The Business of Giving

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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.

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What's wrong with the world Maamar people live in lightning God.

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I think the whole world's addicted to the drama only get attracted to things and improvements. 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 business of giving show was created to highlight the concept of cause marketing which brings businesses and nonprofit organizations together to strengthen both and strengthen the community as well. And cause marketing Chamber of Commerce was specifically created to be a resource for that purpose. We are based in Las Vegas, Nevada, and we are an organization that is developing developing a platform that is truly revolutionary in a lot of ways cause marketing itself isn't a revolutionary concept. However, our approach to it, I think, is revolutionary in that we have deliberately created an organization that is a resource to strengthen both of these entities. One of the reasons why we created the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce is because we feel that the importance of nonprofit organizations and businesses is not always expressed.

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I really look at both of these entities as two pillars in the community. When you think of nonprofit organizations, there are so many wonderful services that they provide to communities. And when you look at the business community, both the small and big business world, it gives so much to the economies, the ways that communities are run are based on the things that businesses contribute. And so we again, we as a chamber of commerce are all about expressing that and bringing these entities together. And again, it's always an absolute privilege to get an opportunity to share what we are doing here at K u in v 91.5. And I've got two entities that are going to be talking about what they do here in a few minutes. But some of the things that I want to talk about is if you want to learn more information about the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, you can visit our website, cause marketing chamber.com. And on that website, you'll find more information about what we do as an organization, the nonprofit organizations and for profit businesses that we are working with and a co so that is the ultimate resource of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce is visiting that website, cause marketing chamber.com. You can also follow us on our social media platforms, we have a LinkedIn page, a Facebook page, you can also follow us on Instagram, we have a Twitter account. Because we live in this digital age and the way that you get information about organizations as often through the social media platforms, we'd appreciate you following us liking us. We actually just started a YouTube page today. And that YouTube page is called the business of giving. And so there's going to be a lot of great information on that YouTube page coming up very soon where you can learn more about a what we do also recordings of our podcasts, both these audio podcasts that we do here once a month at 91.5. FM, as well as our video podcast that we do as well, the business of giving podcasts it's going to be a another tremendous resource to learn more about how you can contribute to your community by becoming a part of our community, which is the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce.

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As I had mentioned before, I am

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a big believer in supporting the success specifically of business. I have been running a public relations and marketing companies since 2008. And our company is called classy communications. And through that experience being a public relations guy, I got a lot of opportunities firsthand to see the value of what it is that we have developed here with this chamber. Early on when I was just getting our business started. It was in a difficult time economically. We got started in 2008. So for many of you, you know that was a bit in the middle of the great recession. And one of the great resources that we had as a company was access to lots of nonprofit organizations to help

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Let's get the word out about the services that we provide. And through that experience working with so many different nonprofit organizations and helping them with writing press releases, it was the very beginning of the social media craze. So we got a chance to manage the social media accounts of nonprofit organizations, I got firsthand to see the value in that it helped us build credibility as a company when we were doing that, it it actually eventually brought us a lot of for profit business, because the notoriety that we got by helping these nonprofits helped get the word out about our business, and it ended up creating a tremendous amount of business. For Elon, the for profit side for me and so through again, through that experience, I learned that cause marketing is not just a phrase, it's not something that is a catch word is a lot of people might think it is it truly is a marketable business strategy that does so much good on so many levels. And that's why I'm such a big evangelist. I call myself the cause Marketing Evangelist, and I've just enjoy my work at such a high level. Again, being the executive director of this organization brings me in alignment with so many wonderful businesses and nonprofit organizations. I wouldn't have it any other way. My life is just an absolute dream being able to bring these two entities together. As I mentioned before, I've got two guests that I'm going to be interviewing today. The first guest I'm going to be interviewing is Celeste Holmes, and she is with Black Pearl promotions. Welcome Celeste to the business of giving show. Hi, guys. Thanks for having me. And could you tell us about what Black Pearl promotions does? Black Pearl promotions is a promotional company that we work a lot with nonprofit organizations, particularly domestic violence, and breast cancer, which is really close to Shawn. I'm representing Shawn Maddox. And it's his close

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nonprofit programs that he works with, which by the way are also close to my heart.

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Simple reason being my grandmother was a

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cancer survivor. She had a double mastectomy and who doesn't know someone that has dealt with domestic violence? I think everyone can say at some point or another, they've either come across someone or they've worked with someone or someone in their family that has dealt with domestic violence. Absolutely. As you mentioned, yes. It's a very prominent thing that exists in our society. That is often the the solutions to it

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aren't really talked about. I think a lot of times domestic violence is talked about, but how to deal with domestic violence. That's a whole nother story that it isn't dealt with. Sometimes. I think more people are aware, although we still have a lot of people that still ashamed, and don't seek help. But that's what's good about these kinds of things, because it's bringing attention to domestic violence. It's bringing people together nonprofit, as well as community businesses. for profit businesses, as myself, I'm a for profit business. And I've come together with Shawn to help promote nonprofit businesses such as breast cancer and domestic violence programs. Tell us about your for profit business. My for profit, profit business is a photography business here. It's called homes, photography, Celeste homes, photography, and I work with a couple of nonprofit organizations. This one being my main, it's close to my heart. And I also work with a young lady by the name of Janet Hurd, who is

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in charge of parents city wide, and they help people by donating food and have food lines where people can go and pick up food if they're short on food.

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And have you always been a philanthropic person? Have you always been somebody that believes in giving back to the community I believe I have. Before being a photographer, I worked as an officer in the prison system. And we didn't get to discuss that before. But part of my goal in working in the prison system was to be able to help to help people come back into society and turn their lives around. Well, that's not what it was about. But needless to say, I know I was able to help some of them turn their lives around by just talking to them and

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helping them in that way, not in the way that I thought the counseling I was going to help them but I always had the photography even in the prisons. As an investigator that was part of my job, and I just turned it into a for profit business.

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When I retired,

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I met Shawn Maddox as a result of being a part of the nonprofit awareness event in 2021, of nonprofit day or nonprofit Awareness Day event, I want to make sure that I give the full title of it will you share with the audience what that's all about. So nonprofit day awareness is every year, August 17. And what it is it brings a lot of the nonprofit organizations together. What happens is you have people in the community that are not aware of these programs that are available to them. Whatever kind of educational, medical, there's so many different nonprofit organizations out there. So August 17, which is the nonprofit Awareness Day, these organizations come together nationwide, and they put on an event. This year, we had it at the West Las Vegas Library in Sahara, West Las Vegas, Sahara. And we had a great turnout. We had so many people show up so many people who were not aware of these programs. I was able to take the pitches and actually interview some of the people. And they were really great. They were happy that they were there. They were happy to come back next year, we had a fashion show. And I think we had a great turnout. I'm looking forward to next year. It was really an outstanding event. As I mentioned, we had participated in 2021. But to see the growth in the expansion, the partnership with the library system, I think helped out a lot. Plus everybody being more willing to go out this year, it was just a very, very well run event well attended. I thought Shawn did an excellent job. He sure did. And he has a great team. Yes. And so tell us about this upcoming event that is the bring back the 70s Disco fundraiser. So this is also something that we do every year. Unfortunately, with COVID. We missed it last year. But this is going to be on Friday, October 28, it's going to be at the Starbase LV, which is at 3905. West Diablo drive Las Vegas. And tickets are $25. If you go online to black pro promotions, you can get your tickets. And basically as to the purpose of the event is to raise awareness and support for domestic violence, a portion will be donated to different organizations, and a portion will go towards the course. What's it like putting together this type of an event? I know you had mentioned that it's been on hiatus for a while. How are you? This is one way of course to get the word out about it. But how are you able to bring exposure back to an event that went away for a while? Well, that's what Shawn's job is. Where the when the back office, so he's the frontman, he's the one that does most of the connections. And then we just help him put it together at the end. I like I said, I'm his photographer, I worked with him during that part. So my part is to take care of that end. And his part is to do what he did here to create this opportunity to come on your station and talk about it. And tell us about your for profit business. How can people get in contact with you about photography? I have a website, it's www Celeste homes photography.com. My telephone number is 951-545-0714. And what type of photography do you do? So I started off doing weddings and family portraits, which I still do. But I'm moving more towards events, such as the one I just did. This past weekend, the International Business Forum, it was a two day event at the New Orleans. And it's more of a more towards events, and music. I'm kind of enjoying that a little more than the private weddings and that sort of stuff, but I'll still do them.

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Right. And again, photography is just such a needed industry at all times that means is vital. We were talking about the synergy between PR and photography. But I mean, on so many levels, I think there's a tremendous amount of value that photographers bring in of course for you, there are plenty of events out there in which you are able to help nonprofit organizations bringing exposure to your business as well as capturing the moment for whatever it is that I'm doing the photography for, you're able to look back at these pictures and say, Wow, I was there. That was an event that I missed, or you know, somebody else missed and you can share these photos and be like, Wow, I missed that. You know, that's that's what I want to do. I want to be able to make you feel like I'm glad I was there. I'm glad I was able to be there. Look at me.

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Right and how can people get a hold of us? I mean, I love this concept. Bring back the 70s Disco fundraiser on Friday, October the 28th. How can people get a hold of you about that to participate? One of you

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Are they active their community?

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They can either contact Shawn Maddox at www blackpearl promotions.com. Or at 888-457-3275. Thank you so much, Celeste for being a part of the show today, we wish you continued success with your for profit business. And of course, we appreciate your philanthropy your your sense of community by giving back and helping support events that support worthy nonprofit organization. Thank you. Thank you for having me. One thing I did want to share with the audience is the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce has a wonderful partnership with ADP. And for those of you who might not be familiar with ADP, they offer a host of services that help both large and small businesses things such as payroll human resources, the partnership that the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce has with ADP is that as we help them to get business clients, because so much of our focus is the success of business. ADP contributes money to the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce as one of our sponsors. And so what we are doing is reaching out to business owners to see if you have an interest in working with ADP with some of the fleet of business services that they have. And in exchange for our endorsement of and this partnership, they will make monetary contributions to the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, which allow us to continue to be able to provide resources such as this radio show, and so many other things that we do within the community to support businesses and nonprofit organizations. If you would like to learn more about how you could have services with ADP and support the cross marketing Chamber of Commerce, please get in contact with me at cause marketing chamber.com Send me an email and I'll give you more details about how you can tap into some of the wonderful resources that ADP provides. The next guest that I have for today is actually a candidate for Clark County District Court Judge department 11. Her name is Ana Adelson. And we met in a networking group that we're both members of recently. Welcome to the show. Ana. Thank you very much. As you just said a moment ago. I'm Ana Albertson, and I'm running for Clark County District Court judge. Tell us about that. What inspired you to run for Clark County Judge? Sure. Well, look, I heard Celeste talking just a few minutes ago. And I agree, it's really important that we do what we can to give back. And it's even more important that we look at what our skill set can offer, and how that can be best to utilize in the community. Now, for me, the most effective I can be is in the legal field because of my experience and my background. So essentially, I have three bases for my campaign. It's experience, community and family. And I feel like today focusing on the community makes the most sense because of what we're doing here. So essentially, prior to getting here, I've done what I could in the community. I've even started my own women's group, where we have a bipartisan women's group, women we meet for, we call the the group, women's wellness afternoon. And we meet and always pick a topic that is relevant to women. But we also make time to socialize network and get to know each other because I think we've hit on this a little bit today. But networking is really important. And it's really nice if you know somebody who does something

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that you might need, especially if you know that person is civic minded, is community minded, is focused on what they can do to improve the world around us. So many of us

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want to and do do our part.

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But some people aren't even aware of how much people around you are doing. We have women in this group that do anything from volunteer at food banks, to run their own nonprofits, to some of them running a business while running a nonprofit similar to what Celeste is doing, where we're you're doing so much to give back. But you're also running a for profit business. And you're able to do both at the same time. And, and I think we talked a little bit before we went on air, but a lot of business owners don't realize how easy it is to do both at the same time, and how effective it is in the community. And you had touched on being civic minded a big part of our platform with the Chamber is that we are we consider ourselves to be servant leaders and what we're doing bringing nonprofits and for profit businesses together is is that always been something that's been important to you. I mean, you're you're ultimately a public servant. When you're a judge, how does that your background reflect your choice that you've made to run for this important position?

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Very much I've been active in community

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volunteer work and various charities dating all the way back probably to 13 or 14 years old. And even before that, if you consider some of the volunteer stuff that my mom would bring me to, or that we do as a family,

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I did all sorts of volunteer stuff. And throughout high school, I joined groups that were specifically geared toward volunteering. But as I've gotten older, and I've been able to build my skill set as a lawyer, I've been able to actually volunteer doing pro bono work for various clients.

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I have helped anything from children to business owners with pro bono work, because sometimes people really can't afford a legal fee. It's not something you build into your budget a lot of times, and if you're talking about children, they don't have any budget to pay legal fees ever most of the time. But a lot of times their families can't afford it. So I've had all kinds of cases come into my office that I've been able to work on pro bono, because I've been lucky enough in my for profit law practice, to have enough money, where I can be comfortable enough where I can take pro bono cases, sometimes at the same time, and be able to really help in the community. So this running for judge is the next step because I can help people on a grander scale than just the one at one one person at a time.

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Why is potentially being a public servant in this way important to you? Sure. I don't know if people realize as much, especially when we're dealing with district court positions. This is a position where I'm not going to be dealing with traffic tickets, I'm going to be dealing with mostly civil matters, and mostly civil matters where the amount of controversy is over $15,000, you have a minimum in order to get into this court. And the vast majority of what's going on in this court, the amount in controversy is well over $50,000. So you've got these large amounts in controversy. So a lot of people say, Well, how is that ever going to affect me, you might one day appear in court, you might be in a car accident, you might have a business dispute with somebody, you might have a product liability issue, you might have a medical malpractice case, there's all kinds of ways you could end up in this court. And and frankly, this is one of the most common courts for people to end up in if they're not going to court on a traffic ticket. So why should we care? Why does it matter? Well, we need judges that understand not just the effect of a ruling on the individual in front of them, but how it's gonna affect that individual's family, how it's going to affect the individuals community, how it's gonna affect that neighborhood, how it's going to affect all of us, frankly, because whether we know it or not, there's this ripple effect throughout a whole community. And when we get

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people in this judicial position that don't quite understand, they can really do much more harm than good. Not even intentionally, most of the time, just by making rulings that they don't understand the effect of the benefit I have is that I've represented more than 1000 clients and that many of them pro bono, many of them reduce fees as well.

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And it's a different understanding when you're holding someone's hand and you've got explained to them what the ramifications of a ruling are, what that's going to mean for them financially, what it's going to mean for their family, what it's going to mean for their future, what it's going to mean for their business. Is this the first time that you've ever run for political office, I have run once before.

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And it wasn't successful. But I came very, very close.

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I believe we have to do what we can to make a difference in this world. This is where I can make the biggest difference, especially in the legal field. This is where I'm the most qualified to also be able to add value. Because I know you just use the term servant leader, I think a lot of it is important that we pick the areas where we can add the most value.

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You know, some people can volunteer their services as an entertainer or Celeste can volunteer services as a photographer. I don't have those skills. If I tried to sing right now, you guys would all want to cover your ears.

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But the skills I have my experience and my background with the law can go a long way. And having a judge sit on the bench that has represented the amount of people that I've represented and has tried the amount of cases I've represented. It's just a different understanding for how how rulings are going to affect all of us. And I don't want to say compassion because that's not exactly the right word. But understanding is probably the closest word to it. It's a different understanding.

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Because it's not just an individual a ruling is affecting whether we see it or not. It affects all of us. Whether we feel it or not. We're seeing the effects of rulings all around us and the effects of lawsuits all around us. How is your background as an attorney going to be influential in NA

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allowing you to be able to do your job? Well. Sure. Well my background does is my background gives me an idea of what it feels like on the other side of it.

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I have represented both plaintiffs and defendants in civil court. And that gives me a unique perspective, because I know what it feels like on both sides of of those of those spots, we get a lot of judges that have only done one side or the other, or sometimes have very limited experience representing anybody. And the disadvantage with that is they don't always understand the effect of a ruling, the effect on the community the effect on a neighborhood the effect on on a, on a whole city, or county, because whether whether we think it or not, these rulings do affect all of us in our daily lives. Yeah, it's so interesting when you get into this political season, and there's so many perspectives that are being shared about things. And I think sometimes what gets gets lost in it all is that people who are public servants are working for the public. And I think that because there's so we're just hit with just a barrage of information about this candidate, that candidate, that one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on on and we specifically wanted to talk about this, this concept of servant leadership is that I feel that it's important that we hold our leaders accountable to the fact that they are truly servants of their community. And that sometimes can get lost in you know, all of the, the

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everything that surrounds a political season. Look, people forget this, even as lawyers,

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as a lawyer, I am the employee of my client, whether you want to face that or not, that's what you are, it is a service industry. When you talk about the juice, judicial system, it is a service industry, that Judge works for the people appearing before him or her. And that's really important that we understand that that's where the judge that that's the judges role. They're the judges, the judge is serving at the leisure of the people.

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And it's it's sometimes it doesn't feel like that, which is why it's important that we get judges that understand what it actually feels like to appear in court, what it feels like to be the party on that side, what it feels like to have your small business be at issue and in a lawsuit, it can be very intimidating, can be very scary. And you know, we have laws and rules and regulations passed for a reason. And it's not to intimidate or scare or bully one party or the other. It's not so that somebody can use their financial power or financial pull against the other side, it's so we can have we can get to a situation where justice is actually done. And the more we can focus on that and making sure we get to get to justice get to resolution get to get to a place where people can move on with their lives. And we get judges that are focused on that. And that's, that's essentially probably one of my greatest strengths. Like, I focus on getting people to a fair and equitable resolution sooner rather than later. Although people need their day, they need their moment. And I understand that it's also very, very good to get people to resolution so that they that they can progress with their lives. We greatly We greatly appreciate you stopping by and sharing your perspectives as a leader and as a servant leader, specifically, again, how can the community support your success in this political campaign that you're in? Sure, I would love all the success I can. I mean, all the other success obviously, I would love to be successful. But I will be honest, too. I already feel successful just sitting here. Just the fact that I'm able to be in your presence right now. And to sit here and talk about running for office and being an elected office. It is a major honor. As far as research, reaching me. I just said a moment ago, my name is Ana Albertson, like the grocery store, but no relationship, you can go to Ana albertson.com. You can also call me directly at 702-659-2622. And I take people's calls. I like to hear from people. I like to hear people's concerns. I like questions. I think it is very important that you know who you're voting for, as I said, experienced community family. Those are the pillars of my campaign. But I'm happy to talk about other things too, that are important to other people. Thank you for stopping by the business of giving podcast. Again, I'm guide Dawson, the executive director of the cause marketing chamber, and I want to encourage all of you to give, give, give, give see on the next show

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