The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

Wesley Knight 0:00
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.

Tanya Flanagan 0:19
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.

You Good morning, Las Vegas. It's December in the beautiful city of Las Vegas, the city of lights, and last week, we had an exciting conversation with a dynamic woman named Lynn just sayings, and I invited her to come back and join me for a second week. So I want to say thank you. We have tons of energy today. You guys are in for a treat. We are so ready to get it going this Sunday morning. Harold 91.5 Lynn, say good morning. Good morning.

Speaker 1 1:10
Good morning, good morning. Thank you, Tanya, for having me back. Thank you

Tanya Flanagan 1:14
for coming back. I really want to have you back, because having a conversation with you, it's just you never know where it's going to go. We go down so many different pathways. We talk about a lot of different stuff, and there were just things when we talked last week about Lynn has a women's conference coming up called Women purpose and processing. It's going to happen on december 27 so she was here to unveil the second annual second coming of it for listeners to talk about what it's going to entail, why she put this women's conversation conference together, and as we were talking about that, we got into so many things we realized we were going to run out of time and we weren't going to get into everything we wanted to talk about. So I said, Lynn, come back next week, and I invited you to come back too. So for those of you who were here last week and are here again today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for waking up and spending Sunday morning with Lynn and I. We might become a dynamic duo or something. Oh, I love that.

Speaker 1 2:10
I would love that. 2025 it's gonna be so good.

Tanya Flanagan 2:16
2025 is going to be stellar. 2024 has been pretty, pretty good for me. I am grateful, and I am too grateful. Last week we were talking about why you did the women's conference. So first, let's fill in those who are first time listeners. What's the Women's Conference? All about who are you? So who are you, and what is the women purpose? Power, processing all of it.

Speaker 1 2:41
Oh, she didn't added power. I like, it gives you power when you so women, purpose and processing is one something I felt like, spiritually, God put down in my own spirit to just really put out. And I kind of listened like, when you don't have, you know, you don't do events for years, it kind of be a little hesitation and stuff, but it's something that I just took full force and said, You know what? I really believe that this is something that God wants me to do. And I did

Tanya Flanagan 3:07
it towards the day conference. Is it a day? I don't even call it a conference.

Speaker 1 3:11
I call it an experience, okay, hours from 530 to eight. It's intense. And doing that them two and a half hours, you know, one the way, the vibe, the energy, the women that show up, everybody comes, I know, for the first year, no one knew what they were coming to, you know, like, even the name women, purpose and process. And I was like, Really, what is that? But it just set and it stayed, and I accepted that was the title, and I've been rocking with it ever since. And I caught a 2.0 this year, because we take it things to another level. Of course, last year we didn't have a panel. This year we do have a panel, but even with the panel, it involves everybody participates in the processing. It's not like you're gonna

Tanya Flanagan 3:58
come listen to everybody, everybody, including the listening audience, everybody audience is a

Speaker 1 4:02
participating audience, absolutely, absolutely is. We have no other way. So we can

Tanya Flanagan 4:07
lay out like women, purpose and processing. Who are you? Because people every day think about putting something together that empowers women or empowers a group that they are concerned with. And so there has to be some credentialing, or some you know, resume that qualifies you to do what you're doing, interesting. So who are you? Because people don't everyone I know you, and some who tuned in last week know you. And I've had people say to me, Oh my gosh. Lynn was on your show. I had a lady say to me, Leslie, one of my actual sorority sisters, said to me, on Saturday, because he would preview it, I think, on your Facebook page or something. And so she said that you were going to come on. Oh, you guys, you're going to have Lynn on the show. I'm excited to listen. So you have a fan club out there. Thank you. But for those who don't know you, who are you? What qualifies you to do this? I realized that

Speaker 1 4:57
this is why time is so important. So I'm. Ready, right? And I'm ready, because not only my personal and my professional and my educational experience, one qualifies for me. I am definitely, I am definitely the expert in what I do. And the reason why I say that is because I've been doing what I've been doing for so for so long, so I when I train in trauma, so I have a background of being a teen mom and a foster child. That's my background. I come from a family of addicts. I have domestic violence in my history. I do have some mental stuff in my history that I just recently started talking about, like severe depression. I've had suicide ideation in my past. There's a lot of things that I hadn't really talked about a lot. Just navigating through life, I have been able to mentor a lot of men and women, mostly women, throughout my time, and really have seen them. I could give them the blueprint. We could sit down and talk and go over some things and talk about some things that they can call me, and we engage a few times. And I really watched them go do exactly some of the things that we talked about. And it's so funny, because sometimes I say, you don't really do that for yourself, but you can do it for other people. So I have a history my I have a master's degree in business. I have a bachelor's degree in sociology. So my experience has been working with people. Training and traumas was my current thing. I train in trauma a lot different topics, like I do leadership training. I talk about coping skills a lot because of my education, my personal experience and my work experience. It's just a combination of it all that definitely makes me an expert at what I do. And so, so far, I've been successful. And I think that one God, naturally, I haven't really talked about a book I have coming out. And as I navigated, you've written a book before. Yes, I navigated. As I was navigating through this book, some key things came up, even as a child, always being able to talk to people. One, bring people peace. Two, help people process through the things that's going on with them, to get them to a place where they're okay. Because sometimes life can be overwhelming. Life can put us in positions where we feel scared of what's happening next, or if we don't take accountability, our choices can have us. But unlike we don't want to move forward, and we get stuck. Now

Tanya Flanagan 7:07
you are for the listening audience, who can't see you, but you're a black, African American woman, whichever we have these, you know, different labels, but you are a woman of color. Do you focus as a woman of color, on women of color, or do you focus on women in general? No, women in general, like last year. That's one thing I love about the testimonies. Like my social media. If you go to Facebook, it's I am Lee and just sayings, I have a lot of testimonies, because it was such a diverse group. And last year was invitation only. And last year, most of the women, if not all of them women, most of the women are very, considered very strong, influential women. I use that terminology that showed up and came out last year, and so most of their testimonies, they'll say they didn't know what to expect. They talked about the diversity in the room, which we love, diversity. We are women. We didn't come in there talking about our titles, because in that moment, we were just women. We were all women recognized, and we all have common experience. We share similar stories. We may not look alike, but as a woman in general, we've had similar experiences, similarity, and that's when you know you're doing something for the good. Thank you, everyone, because and it's and I 100% applaud targeted work, and I've worked on things that were targeted, but I think as women and people in general, there are common bonds. There's always more that ties us together than it is that pulls us apart, although a lot of times we find ourselves focused on the things that tear us apart, because it's so important, it's so important to allow, I think, people to come together, you know, women from different walks of life, to share what they have had and what they've experienced, what they've gone through in that same vein. I wanted to ask you also, because you're focused on women right now, if men are, you know men of men in general. And I'm, of course, I'm partial to having grown up as a black woman, I understand the struggles that black men have gone through, or talk about black men have gone through, but I think men in general there. The need for that conversation is so far reaching, because you can bridge these gaps and barriers, right? Maybe get people more connected with conversations that are honest and truthful. So have you ever thought about, because

Speaker 1 9:24
when I was doing the panels at Nevada Partners with women, I also did a panel with men, and I do have what's called my fabulous five that always show up for me. Marcus Allen always show up. CJ Watson always show up. Harvey Perry, I always show up. Twix always show up. Kurt always showed up. So I have my fabulous five but and also did a men's event with Amber Jones over at Twitch shop. We called it making chess moves, and it was a very successful event. So I'm definitely thinking about doing this for me, and I have to almost

Tanya Flanagan 9:54
and I hosted one, and in that space when I would do the breast cancer conversations for. The community with COVID, I did one for the family, and I did one for like, you know, husbands or whatever, coping with either their wives, a sister or mother, whatever the case might be, because that different woman that you love so much in your life who has breast cancer, and the man came up and said, I'm really glad you had this conversation, because it allowed them a space to have an honest conversation about what it feels like, because women do really if you have a good marriage and a good house. So women hold a lot of things together for their husbands, right, for their children, for their brothers, whatever the case may be, we're very maternal. And by nature, women are caregivers. So when that happens to a woman, the men in their lives are really lost. So I think that I see that, you know, I see a lot in your future. So I'm always breaking up my crystal ball when we get together and we're talking and I forecast, you know what you're going to do, and you usually do something in that. Thank you. So,

Speaker 1 10:53
yeah, I'm definitely, definitely, I think I just said that either yesterday or this morning, that I'm definitely going to do. I'm with the man, I think it's much needed. I you know, you hear all the time that these type of events are different, but the women that showed up last year could attest to this is different. It's not like no one other woman's conference, woman event, woman Summit, woman seminar. It's nothing like that. Are

Tanya Flanagan 11:19
you touching on because we had a little bit of a hint at business and trauma. So when you're in this space, is it most things, emotional, spiritual? Is it work, life balance, family, life balance, personal self care? Is it business, entrepreneurial? So is it first step? Said, Whatever lofty goal you think you want to do, like, how, what do should people expect? Because anyone who's interested can attend, right? Yes, no, and having you sign up to or register. So

Speaker 1 11:49
right now, it's on Eventbrite, and it's actually all over my social media pages. I am Lynn just sayings right now, it's all over my social media pages right now how to register on Eventbrite, it's open to everybody. So like again, last year, it was invitation only. This year, I definitely want to open up, because I Dave, I want as many women as possible to be able to share in this type of experience, because it is very unique. It is very different. And what I love is that it's not a place where you come and tell your business. It's not that type of place. It is an opportunity where, wherever you want to take the information and how much you want to share, you will be given the opportunity. What was the blessing about it is it's really a safe space, like most of the women did not know each other, but you couldn't tell they didn't know each other, and but within two hours, the bond that was with between everybody in that room,

Tanya Flanagan 12:44
it was amazing. Do they stay connected after? Some

Speaker 1 12:47
of them did, but some of them kind of knew each other already, just

Tanya Flanagan 12:51
seeing the future growing out of having these conferences, sort of yeah, sometimes you'll see these things take place, and then people form a chat room or a group, or they get together annually, or they they find a way to stay connected and yet expand so that they're reaching more people and bringing them into the space, even if it is for a day lunch, some type of transformative that's

Speaker 1 13:16
very much that's very much possible only because the nature of the information that we talk about is so across the board for everybody, right? And bringing last year, a lot of us was a lot older, it was rarely anyone. I don't even know if anybody in there was under 30, but remember, it was information only, invitation only. So that was intentional, right? And I definitely wanted to create a platform of powerful women that come together, and we sit in that room together like sister ship. I do do some key things when you come in. There's some key things that I do initially when you walk through the door that sets the pace for

Tanya Flanagan 13:52
how you're teasing us limb. You just won't give up anything. Well, it's not a

Speaker 1 13:56
matter of giving up anything, but I want people to come get the experience.

Tanya Flanagan 14:00
I want them to come get the experience. But if I'm telling you, you don't come. If I were dangling the, you know, the the dessert or the appetizer in front of someone trying, you know how the dessert cart comes around at the restaurant, dangle. So we're gonna, I want to dangle. I want some camera today. I'm like the puppy that's sitting there waiting with baby breath, hope. And

Speaker 1 14:20
so when you come in, I got a design where once you sit down, we stay seated, because the stuff that's going to be on your chair, everything is going to be set up for you to just get comfortable and enjoy the rest of the ride. The way it's designed, once the panel come up. And because we got a couple of things we do before we even get to the panel. Okay, so we got the program the little so the reason why, between, I need everybody there at 530 between 530 is six o'clock, because that's going to be our Meet Greet and eat. Because at six

Tanya Flanagan 14:48
o'clock PM, it's not, it's not AM, she did not clarify that it is, it is pm, because, you know, it is pm, the city that never sleeps. But

Speaker 1 14:59
we, um. Can they come in, we don't eat. And then even that part is spiritual when you so when you come in, I'm at the door to greet you. My team is there when you come by the time you come to the door, and the little things that we do before you even get to your seat, where it's going to be, it's going to be a Nehemiah ministries. Okay, so

Tanya Flanagan 15:18
it's on the north, kind of North West, but not far north, but past the West, and First Lady West, Gowan and Rancho. Yes,

Speaker 1 15:29
they are just some amazing people the West. I love the West. They some amazing people. So, yeah, I'll be hosting it at their ministry this year. And it's funny, because it's the this is planned out to 2007 27 so the vision for this year is laid out, the vision and the theme for next year is like it was planned out.

Tanya Flanagan 15:50
Made me ask you the question about the incorporation of ways to keep the people who participate, is there a vision for their connectivity? Most

Speaker 1 15:59
of them are coming back. The only ones that's not coming back, like clay T she's only not coming back because she's going to be out of town,

Tanya Flanagan 16:06
and then their connectivity throughout the year. So do they? You know, it feels to me like you're creating a community, and the culture within the community. So within our community, there's a community of hope, of support, of help, yeah, and so just kind of looking at once, you have this event every year, and it continues to grow, the people who come and who are touched, staying connected, and then the exponential reach that comes from that, and then the growth as it reaches other populations that you may decide to target and Have this healthy conversations. And I'm

Speaker 1 16:42
glad you said that, because a lot of the women that was there now, like, if they see one on social media, or, like, if I'm talking to one, they'd be like, Oh my god, I saw someone so from the event, and I need to reach out to her. Like they feed me that information. Some of them have communicated, stay connected, done things together since the event, absolutely. But I do hear the oh my god, I was on social media. I didn't realize she was on social media. Oh my god. Like I hear that all the time since the first event, and that's another reason why I wanted to open it up. The intimacy is very important. So when you look at the numbers, the intimacy is, why is what makes it effective as well. So it's very

Tanya Flanagan 17:18
screening process. When a person comes and says, Hey, I want to do, or can anyone literally sign up? And within your process of receiving the RSV piece, is

Speaker 1 17:29
anybody at this point can sign up? I don't even think that if you're not even a certain in a certain place within yourself, and I'm just going to keep it real, energy recognize a certain energy for to just, you know, to lay that out there. But I don't even think, if you know within yourself, this may not be some place that you should step foot in. They're not stepping their foot in there. They're either going to come open hearted and in anybody who do come with bad intentions, they just gone. That brings me to, I'm telling you, they gonna be reverted. Like, right? You came stay in that space, once you get to the space, I promise you, like, even if you came like, you know, I know people come like, what they doing? What's going on? The energy, not even gonna allow you to be that way. And even we recognize in last year, I do wanna say, depending on where you are, what's going on with you, where you at in your life, what's going on with you and your life. This is really going to be an opportunity for you to really, like, share some new skin, open up new realms for yourself, raise your frequency in life. Like, it's automatic, because the nature of the information that we process together, even when you recognize, like, dang. Like, when all the women were sharing, I put on my page. When we did the we processed, what do processing mean to you? So we did that last year, we talked about, what do processing mean to you all the women was like, oh my, my God. When you hear other people's perspective and how they see processing and what processing means to them, and it also opens you up and reminds you. One, we all have common stuff. Two, oh, my God, I didn't look at it from that perspective. So when we got into these, and Dave into these topics, and like, the first, the first piece that we do, I don't like to give it away, because I want you to come and be like, oh, like, this is the first piece, because the first thing we do is even powerful, and that's why I didn't share a lot of pieces of the intimate part of it, because I want people to really come and be like, Oh, this is what's happening. Because you're gonna be like, so

Tanya Flanagan 19:34
engulfs you immediately. So your intention is to engulf people immediately, just to, you

Speaker 1 19:39
know, bring them people to come out and be like I really left with an experience, an experience, not a, an event, not a, oh, I was at Summit. Not a, oh, my God, did you go to that networking event? It's nothing like that, and it gives you a time to reflect for yourself. I want us to go into 2025, with some new. Juice some new fires, some new ways of looking at things, a better understanding about ourselves, because we going to share with some women, women, when women process together, that's the quote. Successful things happen. I watched it. I witnessed it. I was there. I was in the room that I know what to expect myself, but I felt led in everything. I followed directions, I paid attention, I listened, I did it the way it was given to me, and I watched the spirit of it move. Is

Tanya Flanagan 20:28
there anything that you would do differently? No,

Speaker 1 20:31
and I only wanted it to be 15 women. It was like 18 of us there. And even that was enough. We didn't even get through all the topics, because it got so good and got so real, and that's what I want.

Tanya Flanagan 20:46
And you you specialize a lot helping people with trauma, yes, and so a lot of times, we're in a space where mental health is a very, very real conversation in our community, in this day and age, more so than it has ever been in like we are, in this very woke, aware space about mental health, and we didn't talk about therapy like people seek out. And, you know, therapy is a very now option that people look to to develop coping skills. You know, how is this? How is this different like and we're not saying don't go to therapy if

Speaker 1 21:23
you feel unique at all. Therapy is great for all of us. No, no, I never take no one. We're not saying that. So one let me say this without the other one knowing I had three therapists in the room. And even when some of the ladies got emotional, it wasn't no second guessing, it wasn't no hesitating, it wasn't no looking at immediately, the natural response was to take care of her hands down. No one second guessed it. And even in one of my testimonies, they shared, you felt safe. You got a nod like it was okay. You gotta look like we understand. That's the that was the vibe, like we get it, like we here for you. We with you, or when we process this certain piece, it was a moment for everybody to be like, dang. Like, that's how you feel. And if it wasn't, I feel that way too. It was, I like, how you looked at that. That was good. That was good. It was that type of vibe. It was that type of vibe. So

Tanya Flanagan 22:19
just, you can expect a really encouraging environment. I'm just an opportunity to grow. And I think that at the era of life that I'm in now, as you walk into your 50s, I'm gonna say it might not look 50, but as you walk into spaces of maturity in life, you process differently. That's why I love the the women purpose and processing, because they really are words as you continue through life that define who you are and what you're trying to do. And

Speaker 1 22:50
so our topics, this, this, this around. Our topics are so key to some primary things that women everybody face them. But I want us to give us an opportunity to sit in the room. The women on the panel are real true. And I know that there are women that stand on what they believe in. They firm, you know, in really firm, in their position in life. They understand what got them there. They understand why they there. They all love and have a passion for what they do. Like, genuinely like they're in positions and roles that you got to love it, have a passion for it, and really have a desire to help people, or you're not going to make it see like even as I sit here today, I advocate for foster care the way I do. I work in the system the way I do, but only because, one, I have a background in it. Two, I've been with the County since 96 when people ask me, How long can you do it? Do you know how they say, Go do something that we don't feel like you're working. I don't feel like I'm working at do I have moments at work be like, God, don't Yes, but I mean, I'm working for a system that feeds my soul, right? I take pleasure.

Tanya Flanagan 23:58
Really do love what you and you've always and you have been in the field of foster care. And the county we have County has about the statistic that is out there is roughly three to 3500 children in foster care every day. So we're talking about 3000 to 3500 children who do not have a home. They do not have a family, there is not an adult that is concerned. Where did they eat? Did they get a good night's sleep? Do they have too bad something as simple as toothpaste to brush their teeth? Can they wash their face? Do they have soap to take a bath? There are 3500 children in the system, just on their own, too young to even understand the world. And there are, but you're still talking about 3500 children who biologically are not who are not with their biological because their biological parents are not able to be clear

Speaker 1 24:55
too, when children end up in foster care, it's. Because we, as an agency, we've exhausted all the resources to put them somewhere else. I think we missed that sometime too, like, oh, they just go to child Haven. We don't just haul them to child Haven because it's there. No, we've depleted and exhausted any resource that we could have so they won't ever have to go to child haven if they're at child Haven. We done exhausted our resources to get in there. And what led me back to my point is so I work on the foster care recruitment and training side. I have a passion for that, but I go spend two days a week at child Haven, so I'm in it. I'm not a PO I'm not on the outside looking in. No, I'm in it. I go work with kids every day, two, not every day, twice a week. Been doing this for a long time. I would accredit Alex on my hard days. He will remind me about my passion. He'll remind me you can keep going because of your passion. I'd be tired, you know, my days are long. I'm looking in children the eyes that just my heart gets heavy, you know, playing with, talking to listening to running around behind kids that they are there from grief, for grief, loss and trauma. That's energy that I take on staff take on and we're trying to take care of some babies that it's the holiday season, and some of them may not be home before the holidays, and that's

Tanya Flanagan 26:22
really sad. It's really it's a sad space and a sad reality. And what it made me sit here and think about was we're talking about children in traumatic space. But when you have this conversation on december 27 you're talking about because a lot of times what people don't realize is the trauma that we're dealing with as adults is trauma that we never processed from childhood. So it we carry things forward, and sometimes you don't even realize what's hampering you and What's hindering you. But if you stop and you sit down, and we talked about last week, and we're not going to have the same amount of time. So I would encourage you all of the the podcaster on Spotify or any platform that you enjoy listening to podcasts on the conversation we had last week about processing and unpacking the things that hurt you and doing the work to get to the better place. Because when I think of children, because I know even personally, I've gone through spaces where, as an adult, I've had a self discovery, when I stop and pause and do the work, I realize that it may hinge a little bit on something that happened to me in my childhood where I was mistreated and I didn't process it. And I'm responding to you. Think you're responding to the moment, but you're really responding to the trauma that you've never dealt with. And when these women come into the room on december 27 for women purpose and processing, some of what will be processed will actually be trauma that may have even generated. It can bring it up when they were when they were younger, whether it's child self, teen self, young adult self. We are dealing with things that we have never unpacked. It could be marriage and you just didn't speak up for yourself when you were in that space and you dealt with whatever or on a job or whatever. There's so many spaces and so many things, where traumas is generated when we're getting into our last minute. And I want to make sure, I want to say people know where to find stuff.

Speaker 1 28:07
What's going to be great too, is when you make it to the event and you leave, if you didn't understand how to process things in your life, you're going to leave with a better understanding on how to process but I also want people to know that whatever they're feeling during this time. I want to say this right quick. It's normal. Don't try to fight it. Don't try to reject it. Embrace How you feeling and get yourself to a safe space with some safe people so you could be okay with how you feeling. You don't got to act like you don't care. You don't got to act like you're not bothered. You're going to have to act like how they season. No, it's okay. How you feeling right now? Whoever feeling some type of way, it's okay. How you feeling. You just need to surround yourself with people that's going to help you navigate through those feelings the right way.

Tanya Flanagan 28:53
Lynn, you've said it all, and I am not even going to add to it, because you said it better than I could have ever said it. Folks, thank you for tuning in to the scoop with me listening to Lynn and I have another great conversation here on 91.5k U, M, V, jazz and more. It's emotional, it's real, it's life, it's who we are. Together. We thrive. Let's build each other up. Have a good holiday season. Love on someone and thanks for tuning in keeping Hi, happy holidays. Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, Kwanza, all of it absolutely I want to thank you for tuning in to the scoop with me. Tonya 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