The Business of Giving

Speaker 1 0:00
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Kevin Krall 0:11
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 2 0:39
People live in, thank God, I think the whole world's addicted to the drug. 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 create synergistic relationships that benefit the community. And this show the business of giving supports that mission. With the Chamber of Commerce, we really are about the support of two of the pillars of the community, which are nonprofit organizations and for profit businesses. I have two outstanding guests who are going to be in the studio today. Actually, I have a co hostess, a woman who I have known for many years, she is a seniors advocate until she changes it and decides what she wants to

Unknown Speaker 1:31
do. Perfect, very good

Speaker 2 1:33
friend of mine, and she is as someone who is serves the senior community wholeheartedly and she so she's going to be Hi, how's everything going?

Speaker 3 1:42
Oh, it's going great. And I'm glad I finally got here. I know you've tried to get me here a couple of times, but we're both busy people. So I'm really happy. I'm here now. And yeah, I am a seniors advocate of seniors, cheerleader, a seniors, concierge or seniors. I'm all about senior life. And that pretty much consumes everything I do from teaching programs and everything. So yeah, my company is the Pat Landecker agency

Speaker 2 2:15
where I we're looking forward to hearing more about all that Pat does your I think that the seniors are a group of people who are underrepresented in so many ways and misunderstood, actually. And I think that the things that Pat does, and she'll explain, when we get into more of a talk later on, during the interview today how she helps to clarify, she really empowers seniors. And so stay tuned, you know, sit tight, and listen to this entire show. She's got some great information that she's going to be sharing later on in the broadcast. And she will be participating in the interview as well. We have our first interview for today is with Edgar Rodriguez. He has a great friend of mine, who I've met in the networking community. And he is a part of an organization called Action coach, which I wholeheartedly endorse. It's a great group that helps people to be more successful in the way that they run their businesses. He's also a master networker, but the thing that really stood out to me and the reason why I wanted to have him be a part of this show today is some of the things that he does with veteran advocacy. So we have two advocates as part of the business of giving show today. Welcome to our show, Edgar Rodriguez.

Unknown Speaker 3:35
Thank you guy for having me. And

Speaker 2 3:38
Edgar, we, as I had mentioned before we met in the business networking community, and I know that a lot of your focus has been on educating people about how to become better networkers. And so let's touch on that. So I know you do a lot of things with with action coach, but networking, why is that so important to you?

Unknown Speaker 4:01
To me, networking is extremely important because it is a critical skill set to learn in knowing how do you build professional relationships without trying to pitch somebody about how to sell them your product or service, right? More of learning, the Go Giver mindset, right? How do you help them and see how you can provide value before you ask what it is you're looking for?

Speaker 2 4:33
Yes, I always appreciate your your explanation of that, you know, many, many years I've been networking in this town for 15 years. And it's just interesting to to see the approach that people take to networking. And the concept that you're talking about which is being of service first is something that there are so many people who network who really would get more business if they embrace that mentality. Have you discovered that as well.

Unknown Speaker 5:02
Yeah, and I'll say that really stemmed more of when I enlisted into the Marine Corps, right, I enlisted back after 911. So October of that years, when I enlisted in the Marine Corps taught me a lot of the skill set that helped me grow up at a very young age really fast, in has translated into who I am today. And I still model a lot of those those core concepts of what I learned in, in, in doing what we do is, I enlisted in protecting my country, right to serve my country. And now as as an ambassador, and as a business community leader, it's I'm serving my community. So it's always been for me of just being of service.

Speaker 2 5:46
Right, just another function of, of being a servant of your community. And this just so happens to be the business community. And as I had mentioned before, you're also a part of an organization. That's very, I think, in alignment with with your master networking work, and that is action coach. So will you tell us how you how you got involved in action? Coach?

Unknown Speaker 6:09
Yeah, and that's a great question. And that journey, for me, has been one that evolved over time, when I created the company that I had with Master the network, it evolved in teaching people how to expedite the learning curve in networking. And I wanted to be able to provide more value not to just teach the networking strategy, but how do I make a bigger impact in action coach was a good fit, for me to be able to be that that resource to teach people, you know, for me, it's helping business business owners in three different ways. One, at the end of the day, it's to help them make more money. Number two, is to accelerate the business growth of the business, right? How do we get out of day to day in that just work in the business but work on the business? And the third is how do you get the business working for you, rather than you working for the business? Yeah, so

Speaker 3 7:08
important. That is the probably one of the main things that I used to be an ad Oh, not an action coach, but a business coach Edgar, and I agree with everything that you're saying. And I'm very familiar with action coach, and I like, you know, their whole philosophy behind coaching from a different approach. And I think that they really help the business person to understand who they are initially, first. Because if you don't know who you are, in that business world, or what you're who you what you're going to look like, then it's going to be very difficult to navigate that. And I think that's something action coach does really well, as they put their coaches, that's probably the first thing in touch with themselves. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 7:53
100%. I agree in that's the beauty is right. Like, it doesn't matter what type of business they are in the model that we have could fit just about any business, right? This is our 30th year in business. So this is a big year for action coats. In one of the ways that I give back is through another organization of Bunker labs, right? That's where we help veterans and military spouses scale and grow their businesses. In I think that's part of why guy, you know, and I connected really well as I've really leaned into that. Becoming a big advocate for veterans, because I've been there, you know, in my transition out of the Marine Corps into the civilian world, was not as easy as they make it sound. But But learning that if there was an easier way in the easier path to to transition over, that that would solve for a lot of the issues that US veterans struggle with, right? So for me, that's something that's near and dear to my heart, because I want to make sure that we can teach them the ways to be successful and from the skill sets they learned in the military, from serving our country. And how do we translate that to the civilian world and be able to propel them to continue to be successful in becoming business leaders or whatever transition and what's next in their life? Edgar,

Speaker 3 9:15
what is the biggest challenge you find with helping veterans realize one that they can do it and have a business? What's the greatest challenge you face when you meet them and bring them into your fold?

Unknown Speaker 9:32
I would say the biggest challenge is, I'm gonna say number one, is it always mindset right and knowing that they have the fortitude if they stepped up to serve their country, they can continue to serve in a different manner through serving their community as a business leader. But it's just understanding that for them and just working with him, like we've talked about earlier, right, we've touched on is what is the goal? What is the vision, what is the mission and what type of impact are you looking to have through your product and service. So navigating those muddy waters, right, and turning that into a clear vision has been has been one of the challenges. But through through proper coaching and consulting, we're able to overcome that challenge.

Speaker 2 10:19
And bunker Labs was a featured nonprofit at one of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, big events, we do businesses with heart events once or twice a year. And it was really a great opportunity for us to promote an organization's that, as you had mentioned before, Edgar is really giving veterans options, a lot of them not even knowing that entrepreneurship is the option. But I think there's so many things that I've seen that people in the military, they have a natural skill set that lends to entrepreneurship in a lot of ways, because so much of what you do as an entrepreneur is there's a project, right, you put you have strategy, there's a project, there's a whole mechanism pieces that you have to put in place in order to and there's always the mission and the holes, and right. And that's what you learn. I have never served in the military. But it seems like that's just so much in alignment with what my experience of being an entrepreneur is. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 11:23
yeah, no, I agree. The learning curve from going into, you know, being from from the transition from venturing into entrepreneurship as the accountability piece. If you think about in the military, we always answered to somebody, there was always somebody above us, when you jump into entrepreneurship. You're You're it. Right. So so the biggest advice, and that's what I like about bunker Labs is that we we as the ambassadors plus the other cohort members in your cohort are your accountability partners. And that's what helps them because we meet week in week out, we talk about business challenges, how did we overcome them? What's going on right now? And what actions are they taking to overcome those challenges? So that's the beauty behind bunker Labs is the accountability piece that most of us is entrepreneurs, that's, that's the one key critical component that we'll need is accountability.

Speaker 3 12:21
You know, Edgar, it's so true for for both business and dieting. You need to have somebody to hold you accountable. You partner. Yeah. But no, I love that you said that. Because, you know, I think people don't realize how important that is. And just let's say you're you're going into business, but you have naysayers around you who don't understand that whole thing of accountability. And you don't have anybody who's holding you to task for whatever reasons, you know, so the fact that you're providing and being that for the veterans is just absolutely fantastic. Because that's the missing component in so many coaching efforts, especially, you know, I'm a certified coach as well. And, and it's, that's the greatest challenge, because you can coach all day long, you can give them all your great information and all these tips and steps. But if they don't hold themselves accountable, or they don't have a structure to hold them accountable, it's just not gonna pan out. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 13:26
it's always great that we come up with really great ideas. How do we execute on those great ideas, there you go. In that for the accountability comes into play, right? When I was talking to guy yesterday, because we were having a conversation from one of the groups that we both attend, is, I have three non negotiables, when I take on whether it's a veteran client, or a business client is number one, you got to be willing to learn. Number two, you have to be willing to grow. And my third non negotiable is you got to be willing to do the work. They sound they sound so easy. But yet for some people, they're so hard to follow.

Speaker 3 14:09
Yeah. And I don't think that a lot of times, clients understand that whole piece of it, because they're just like, just tell me what I need to do. And I'll do it, and then what day we do this and that. But then you get that call, right? We've all had them guy, you've had them. Edgar, you've had them? Well, I mean, I meant to and then this happened, and that happened and all of that. And so you have to kind of kind of create, like some lines like you know, for your client to help them stay within the boundaries of their accountability. And that's really challenging. And I'm curious, Edgar, how do you do that when you're dealing with veterans who we don't know what they may have gone through, and now you're asking them to commit to this. And I'm assuming that's kind of a challenge sometimes.

Unknown Speaker 15:01
Yeah, yeah, it's just having that honest conversation with him. Right? Like, number one, why did you start the business? You know, what, what, what caused you? What made you what is your true i? And I really, really enjoy having that in depth conversation because a lot of us will sugarcoat and say, you know, I'm doing this for legacy for my family. Great. So when you're, let's say, You're doing this to your kids, your kids are long gone, they graduated college, they're on to their own lives. Now what? There you go. And then they really have to really dig deep. Like, I didn't think that through. Okay, so what what's the secession plan look like? So whether whether they're veteran in the veteran pieces is even more, right, because what caused you to serve your country? Nobody forced you to sign that dotted line. But there's something they wanted to do to make a difference. And I believe that that why does it shift when they start business? It's, it's the same way?

Speaker 2 16:00
Well, we greatly appreciate all that you're doing to support the community on many levels. Edgar, from being involved with the networking community to coaching businesses, I mean, boy businesses, were we need a lot of coaching because it's, it's not. It's not for the faint of heart, as they say, and having someone to hold you accountable is so important, whether you're a veteran or not, but then the specific work that you're doing as a veteran advocate, I mean, as the if there's one element of our society, again, that I feel is so underrepresented, along with seniors. That's why this show really is working well for me today, because we get to talk about two groups that don't necessarily get the amount of recognition ignition that they should get. But for people out there who want to get in contact with you for possible coaching opportunities, or to become a part of Bunker labs, or any of the other things that you're working on, how could they reach you?

Unknown Speaker 16:59
Yeah, so best way, LinkedIn is probably where I know my loudest voice is, on our website, if you go to www dot ActionCOACH, las vegas.com is another way to get a hold of me. Those are probably the two best ways they could find me on any social media platform as well.

Speaker 3 17:17
I just really appreciate that there's somebody out there who's make connecting those two dots, because it's just really important. And I, I would assume when uh, when when somebody comes out of the military, and now they've, you know, going into the the civilian world and everything, to have somebody like you to be able to guide them through, because like I said, we don't know what they just went through in their military experience. So having somebody like you, who gets them to be able to hold them and won't hold their hand and walk them through. I think that's just remarkable. And thank you so much, Edgar, for providing that.

Unknown Speaker 17:54
Yeah, thank you for having me. And I'm glad I'm able to be the conduit to that for them, right is I've been through the experiences they've been through. One thing I did touch with a guy yesterday is in my enlistment time, most of my time was served overseas, in that's the relatability that I have with them is that we've been to theater together in being in different countries and serving our country. So for me, that's just the connecting link of the instant synergy you build with other military service members, especially in this this entrepreneurship journey. Yeah,

Speaker 2 18:31
we appreciate your service and keep up the great work, Edgar.

Unknown Speaker 18:36
Yes. Thank you for having me, guy.

Unknown Speaker 18:37
Thank you, Edgar.

Speaker 2 18:38
All right. Well, speaking of speaking of the military, we want you to become a member of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, it is a really a great organization, for those of you out there who are either in business or a part of a nonprofit organization. And actually, there are opportunities beyond even being someone in business or a nonprofit organization, you can actually join our particular chamber just as a person which is kind of unique amongst chambers of commerce, because generally chambers of commerce, want you to be a business owner when you join. But yes, we have this element of our chamber, which is specifically for people who are in business, we also have nonprofit membership that you can join to learn about the things that we do just as a, as a person learn more about volunteerism, there are people that just love to be in the space of what we do with the Chamber of Commerce, bringing these two entities together. And so some of the things that you'll get as a member of the Chamber of Commerce is that I had mentioned before, we have a host of events that we host on a regular basis. We have a cause and business education series. That's an online workshop that we do every single quarter, we bring in an expert in some aspect of business or the nonprofit world just to do an online education. We've had some fun nominal presenters over the time that we've been hosting that, we also have our quarterly mixer events, they're generally at restaurants. And what we do at those events is we bring nonprofits and for profits together for a mixer environment. So people come and trade business with one another. We always have a featured nonprofit organization that comes in, explains things about their organization, to us just a great way for some of the lesser known nonprofit organizations in town to get some exposure and for you to meet people who you probably wouldn't meet otherwise. Then we have our give back of events, which are really exciting. We did one recently with a nonprofit organization called Sleep in heavenly peace. And it is a wonderful, wonderful organization that builds beds for kids. I had no idea prior to the things when we started connecting with sleep with in heavenly peace, that there are so many children in Southern Nevada who don't even have beds. So many families have multiple children sleeping in one bed, this organization builds beds for kids in Southern Nevada, and we had the chance to participate in that we've had giveback events with all types of organizations three square suicide prevention. And so that's another one of the events that we host as a part of the value that you get being a member of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce. As I had mentioned before, we have businesses with heart that's our big Expo event that we put on generally either every six months or once a year. Our next event is scheduled in September. We have a Toastmaster club cause masters Toastmasters which Toastmasters International is a wonderful organization to help you become a better speaker and leader. So that's just scratching the surface of the value that we offer at the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce to learn how to be a member of our organization, visit our website, cause marketing chamber.com, you can sign up as a member right on the website or you can get in contact with us. And we can explain to you more about the value of being a member of the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, my co hostess with the mostest. Today. Pat, Atlanta girl, as I had mentioned earlier is an advocate for seniors. As a matter of fact, she teaches a course here at UNLV related to senior empowerment is that correct path

Speaker 3 22:25
I have been teaching for UNLV Olli for almost three years, I've taught all different kinds of versions of classes for people over 50. But anyway, thank you guy for having me. I'm excited to be here and, and talk about all things aging. That's pretty much what I do. My thing is positive aging. And just to kind of go over my world, I do teach here at UNLV Ali, I write a monthly column in the biggest voice magazine. For those of you out there who are familiar with that wonderful magazine. I've been writing a monthly column in there for about two and a half years. I hold programs all over the valley. A lot of them at retirement communities and things like that. And I just basically get out and carry my message of positive aging because I meet so many people who don't realize that they hold the reins to their own aging experience guy. So I appreciate you having me and allowing me to talk about it.

Speaker 2 23:33
What made you decide to be a person who advocates for aging?

Speaker 3 23:38
Well, a few things. Um, I turned 60. I'm now 69. But I turned 60 My husband passed away from brain cancer. And I retired and it all kind of was like falling out of the rabbit hole. Suddenly here I was in this world. And I knew that if I was going through what I was going through as a widow, as a person new to aging as a new retiree, confused, don't know what I'm gonna do with my life. I thought there's got to be a whole lot of other people out here, just like me. And so I started writing about it first and then I started going around and asking if I could do my programs in different places. And then I met up with actually a friend of mine who works at the Neon Museum, which is a great place for seniors. She said oh, you should go teach it all and I had no clue at all he was I knew what UNLV was. And when I researched it I thought wow, this this exist. So you know basically so people know Ali, which stands for I'm gonna get this wrong probably Osher Lifelong Learning. I believe that's what it stands for Institute and they are at all campuses. As a matter of fact. I was trying to work with UCLA where I went to college to do, they're all eat. But most universities have an ollie program across the United States, and they get people 15 over to come and teach in those programs. And so that's kind of how I arrived here at UNLV. And it's just been the best thing that ever happened to me. It's fulfilling, I get to help other seniors kind of cross that threshold, the aging, that we all experience, where suddenly we retire. And guess what, we all have a big long list of things we're gonna do once we retire, and we're gonna do this, and then we're gonna go spend time with the grandkids, and we're gonna, and then we do all that. And about two, three years later, we're looking around, okay, now what, what do we do, because we haven't really planned for that side of ourselves that side of our lives after we do all the fun stuff after retirement. So in all honesty, I just sat down and I mapped out several avenues and, and different things that I needed to address in the courses that I was teaching into the programs I do. And in the articles I write, and I just said, okay, you know, and that's kind of how I landed here. And now, I've been doing it for a long time and, and just come with a lot of opportunity, and visibility. And what was something I was really kind of peddling out there is now something people call me and asked me to do so that's been fantastic.

Speaker 2 26:28
We live in such a youth oriented society, and we have a huge senior population that's going to only get bigger because the baby boomers, and now you've got Generation X is on its way into becoming seniors as well.

Speaker 3 26:44
But do you know the main reason why that seniors are we're out there and numbers and we're growing, because we're living longer. And that's something that, you know, we've yet to really address in terms of living past our investments living past the money we save, we're living much longer, my mother who passed away at 90, which I could not understand, and she had plenty of money, but that was one of her major worries was that she was going to run out of money. And that's a true thing today,

Speaker 2 27:18
give people an overview in just about a minute. You know, your the impact and to get people to get a better understanding of why it's important to empower seniors.

Speaker 3 27:31
Well, I think the one thing people have to remember especially seniors, is that it's the senior population is pretty much holding up this country with our investments or Social Security. I mean, what money do you think this country is using to fund many of the things that does but because we're kind of pushed back in a corner in aging and not really acknowledged we don't know that ourselves and a lot of the negative media and things like that that tell us that we should just go sit in the corner and age and that we're done living and I always tell people that come to me because a lot of people don't want to even talk about aging they don't want to know about aging but I always tell people that you have to remember the alternative to aging is something you don't want

Speaker 2 28:13
not quite my alternative Yeah. Are many people's

Speaker 3 28:19
but just be empowered to know that you can do whatever you want and don't let society tell you anything different.

Speaker 2 28:25
Yes, Pat i i Just again i as i mentioned before the these two topics that we covered today ageism as well as the empowerment of veterans is just so so critical and for you how can people get in contact with you if they want to be a part of one of your classes or if they want to connect with you about how they can be empowered as a senior

Speaker 3 28:46
Well, my name is Pat land acre, and I have my website is Pat land acre L A N D A ke our agency, and the emphasis is on the word age in agency.com. So Pat land acre agency.com full website, it has all my classes I teach, it has my mindset stuff I do. And my Cert I'm a certified senior advisor. So that information is on there as well. And you can reach me there's all kinds of ways to contact me through that website.

Speaker 2 29:15
Thank you so much for being a part of the show today, Pat, and I want to say how much we appreciate all of you for listening in. Again, to learn more about the cause marketing Chamber of Commerce, please visit our website cause marketing chamber.com You can also find us on social media platforms Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram. And the last thing I want to say before we leave today is it is so important to give and do business for good. See you soon. Waves

Unknown Speaker 30:02
The weight of the world on my shoulder as I'm getting older your people get older most of us only care about money

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