The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

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This is a Kun V 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.

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Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan, I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started.

Unknown Speaker 0:42
You Good morning Las Vegas, and welcome to another beautiful Sunday morning. And it really is turning into that beautiful time of year. I know so many people love fall. It starts to cool down. You get up in the morning and it's just a nice little breeze in the air. It's a less less hot, and you can get out and enjoy yourselves. Have a cup of coffee on your patio or outdoors by the pool or whatever your your scene might be, and enjoy that mountain range if we've got some of the smoke out of the air. So just want to welcome you to the show this morning, and thank you for waking up to tune in. I'm delighted, as always. I always think that my guests are great people, and they bring interesting conversation. I hope you agree. This morning I have in the studio with me the one and only. Cameron ch Miller, I just love that, because you have, like, a whole branding name. How are you?

Unknown Speaker 1:35
I am great. I am great. Good morning. Good morning.

Unknown Speaker 1:38
Thank you for being here for for those who are not familiar with Cameron ch Miller, Cameron is the president and CEO of the Las Vegas urban Chamber of Commerce. That is a mouthful. We're going to be talking this morning, just I like to do every so often what I call the man on the street segment. And so what we do is we take a little glimpse into someone's life, who's lived here or may be a native, and how that life has transformed, and what they've gone through to become who they are and do the things that they've done. And it's because there's a contribution to give back to the community that makes it worthwhile shining the spotlight on it, and so that is why I've invited Cameron to come hang out with me here in the studio.

Unknown Speaker 2:20
Thank you so very much. I am honored to be here, and I'm looking forward to just having a great conversation with you and talking about all things Las Vegas, my life, things from the beginning to where we are. I like to say that the path to success, whatever success looks like for you, for me has not been a straight line. So looking forward to having more conversation, kind of dialing that in and, you know, just talking.

Unknown Speaker 2:50
Well, I'm excited about it. Are you? Am I correct? Are you a native?

Unknown Speaker 2:55
I am a native. Born and raised here in Las Vegas, my father's mother, my granny. She actually moved here in the mid 50s, when my father was three years old, and she started to build a life. She was married initially, and like many folks do, I know, I have gone through divorce. She divorced and had to find her own way. And she did that. She ended up becoming a maid. That's what they were back then. Now we call them guest room attendants, right? And she worked her way up to being an inspectors. Purchased her first home, her only home that she owned, and lived a good life here in Las Vegas, and started to change the trajectory of our family through her efforts.

Unknown Speaker 3:40
So you've been on the scene for I think I met you like, five or 10 years ago now, and it's amazing how time flies, because it really doesn't feel like it, but I believe it's probably, it's more than five, for sure, it probably is 10. And I remember thinking, Oh, he's so young. And then as I'm getting to know more about you, I'm like, he's still young, but yet you're not as young as I thought you were, because you have all this lived life experience. So I mean, you're a husband, you're a father. Your parenting dynamic is that there's a 20 year old and a baby. How is it? Well,

Unknown Speaker 4:17
yes, so yeah, 27 is my oldest, wow, 19 and my daughter will be one. Oh, my God, my youngest daughter, my middle daughter, 19 is daughter, and then my oldest is my son, and so, yeah, so the parenting dynamic is very spread out. Is very different. I think you and I met probably around, definitely 10 years ago, maybe little bit longer than that, right around 2013 or 14, I had come back. I had lived in Atlanta for a while. I have a background in film and television production, where I was producing television and film projects out of Atlanta, running a film studio, and we had this. Program called the 11 1111 project, and we brought that here to do a program for young people over the summer. And so we did that with the first launch of the My Brother's Keeper initiative. And so we produced three film projects out of that with folks from the community and young people particularly, giving them career exploration opportunities in the film industry, which is interestingly full circle now that we're having real conversations about having the film industry here. At that time we were as well. They were talking about a film credit, and they got something, and then it, you know, things happened, and so then it went away. But or not, it went away, got minimized. So now we're having this conversation again. But that program introduced me to more people in the community than I had known or met before, and so I believe you and I met through the Urban League young professionals. And that's how you know, that's kind of how we connected initially. And I think that was about, this is 24 so about 10 years ago, yeah, on the dot,

Unknown Speaker 6:06
sometimes I feel like all roads lead to or through the Urban League young professionals, because it's so often that I get the opportunity to sit down and talk with young people, and what they share is that they have had something to do with the Urban League young professionals, and it's just so cool how it connects people from all walks of life, various professional backgrounds across the country. But then right here in the city of Las Vegas, it was able to bring people together for support to the direct services that that organization was providing to the community, and at the same time, uplift those who needed friends, needed family, were far away from home, had taken a job here, weren't a part of any other organization. Is just it's just super cool to see what it cultivated and how that exponential growth has continued to happen for the various individuals who were part of the young professionals, because we're talking attorneys, we're talking real estate agents, insurance agents, therapists, families, I mean specialists like licensed clinical social worker, just the variety of careers. And so it's cool to hear you say we met like I've met many people through the Urban League, young professionals. And of course, I'm biased, because I'm the founding president of the organization, but I just thought when I walked into stumbled into the space, well, for really, I walked into it at age eight, but growing up, and then going into that young professional space, and seeing the energy that young people from all around the country, and they really weren't like 1715, young but like 25 to 35 where you're really digging in to your career. You are navigating this space, you are building. You have energy. You are hungry. You are ready. You are full of innovative ideas and solutions, and you are bold in your conversations to try to bring the attention to that point and manifest something to see that energy running through so many people from all these different places in the country, converging in one location at like a national conference or something YPS is like, it was just a phenomenal concept to me. It really

Unknown Speaker 8:26
was. It was, it was a really invigorating time to be here, in that space, in that season of life, just that age range that you're describing. And everyone was pretty well doing well in their careers, and also passionate about connecting and giving back to community. And so the things that we did through that organization at that time, it really started to transform, I think, how young people, young professionals engaged in Las Vegas, in serving, and then look at how we have all grown from there, from that moment, and how we are still interconnected and able to work together and able to serve and come back to that point of we know what it was like then, and so we bring that same energy when it's time to tackle the task again. There's nothing lost. It's like no time was lost. I

Unknown Speaker 9:24
know, you know, yeah, and you make such a good point, because the individuals that we're talking about are very much still connected to this day in different programs, whether they're creating something new, expanding on a foundation that was already there, building it even further. Be it NAACP, a women's group, it does not matter. They're just doing really good work. You've always been sort of a servant to the community, more so at one point than I even realized. And now as president and CEO of the urban chamber, and then you've had a very. Strong hand in the political space, and you doing some things in that arena as well. What's going on with the Urban why urban chamber? What's going on? What are you most proud of accomplishing in that in that space? So

Unknown Speaker 10:17
I think so far, it is the transition of of the energy and the movement around the urban Chamber of Commerce, right? So the any organization that has similar leadership for an extended period of time, and my predecessors and our leadership had been there for about 10 years, nine to 10 years, and they did some amazing things in standing up the foundation, I mean, the organization, and laying a foundation that we could springboard from. And then there's a changing of the guard. And they were very intentional about changing the guard to younger leadership. And so our board chair, Sharon Gray, now, you know, not in his 40s. I don't have that same story, but I, you know, I'm definitely, oh, I'm definitely in my 40s. He's not in his side, but, but I'm in, I'm in a different generation than, you know, the previous president and CEO and so I think it is really cool that we're able to now take the organization and what they've done and shape it in a new way and build it for the future. And so one of the things that I've been the most excited about, or the most thrilled about, is really re engaging the community and our young entrepreneurs and our businesses, our business community, bringing them more resources, more net networking and connectivity. Just this week, we were able to, through our capital readiness program, we were able to provide grants for to businesses, $10,000 grants, right? It was amazing. And so that's something that we've been able to leverage through our partnership with access Community Capital and CSN, and that's all from money that came that our federal delegation, you know, went and got for us, led by Congressman Horsford, through the nbda, we were able to get dollars here in our state, one of 43 applications statewide. I mean, nationwide, we got those CRP dollars to support businesses,

Unknown Speaker 12:27
that money that they have to give back, or do they not? Does it go? This is that's really me. This is a grant. I was just, and you did say the operative word there, Grant. I was just in Tulsa, as you know, to celebrate the life of Sydney sales. But one of the cool things while we were there was they were talking about the build and Tulsa program. And what we learned is that it's like new business startup people get something similar, like 20 or 25,000 or something to get started with their new business. And it's really cool as you travel to see things like that, but to see them happening here in Las Vegas for for small business owners. I did spend some time on the urban chamber board. Years ago, I served as a board member. I felt like I should full disclosure my involvement as we talk about the urban Chamber of Commerce, but it's nice to see you mentioned the changing of the guard and the shift in generational service from older to younger, not that I was old. I think in the middle, nobody ever wants to be old, right? Maybe I was in the middle, but it is nice to to see the road map coming to life with you to map out a plan for younger people to be engaged. Because the question we have these tools and organizations, and it's, how do you draw people in and get them to realize that they should be a part of the urban chamber?

Unknown Speaker 13:57
Yes, so yeah, no, I think, I think we're in a place where there's a changing of the guard, almost across the board, right? So from a lot of our organizations, even a political space, there's been a change, a significant change, in the leadership of in a lot of ways, right? And it's, I come from old Vegas. I tell people, you know, my parents, my mother and my father, have 45 plus year careers in casino gaming. My father was the first black supervisor in table games. My mother was the first black woman to deal Baccarat, and they transitioned from that to today, and we're talking about old Vegas, to New Vegas, and now where we're going. And right now, we're in that season of changing of the guard in a lot of different respects, where it's now time for the next generation to pick up the ball, to grab the baton, and then to run us down, you know, to run us down so that we can, we can build. The future of Las Vegas that will all have an opportunity to thrive, and it's our job right now, those of us who are in position to make sure that we are creating that environment and creating opportunities intentionally so that the next generation can pick it up and keep going and build an even brighter Las Vegas. It has been a I lived in different places around the country, Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta in my film and television career, and to be able to live and come back home and serve and see the community transform and be a part of its growth at this particular time is really unique, because we're a young city still, right? It really is a young city. When you consider

Unknown Speaker 15:50
first growth, it's just a lot of firsts, yeah, because it's a place that nobody thought anybody would ever live. And so I remember when I moved here, 29 years ago, Jones rainbow was like, really, really far west, right? There was really not much. There was Summerlin came. I was a reporter at the RJ, and I remember having a friend who was a pharmacist, and she lived up in Summerlin. But Rainbow Felt so far west, right? Even though there was some Summerlin felt like this thing that was happening, but it was like this little section. It was small. It was not like stretching across the entire back west end of town. And you were either on the north side of Summerlin or the south side of Summerlin, you would just do West, yeah, and then you had the historic west side. And we were like, and people were confused, because what isn't west right there, dead in the middle? No, technically, West is really geographically, way up here by this mountain. And so there has been, you know, all this tremendous growth. But I wanted to ask you something about you mentioned going away, coming back, and then serving. And you've done a lot, and you have quite a title, actually, that we haven't said, but you have quite a title. What is the thing that you've done that you're most proud of in your space of serving, be it impacting it from a legislative space, political space, to urban chamber space to just community service, maybe faith based, because when you grow up here and your family has all these ties, you're in a lot of different circles of influence. So yeah,

Unknown Speaker 17:32
so I think that's a really great question, and I don't know that there's one particular accomplishment or thing that I have done that I'm most proud of, from serving in five, then I'll give you the time. Well, no, no, I'm gonna so from serving in the state legislature as Assemblyman for district seven, which we know, we got a new assembly person coming so but from that to what we did when we brought the 1111 project to the young people to what I do at the Urban Chamber of Commerce. A friend of mine told me one time she could describe me in one word, she would have used the word catalyst. And at first I blew it off. I didn't know what it meant. I didn't quite understand it. But then once I really started to look at my life, I could understand how I'm someone that brings significant change to any environment that I'm in, and almost like a chemical reaction change like, Okay, this change real fast. And what I can say that I'm most proud of is being able to identify that. So now, when I walk into a space, I know what I'm there to do, and as long as there's been positive impact, that's what I'm proud of. And so I know there's positive impact when, for example, when we did the 11 1111 project, and the young people who didn't know that film was an opportunity for them, the light bulb came on in their eyes and they said, this is actually something that I want to pursue. Those are things that I'm proud of. When I get a phone call or a text message or see someone out and they talk to me about some of the legislation that we passed and how it positively impacted their lives, those are the things that I'm most proud of. So it's not one thing, it's a collection of knowing that I am operating essentially in my purpose, and that purpose is benefiting those around me for the good.

Unknown Speaker 19:45
I think that one of the nicest, coolest things you just said is that you are operating in your purpose because I'm looking at you and you're a young person, and depends on

Unknown Speaker 19:55
who you ask something, call me sir, and I'm like, uh.

Unknown Speaker 20:00
I've been called ma'am, and I totally can relate and understand to the offensiveness of that, and I'm just kidding, but in that a lot of people spend a lot more time and life trying to figure out or discover or hear what that purpose is, and they don't always get the message. And so it's this wandering through life, wondering, why am I not doing something that truly makes me happy? But if you're walking in your purpose, and some people don't have the luxury of doing that, and it's not that they don't know, it's that some other aspect of life they feel is pulling on them so strongly, be it raising children, affording care for a parent, you know, caring for whatever you know I'm saying, you can have a health care issue yourself and just have that job that provides that sense of safety net, because the insurance is better here than it would be somewhere else. And so, you know, you what you need, so you do what you have to do. It's maybe not having the energy, even if you do have maybe some freedom. It's just a lot of things, is what I'm saying that can keep people from digging into their passion and doing fine. And I say to people, in that case, if you can, even if it's a little bit of it, like one small piece that can have a sense of completion and fullness, maybe tap into that, but your life is reflective of you doing the work that you're passionate about and your purpose?

Unknown Speaker 21:22
Yeah, no, I think that is really powerful. What you just said, do just a little bit of something that you can have completion, because it's going to help you do another thing. It's going to help you have a win. It's going to make you feel good. But I want to get back to purpose and passion. I see these things probably a little differently than most people or the most or the ways that it's explained most. And I think that we are always operating in our purpose, whether we know it or not. I don't think our purpose is one task or one thing that we do. So I like to use the example of a car. The purpose of a car is always transportation. It may be used for other things, right? But it's always intended for transportation. And when you identify your actual purpose, then you can then that's how you discover how you operate in it. So I'll use another example, and I use this as the honeybee. So the honeybee flies around pursuing his passion. Always say, pursue your passion until you discover your purpose. His passion is what making honey, right is, they're pollinating. Making honey. They just going to get the nectar to bring it back to the hive, doing whatever their job is. That's their passion. Their purpose is cross pollination. So we need them to cross pollinate so that the vegetation comes up, so that we have the things that we need to eat, right? So no matter what they're doing, as long as they're pursuing their purpose, they don't have they don't care nothing about cross pollination. They're just operating in their space, doing what they want to do. Then it comes back to, oh, this is their purpose, right? So, but we as humans, when we are able to identify that and I found my purpose through operating in my passions, pursuing my passions, we're able to identify that purpose, then we're able to move with it, intentionality, intentionally. So I don't care if you fry and fries or you are running the whole franchise, right when you understand who you are, I know that I can be a catalyst and a change agent at the fry station. I could be at the car wash, I can be in the library, I can be in the state house. And so I think that, I personally think that we need to kind of re shape how we perceive or discover understand purpose. I don't necessarily think it's one particular task that we accomplish. I think it's something that we are continuously operating in in every space that we're in. I can respect

Unknown Speaker 24:00
that, because there are often a lot of things that a person has to do in order for that purpose to be successful in the first place. So there's just even a writer, right, whose purpose is writing. And last week, I had a author, budding author, on the show and identifying the story, you know, publishing, journaling, finding the voice, editing, rewriting, doing the cover. All these things were part of this process to make this purpose her passion, which was her purpose, come to life. So there's always a lot of things that we have going on. We're getting to the last bit of the show, last five minutes. I like to make sure people who are more curious about the person that I'm talking to that they have an opportunity to find you and learn more if they are interested in learning more. So if there's social handles that you want to lay on us, let's let those out, and then I'm going to kind of rapid fire, because I want to just quick snapshot of who who you are and things. That you like and Okay, unexpected details. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 25:02
good deal. Well, if anyone was interested in contacting me or following me or just being connected, they might want to go to social media platforms, and they may want to type in Cameron CH, Miller LV, or ch Miller LV on the different platforms, I think Facebook, you can find me if you were looking at Cameron ch Miller LV, Cameron ch Miller you can also find me if you were looking try to be very careful here. Y'all family, but yeah. Ch Miller. Ch Miller, pretty much everywhere. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 25:55
yeah, like I said when I introduced him, Cameron. Ch Miller, it is a brand. I'm glad you were able to come spend some time with me. I know super early, but I'm glad you woke up and did this and we had a chance to talk, because I'm enjoying getting to know more about you. Also you shared how to find you, but I want to say too with the work that you're doing in the urban chamber, anyone who might be a small business owner that just wants to know more about what is this chamber about? Because we have a lot of chambers around the city that have different reasons for functioning, and they tackle different issues for the benefits of their members. But it's another way to understand business. If you ever had an idea about developing a business or starting something or expanding what you have. So that's another space to get to know you well and to see what you've done, what you've accomplished, and why the activities that the chamber is promoting might be might align with whatever you are doing as a as a business owner and urban Of course, implies that this is a person of color oriented space. So if you're a person of color who has a business, so how many years have you lived here? So this last time you've been back for, how long

Unknown Speaker 27:11
I've been back, since 2013

Unknown Speaker 27:15
so we have little over 11 years. So before that, you were all over the place, but it's life. So what's the most interesting place you've ever because the person who's only been here 11 means they've traveled, because I see, you know some wisdom up there. There's the salt and pepper distinguished debonair. So you've lived a little. What's the most interesting place you've ever visited or been to?

Unknown Speaker 27:40
So I'm gonna tell you that, but I have to say that while I have been here, technically living here since this time, since about 2013 I have always been here. My children have been here. So I've always spent, like a lot of time here, and maybe have only lived away from here maybe two years at a time. So just put some context around that, but I'm gonna have to say my favorite, most interesting place was Zanzibar, Zanzibar, Zanzibar Tanzania on the eastern horn on the coast of Africa, because that is where I met my wife. That is beautiful. So congratulations.

Unknown Speaker 28:17
You are relatively newly married. So congratulations on the Netflix. Okay, so favorite food, because we're going to last minutes, we gotta know favorite food, smothered pork chops. Smothered pork chops, good. Smothered pork chops, not

Unknown Speaker 28:29
where they just poured a gravy on top where it's been actually sitting

Unknown Speaker 28:33
cooking in. Okay, so real deal. Yes. Favorite music group,

Unknown Speaker 28:39
Oh, wow. Come on, pick one favorite music group. Oh, Jodeci.

Unknown Speaker 28:46
He went to Jodeci. No, I was no comment on Jodeci. I love Jodeci, but no Jodeci, no comment on that. Greatest book, Best Book, great book to read. You recommend what book or author, book or author genre, this way you make you are a really hard rapid fire, like if we were in a game show together, the seconds would just absolutely lose. I overthink it Las Vegas. Thank you for tuning in to the scoop with me. Tanya Flanagan, K, U N, V, 91.5 we are so happy to have you. Thank you and have a great week. I want to thank you for tuning in to the scoop with me. Tanya Flanagan and I want to invite you to get social with me. I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle, T, a n, y a F, l, a n, a G, A N. You can also find me on Instagram at Tanya almond eyes Flanagan, and if you have a thought, an opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tanya.flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week. You.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai