The Business of Giving

Kevin Krall 0:00
You're listening to special programming sponsored by the cars marketing Chamber of Commerce. 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.

Speaker 1 0:26
What's wrong with the world, people live in lightning God, I think the whole world's addicted to the drama Hello, everyone. And welcome to the business of giving podcast. My name is Guy Dawson and I am the Executive Director of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. And we are an organization that brings businesses and nonprofit organizations together to benefit both as well as benefit the community. And we created the business of giving podcast to provide great information and education about what cause marketing is all about. It is a term that is used quite a bit in the world today. And what we've discovered all the time as we've been developing this Chamber of Commerce is that there's a lot to teach people about what cause marketing represents. And again, we really appreciate the opportunity to give you an education about cause marketing, the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce was actually built from an event that we have been hosting since 2015. And the event is called businesses with heart started hosting the businesses with heart event as an opportunity to network for a cause. And I personally am a publicist, I have a company called the classy communications, PR and advertising. I've been in business since 2008. And the origins of how we put businesses with heart together was I was sitting around one day with an intern who was working with our company, her name is Cheryl green. And we were talking about creating an opportunity to promote businesses and through the networking platform. And it all came together in kind of a crazy way. The College of Southern Nevada out here agreed to sponsor this event. And then Cheryl was talking to me about the importance of potentially including a nonprofit organization. In this event. She is very prominently involved with a nonprofit called Hearts alive village. It's a very well known animal rescue center here in town. As we organized this event, and we gave it a name businesses with heart, we created a networking opportunity that benefited that nonprofit organization. And what really surprised me was the type of feedback that we got from all of the attendees at the event. Again, it was at the College of Southern Nevada, they gave us a facility to conduct the event in it was a great networking opportunity for the people who were in business, we created an educational piece where we taught people about cause marketing and business. And of course, proceeds from that event went to Hart's ally village. It was the ultimate win win win all the way around situation. And it definitely expanded my my concept of what cause marketing is all about being in public relations and marketing, I had a pretty good grasp of why it's important for traditional businesses to connect with nonprofit organizations, it's a great way to leverage relationships, it's also a great way to show your support for your community. So with these businesses with hard events, we continue to put them on throughout the years, about every six months we would get together we'd put on an event, everyone would have a good time they would network trade business, the nonprofit always benefited. And then we go away for another six months and come back and do it again. After doing this for several years. In late 2018. We started to think about ways to broaden the horizons of what this concept could do for the community and for businesses. But once that name popped in my head, I knew that we were on track to create something broader than than the businesses with heart events. And that's when we started to construct what has now become the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. We are a 501 C six organization we actually received our paperwork about six months ago. And we are committed still just as committed to bringing value to the community by creating synergistic relationships for nonprofits and for profit businesses. And we've got a lot that our program encompasses. We're continuing to put on these businesses with heart events and I got a good friend in the studio with me. His name is Carl Domeier lake. And Carl, you attended your first businesses with heart event in probably 2019 maybe early 2019. Isn't isn't that when you first showed up?

Speaker 2 4:57
I think so that was it. But the first that I can remember of it, we

Speaker 1 5:02
were at the United Way. And that was when I first met you. And what attracted you to that event? Yes,

Speaker 2 5:07
that's where I was, I just honestly had taught involved with my family's Foundation. And our goal, the goal of every private foundation is to give a certain percentage back to local communities. So I figured let me find some other people who are doing similar things. That way we can share ideas and just make things bigger and better. And

Speaker 1 5:28
Carl, I know how passionate you are about business and about nonprofit organizations and the relationships and you are also the chairman of the board of the cause marketing chamber, and what are some of your functions in that role? How is that helping you to get a better understanding about this whole concept?

Speaker 2 5:48
I'd say my favorite part about that is sharing with everyday entrepreneurs, the ability to do the same thing, all the big companies are doing will donate this much to a cause you choose. Or if you physically go to a store or pick a school will donate a part of that there. It's not just these big box retailers that can do that. It's every single one of us that can and through the chamber, I can help me know further the mission of igniting opportunities between businesses and nonprofits. So that not only do the businesses get uplifted are the nonprofits, the whole community, as just part of how the whole system works, how everything is interconnected locally.

Speaker 1 6:26
I agree with you, Carl, one of the motivations that I had, and Cheryl did when we were working together in the development of this was that big businesses get cross marketing. I mean, all the biggest corporations in the world utilize cause marketing strategies, or I won't say all but many of them. And you see them very prominently, using cause marketing strategies in order to, to help the community and also to market their businesses. And one of the things that we wanted to do when we were coming up with this concept is to teach small businesses and professionals that they can utilize the same principles in order to bring greater recognition to their brand and also give back because so many people are giving back who are in business, that's something that I've discovered, and not necessarily wanting to get credit, or getting any credit for it. And I kind of think they're doing themselves a disservice when they do that. Do you have any thoughts about that?

Speaker 2 7:29
I do see it both sides. I almost laughed. But I know I shouldn't. When I see a video on social media of someone staging something nice, they're gonna do. And they make two bums fight over money, and they want to show look, I'm giving these guys money to fight like, really, it's not that you filmed it, obviously, you scripted that. Whereas other people just give because they want to, and they don't need to feel the need to brag about it everywhere. The downside with that, though, is, let's say we cut a check to a local animal shelter slash veterans therapy place that recently closed down, unfortunately. But if we were to cut a check there and not tell anyone, so that was a lost opportunity to tell everyone Hey, did you know about this nonprofit organization that helps with animal therapy for veterans, and unfortunately, they are no longer here. But when you have the ability to just easily share the existence of his local charities. It really helps them because they don't have the budget to market the way businesses do.

Speaker 1 8:30
Yes, that's an excellent point, Carl. And by the way, you can always learn more about the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce at our website, cause marketing chamber.com. You can also follow us on all the social media sites, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. But you are in traditional business, Carl, and will you share with the audience how you are using these principles that you're you're learning through being a part of the cost marketing Chamber of Commerce, to enhance your own business and contribute to your community?

Speaker 2 9:01
I'm one of the I'm on the sell side, I do give to causes through the foundation. And sometimes I'll mention to certain individuals that yeah, you know, what we gave causes to this veterans group, this college and this other local charity. I don't necessarily lead with it because they're not local. However, I don't mind sharing it with people. I don't do it as well as I think other people who help local charities could do and would probably benefit better.

Speaker 1 9:30
Yes. And again, Carl, that's a part of what our chamber is all about. We have so many conversations as a chamber about how we are creating an environment that makes people feel comfortable in sharing about the nonprofits that they're passionate about. There are so many wonderful nonprofit organizations within our community, as you had mentioned before, Carl, that don't necessarily get the amount of publicity that they deserve. And they're doing a lot of hard work, great works that are benefiting the community, I really see nonprofit organizations as some of the pillars of our community. But as you had mentioned before, because they're not necessarily getting the publicity that larger nonprofit organizations are getting, by the way, we are also huge supporters of your large nonprofit organizations such as the United Way. And here in Las Vegas, we've got opportunity village, and we've got the Red Cross. Those are as beneficial as the smaller ones. But again, they just don't have that the brand awareness, the front of mine recognition, and I, one of the things that we want to do with this Chamber of Commerce is to give them a stage a platform to share the wonderful things that they're doing to contribute to people's lives in the community.

Speaker 2 10:51
Yeah, this is how I think uplifting the community should happen locally, you cannot expect to go to any president of any country and say, Could you help this block right here, the leader of the country doesn't even know it exists, but the local community that surrounds it does, and if you got the community around it to rally and help support that local charity, then you can make some change, at least in your local community and feel it and see it. So that's one of the best reasons why supporting locally and local local vendors, small businesses and local charities, it's a great way to uplift the entire community. Yes,

Speaker 1 11:22
and it works on both sides, Carl, and our mission with the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce is not only to support nonprofit organizations, which is obviously a big part of our mission, but it's also helping traditional businesses. And I think a lot of times when people think of business, they think of large corporations, we have many of them in this country and in this world. But the fact is, is that most employment that is provided is provided through small business in America specifically. And of course, we support business ownership. And we support entrepreneurship. And we want to help small businesses to be more successful as well, while we support the large corporations, because we're big believers in that one of our big partners is a huge corporation called ADP. They're very involved in payroll all over the country. So we are definitely supportive of big business. However, just as on the nonprofit side, there's often not a lot of recognition of small nonprofit organizations, there are a lot of pillars of the community or smaller businesses that are providing wonderful, great services that are benefit that benefit a lot of people and they're not necessarily getting the recognition that they deserve. So there's another function of our chamber is to help small businesses to be more successful, and to create opportunities for both large and small businesses to grow, to help our economy grow. Because we know that when, when businesses are strong, and nonprofit organizations are strong, our community is strong, the economy is strong, we are all about just being constructive and helping people and and that's kind of the premise of what this organization is all about. And some of the information that we're going to be providing regularly on these podcast is teaching people about the principles of cause marketing, and also highlighting people who are giving back to their community like Dave Berlin, who are going to have on in just a second, with bunker labs, a great nonprofit that we're partnering with on an event coming up, we are going to be providing that education showcasing people in the community who are making great contributions on both the business and the nonprofit side, also constantly giving an overview of what cause marketing Chamber of Commerce is bringing to the community, because we've got some incredible programs that we're developing. We've got great events that we put on on a regular basis that bring nonprofits and for profit businesses together. And we have a big vision of how we want to use our 501 C six nonprofit organization to better society through bringing these two pillars of the community together. But we've got a particular event that we want to give you some background on that I had mentioned before that's coming up. It's the next businesses with HART Expo. And that event is going to be held on March the 17th, which is St. Patrick's Day is going to be from 4pm to 8pm. And businesses with heart this will be a Spring Expo. We're going to bring together businesses and nonprofit organizations as well as people in the business community to celebrate our community with this event and it's going to be at Emerald at Queen's ridge and that will be in Summerlin. It's near rampart, and Charleston in Summerlin, it's going to be a fantastic event. Over the course of those four hours, we're going to be showcasing a great nonprofit organization, bunker labs and Dave Berlin, we're going to bring him in and just a second, talk about them. We are going to be showcasing a lot of wonderful businesses, there's going to be great education, we've got several fantastic speakers. One is going to be a man named silo Moses, he is an advocate for the homeless. It's been feeding homeless people in Las Vegas for about six years. And he's done some amazing work. We've also got a multimillionaire businessman named Dawn laner, who is very philanthropic minded, he's going to talk about how he has utilized cause marketing principles to improve his own business, and also contribute to his community, of course, lots of networking opportunities. And again, Carl, I had mentioned that you attended one of these events. That's how we met many years ago. What are these events? Like for you? What do you get out of businesses with heart events,

Speaker 2 16:01
there's a lot of education you get from the guests that you just mentioned, business owners, and those who also run their own charities, a lot of vendors there that are there to learn about these things. And also you get to share ideas with people who already are attracted to the idea of being a business with heart being focused on the philanthropy of their life to further fulfill their, you know, their business success. So it's great just to meet other people who are guests there who are just curious, and you can share what brought you here, and you can hear their story. And maybe you'll find someone to collaborate your business with your nonprofit with, it's really just great to meet all these other people.

Speaker 1 16:35
Yes, Carl, you end up meeting people who you don't know. And for me personally, my whole business was built through networking. And I know you are also an avid networker, Carl, I mean, the whole key to success in business, it's relationships. And when you want to attend an event, like businesses with heart, you just get an opportunity to meet so many wonderful people, and they're like minded. One thing I found through the years, being a part of this, this nonprofit slash profit world, is you get some real high quality people who tend to attend our events. Not only are they people who are very successful in business, but they tend to be extremely civic minded, give back types of people. And those are the types of relationships that you want to cultivate in business, right, Carl, is,

Speaker 2 17:26
it's great to meet these kinds of people that aren't being an entrepreneur, you're not in the majority of the population, that's I'm not trying to say they're super special, but going to happy hour with entrepreneurs really is a happy hour, then I'm not trying to poke fun at employees, but their happy hour is kind of like an unhappy hour. And it's just the feeling is different. So the more happy people I can meet, who will love sharing ideas, at happy hour is just so much more fun than helping someone cope with the job. They know they don't want to be in but they're doing it, you know, because they have to for the meantime, or that's just, you know, that they think that makes them happy, maybe really does. I don't know. But I just know happy hours happier with entrepreneurs.

Speaker 1 18:10
Yes. And that's what the event is all about. Carl is creating our own four hour happy hour. And one of the things that you we've also enjoyed throughout the years with these events, of course, is giving back to our nonprofit organizations that we've worked with in the last couple of businesses with Heart Of course, hearts alive village was our sponsored nonprofit for many years. And over the last couple of years, we've had other nonprofits that we've worked with our last our nonprofit that we had right before the pandemic was called Casa. And CASA is an organization that supports advocacy for kids in foster care. And so they were our featured nonprofit, we raise funds at every one of these events, their fundraiser events, that their contributions, people come attend the events and proceeds go to the nonprofit organization. So it's been great to contribute to these great organizations. When we had our last event at the United Way in September, the benefactor of the event was called Spirit. therapy's a wonderful nonprofit that helps people with equine therapy, which is horse therapy, it does wonders for veterans with PTSD, kids with disabilities, and so they were the Benefactor proceeds from that event went to them. So we always like to support our know our nonprofit organizations, not only through publicity and putting them in front of new audiences, but also financially. And as I mentioned, we have a representative from the nonprofit organization that we're partnering with on the upcoming event on the line, which is called bunker labs. And his name is Dave Berlin. Dave, are you out there?

Unknown Speaker 19:55
I'm here. Great to be here guys.

Speaker 1 19:57
Welcome to the business of giving show. Love it. Thanks. For me, Carl introduced me to to bunker labs. And so Carl, maybe you will have some questions for Dave, tell us what your organization is all about. Absolutely,

Speaker 3 20:09
yeah. When people ask me what I do, I always answer with more than I should, more than I should I do a couple of things. I have my own consulting business, I do strategic planning. And I help businesses scale as a Marine Corps veteran, I think one thing that we did very well was execute. And we executed things on a very large level, but with small, small teams and very little resources. So with that, I've applied that into the world of business, I got into the world of the wedding industry back in 2010. And I moved here to Las Vegas in 2018. And it's been a good, good move, because this is the entertainment capital of the world. So not only do I do that, but I also do a lot of consulting in the wedding industry. And then that normally leads me to strategic planning for people in all types of businesses. So that's just a couple of the things that I do. In addition to my role at Bunker labs, as a volunteer, I'd imagine

Speaker 2 21:12
just moving from place to place, or even just having access to a bunker, which you said has over around 30 places nationwide, that I'm sure you can just share either connections or resources back and forth with everyone you meet everywhere you travel. Yeah,

Speaker 3 21:26
it actually comes in handy. You know, a little bit about bunker labs, it is a it is a nonprofit, it's a 501 C three, it's it isn't about 30 communities across the United States. They're big, powerful thing, and they help veterans and their spouses start and grow businesses. So being an entrepreneur, myself, just being connected to that network. And the program is primarily led by volunteers in those individual communities. You know, there's a headquarters team of people that this isn't their full time job. But just being connected to other people in those networks, doesn't just help me as a business owner, but for a lot of the clients that I work with, when they're looking at things to scale, or they're looking at ways to market, what they're doing, I can literally just pull up the footprint of where bunker Labs is at. And I know I have, I know, I have allies. I know I have resources. I know I have very talented people, and a strong network of other veteran and spouse entrepreneurs that can help me or help my clients. Because

Speaker 2 22:29
of your involvement with bunker labs and your your businesses. How many more people know about bunker because of your for profit business?

Speaker 3 22:37
You know, that's a really good question. I I've taken a lot of the creativity that I've had in marketing and things like that to host a lot of events to be very active in the community, not just here. But you know, by hosting a podcast and other things like that, too. So the funny thing that came up is that some people think that I own bunker labs. And that's not even close to being a thing. But I'm definitely not afraid to tell the world about it. And it helps a lot of people in different communities. I've had people reach out and say that they connected with their local program, where they're at, and even some places where they don't have resources, wanting to start a chapter there. So it's been really powerful to see the brand grows since I first got introduced them back in 2016.

Speaker 2 23:21
Wow. So you've had probably an immeasurable impact on bunker just because of that. Now who who is bunker labs? For I know, you said veterans and families, do they have to be active or retired reservists doesn't matter? No.

Speaker 3 23:33
It's basically military connected families. So there's a few active duty people that are there running businesses, while they're still in. A lot of spouses are running businesses while they're traveling from place to place, which is a whole different challenge. And there's a veteran, there's people from all ages, all walks of service, that that are part of Bunker labs.

Speaker 2 23:55
Awesome. And how would people find out more about bunker labs? Where should they go? Yes,

Speaker 3 23:59
super easy. If they just go to bunker labs.org. They can learn all about the programs, they can find out the different communities where we have a footprint, and they can get connected right away. Excellent.

Speaker 2 24:11
And bunker Labs is our featured nonprofit for the businesses with heart Expo. So please come and show your support for this nonprofit that is nationwide. But we're supporting Las Vegas locally at this particular event.

Speaker 1 24:22
Yeah, we're really looking forward Dave to partnering with bunker labs, I had an opportunity to attend one of your events last summer. And I was just so impressed with the cohesion. You were talking about the network and how valuable that's been for you in developing your business and just to attend one of your events. I've been to so many networking events, and just the environment and the cohesiveness of your team. It was just so impressive and we're really looking forward to working together with you to get the word out more about what your wonderful nonprofit does and and also to bring moral awareness to causes and the importance of working with nonprofits. Absolutely.

Speaker 3 25:03
And just one caveat, since you guys are catching us right in the middle of one of our programs, there's actually going to be people that are participating in our cohort right now, that are going to be there at the Expo. And they're going to be able to tell people about their business and what bunker Labs has done for them. And there may even be a few alumni there as well. Yes,

Speaker 1 25:22
and again, we want all of you businesses with hearts Spring Expo 2022, it's going to be on March the 17th, from 4pm to 8pm. At emerald at Queen's Ridge, if you want to learn more about this event, ticketing more the details about the event, please go to our website, cause marketing chamber.com. And you can find out everything about the event, but we'd love to have you as a participant. Again, you're going to learn a lot about what cause marketing entails, you're going to meet some great people, lots of networking, maybe come out drink a little green beer, because of course, it's gonna be St. Patrick's Day where you got to have a glass of green beer while you're there, Carl,

Unknown Speaker 26:06
I was afraid he would ask. One.

Speaker 1 26:12
Alright, but yes, it's just going to be an outstanding opportunity for you to meet people in various aspects of the community, the nonprofit world, the for profit world enrolled at Queen's Ridge is a is really a fantastic facility. And I know you're going to enjoy yourself very much. All right, Carl. So before we start to wrap up this edition of the business of giving a podcast where you let everyone out there know how they can connect with you for more information about your business. To

Speaker 2 26:41
learn more about my business, you can go to the website guardian, Angel advisors.com advisors with an E, I helped successful business owners reduce their tax liability.

Speaker 1 26:51
And as I had mentioned before, my day job is I am the Managing Member of classy communications. It's a full service Public Relations and Marketing Company. And to learn more information about how we teach people effective strategies for all levels of getting the word out about what you do, you can visit our website, classy communications.net. Or you can get in contact or connect with us at 702-845-6129. And again, we are looking forward to getting in front of all of you sharing the things that we have learned about how to bring nonprofit organizations and businesses together to enhance our communities. And we want you to be aware of the power, the real power that you have. When you tap into these powerful aspects of society, which is traditional businesses. And being a professional as well as nonprofit organizations to have the pillars of the community, you can definitely benefit on either side. If you're someone who is interested in volunteering, contributing to nonprofit organizations, we've got a lot a lot to offer in helping you tap into that aspect. Or if you want to learn more about how to be an entrepreneur, maybe you want to start your own business, maybe you're running an existing business and you want to be more successful, we can also contribute to your success in that area. Whatever way you want to go the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce provides an environment that supports your success. We are growing our membership, these incredible events that we have contribute to that crawl. I know you're a part of the cause and business education series, which is an online event Do you want to speak to that one really quickly that we offer

Speaker 2 28:37
every third Tuesday at 6pm. We have an online business and cause training we have our members present on how you their services can benefit you as a business owner who was an entrepreneur and we even have some trainings for local nonprofits to help them better reach out to the community and collaborate with profitable business owners so that they can share in their marketing. Yes,

Speaker 1 28:59
we are definitely a part of this hybrid culture that has been born out of the pandemic. We have of course our in person events, like the one that we've been talking to you about businesses with heart, but we also offer a lot of excellent information via of online events such as the cause and business education series. There's a lot of great information that you can receive by participating in those events. For more information about the cause and business education series, please visit our website cause marketing chamber.com For more information about everything that we do, visit our website cause marketing chamber.com And again, we're very excited about the opportunity to share information that is going to teach you more about causes and businesses and yes, we will see you all at that event on March the 17th. Again, it's at Emerald at Queen's ridge here in Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada. We are looking forward to it and please tune in And on the second Sunday of every month from 7:30am to 8am for the business of giving podcast See you soon

Transcribed by https://otter.ai