:39
I'm a veteran. You haven't offered me a home yet. Wait a minute. Hold on. What am I missing out on? I need to get some benefits out of this. Okay, so tell folks where they can find you.

Claudine West 22:49
My telephone number is 702-498-8305

Eric James 22:54
hit them with that again to the case, you know, because I'm one that you write it down and I missed that last digit, so give it to them one more time. You bet 702-498-8305,

Claudine West 23:05
or you can also find me at claudine.west@movement.com,

Eric James 23:11
all right, so thank you for coming on the show. We still have a few minutes left, so I'm going to keep rotating back around to my guests. I'ma end back up with assembly person, Tonya Flanigan, but Mr. Lance, tell me about your business hustle, about your grind now you've been wildly successful. What keeps you motivated? What keeps the next journey the most important journey?

Lance Graulich 23:33
Such a great, important question. So I've owned a lot of franchises like you mentioned, wing stop Krispy Kreme donuts, and I was the founder of pink box donuts and creator of pink box donuts back in 2010 instead of retiring, me retiring when I was done with everything, it was all about helping people. And a couple of my friends said you should be a franchise broker, friends that also own franchises. So I don't even know what a franchise broker was. So today, I represent over 900 brands in every industry at every investment level. Veterans own 14% of the franchises out there. They like systems. They like following a plan and a blueprint, and that's what business is all about. Your son and I are going to be talking soon about getting into a franchise, but I love helping people get into business ownership. So anybody out there that's looking for a business, not necessarily even a franchise. A lot of people don't even understand franchises. Could be a $50,000 franchise that I have that you don't even know exists. You can get financing. It's great, SBA loans. SBA and financing go hand in hand. Lots of opportunities. I'm happy to help for free, believe it or not,

Eric James 24:39
so I want to tap on that. We're my son's keeping track of the time here, so I think we have just enough time to speak on that. How do you know what makes a good franchise owner? Because just because you can cook at your mama's house doesn't make you a restaurant owner, or you're a good photographer. Now you want to run out and start a business knowing you know nothing about. How to be a business owner. And again, I own multiple businesses, or I've owned multiple businesses. Some have been successful, some not so, but I've had more successes and failures. So I've learned from my lessons. But how does one become a franchise owner and be a successful franchise owner? In your opinion,

Lance Graulich 25:18
first of all, you'd be shocked that the majority of franchise owners didn't know anything about the industry they got into. A friend of mine owned a lot of great clips hair salons, and he was bald and didn't know how to cut hair initially, when he heard the idea, he thought it was the dumbest thing in the world for him. And guess what, when you really think about the transfer of the skills that you have to a business, there's a lot of things that you can do because you're following somebody else's blueprint. So what I do is I take them through essentially my franchise fit formula, help them understand once I give them my full assessment, full conversation. I had five calls this morning with five different people getting to understand them. The next call is about presenting brands that I know are available in their area. I work with people throughout the world, but mainly the US and Canada. And again, it's a free service. I get paid by the brands, and there's a lot more to uncover with that. But trust me, doesn't matter. It's all about your skills, your budget, just like when you're looking for a house. What's your investment level?

Eric James 26:24
A lot of stuff out there. How can they find you? How can I get a hold

Lance Graulich 26:28
of you? Lancecrale.com, is the website, but if you want to call me 702-682-7173, I'm all over social media. My podcast is eye on franchising, and I have a show called franchise road trip, where actually go to the franchises and visit them. Fun show. You'll find me all over YouTube as well.

Eric James 26:47
I like that. Okay, all right. We'll come back to our first original guest, some assembly person, Flanagan, what's the plan for the future? Where we going? Are we going to be president one day? Because I just want to ride your coattails. I'd be like, I remember I knew you back when. Don't forget where you came from. So I'm just here to be a part of your journey. Tell us where you're going. What's next on the agenda? How do we help this community? You

Tanya Flanagan 27:13
know, it's a joke that God always makes. Make a plan. Tell God you have a plan, right? So politics is a lot about timing and a lot about passion and energy and opportunity. So we are moving forward. We are out of our blackout period, which was the end of the session, June 3 to July 3. So we're just moving forward, working in the community, gearing up for some community engagement activities, and just staying present relative and listening. Has a lot of conversation right now around what happened in session bills, how they will affect you, how they tie into the big, beautiful bill. So we're having those conversations and making sure constituents understand and are equipped to take care of themselves,

Eric James 27:54
so we don't get too much into the weeds of politics. I'm an independent, so I'd like both sides of the table, understand some things, don't understand some things. So it is a tough business, because as community, we've become very polarized, but we have to find a path forward. We have to figure out how to get folks off the streets, and we have to have business people and politicians talking and working together. And that's what I'm here to be a conduit for people in this community to come together, work together, and find a better way forward than what we've been doing. So we're just about done. We got about 30 seconds left from the show. I want to give each of you opportunity just let folks know where they can find you. Miss Claudine, where can folks find you one more time? Yes,

Claudine West 28:37
once again you can find me at 702-498-8305. 24988305, call or text

Eric James 28:44
and Lance.

Lance Graulich 28:45
Facebook, Instagram, Lance, growlic.com, and shout out at 702-682-7173.

Eric James 28:55
Can shoot me a text and Miss Tanya, I don't know. I mean, you're a politician. You might not want folks calling you, but

Tanya Flanagan 29:03
I am all over social media under my name Tanya Flanagan, and there's also information on the state website for assembly member, he's coming. Assembly person, I don't want you to search for assembly person. You won't find that, but assembly member, Tonya Flanagan for district seven.

Eric James 29:18
All right, thank the three of you for coming on my show today. I hope we got a chance to show a little bit more of the personal side of who you folks are and the business grind as well. I want everybody to have a beautiful Sunday. And Mr. James, you have the last word. Tell everybody have a beautiful

Eric James 29:35
Sunday. Have a beautiful Sunday. Everybody. Bye. Thanks for

Eric James 29:39
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