Growth & Grace

Unknown Speaker 0:00
This is a kunv Studios original program.

Speaker 1 0:03
The following program is underwritten by Crawford management group, Harris capital Mortgage Group, Tiffany Lloyd consulting and Chris glow, and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jasmine Moore, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education even

Unknown Speaker 0:21
better than I was the last time, baby, we back,

Unknown Speaker 0:38
we back and we back and we back and we back and

Unknown Speaker 0:45
we back and we back. Hey,

Speaker 2 0:47
good morning Las Vegas. Hey, it just got cool in the valley, and I am loving it early in the morning. This is Leah Crawford. I am one of the hosts of growth and grace. I want to say, Tiffany, I miss you today. I hope you are well. I know you are taking handling some business, but today I have an amazing guest. I have been trying to get her in here. I want to say, June, July, August, September. It's October. Five months. I've been trying to get you on the calendar, to get you in here, I want to introduce y'all to miss. Nicole Williams, good morning, Nicole,

Speaker 3 1:25
good morning, and we are right on time. Thank you for having me. Leah, you

Speaker 2 1:29
know I, you know, because I wanted to get in, I wanted you to come in, and I want you to come back to promote your events, so that you know we can, I mean, we can help you out in any way. First of all, Nicole, who are you? Please introduce yourself to our listeners. Well, I

Speaker 3 1:42
am Nicole Williams. I am not born and raised in Las Vegas, but I am a local. I've been here since 92 I currently run a nonprofit social influence Foundation, and the founder of House of Vegas pride, which is the urban Pride festival here in Las Vegas. And my festival and my my nonprofit, we help the LGBTQ community find resources and uplift their voices and disparity and advocacy work. We are the place to come when it comes to the to the LGBTQ and resources,

Speaker 2 2:14
I love it. So why did you start? Well, when did you start the business? When did you

Speaker 3 2:19
start it? You know, it was one of those things, like, I tripped over something, and it just happened. You know, that's how it happened.

Unknown Speaker 2:25
Sometimes it did,

Speaker 3 2:26
it did my former partner. We did a party during Pride weekend in 2018 and it turned into a three day, five event festival. We ended up getting a proclamation from Mayor Goodman for creating a diverse and creative event and a block party turned into an urban pride, and just been working in that community since, because resources and the need for it here in Las Vegas naturally made it grow for for something that was missing here in Las Vegas, and it's Just been growing and developing off a community like

Speaker 2 3:02
so when you have the festival, do you take the feedback? So you know what you need to add Nick for the following year? Oh,

Speaker 3 3:09
yes, yeah. We've we've been doing this for seven years and been fine tuning it. Some things that have stayed are the work on HIV and syphilis testing, especially for black women. Right now, there is a whole epidemic going on, and we're the fourth, number four, highest contraction within our race for not just lesbians, but black women. So that's been a pillar with our community. Finding jobs and resources, connecting with corporations has stayed. Events wise, we been fine tuning to what you know, what people are wanting to come and have some fun here in Las Vegas, creating a travel and tourism community, as well as servicing the locals. So it's forever changing. I

Unknown Speaker 3:52
love it. And what is the contact number for the foundation? 702-536-6826,

Unknown Speaker 4:01
and at 702-536-6826,

Speaker 2 4:09
why? I mean, you started to go wide, but I know it's deeper than that. So when you started this, I know the why could have changed. How has it evolved since you started this, until now, it's

Speaker 3 4:18
evolved on what the need is of community. So with, mainly with with employment, financial stability, families not being seen or heard, or feeling maybe not confident to go to a job fair inside of a big mega casino, and going as you are and feeling comfortable that you're not going to be judged or discriminated against. So when we host our house of love resource fair, we're bringing those large corporations and organizations in our comfortability for our community, so people can come as they are, whether they're transitioning as transgender, whether you know more male presenting lesbian, female. Or feminine presenting male, you know, so you're not having to worry about what you look like. You're in the middle of a name change, you can have those conversations with with finding a job and be comfortable. And

Unknown Speaker 5:10
be comfortable, yes, creating a safe space, creating

Speaker 3 5:12
safe spaces, whether it's finding a job or just socializing, because I guess

Speaker 2 5:17
you never really think about it in different communities. Everyone's a person, correct? They're people, yes. And by being people, you know, they have to work, they have homes, they have families. And, you know, everybody wants to be loved,

Speaker 3 5:33
right? Absolutely, and, and, and sometimes going through so much trauma and younger years, or, you know, whatever somebody's story is, you know, you can come to house of Vegas pride or social influence and foundation, and you are welcomed with open arms. I'm a southern girl, okay? So, you know, my home is your home has always been, you know, that's where the house came from, you know. So my home is your home, and we don't discriminate or look at anybody any different. Come, come to us. Have fun, you know, feel comfortable. Meet new friends, you know, and take those friendships out of you know where we're at, and continue that, and continue

Speaker 2 6:06
that. No, I appreciate that. Well, you're listening to growth and grace, and I am. Leah Crawford, Tiffany Lloyd is not here with me. And today we have the fabulous Nicole Williams here just sharing her a little bit about her story. We're gonna dig deeper though to find out who is Nicole. So, who is Nicole? Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?

Speaker 3 6:27
Nobody ever really asked me that. So, like, it's so crazy. I'm a person that cares, you know, I'm a person that cares. When I see a problem, I like to find a solution. I'm kind of really, you know, OCD about that. Like, if you come to me and you need help, or you need something, I'm I'm going to figure it out whether you're in our community or not. I love to bridge the gap to for people to come together, to stop the arguing, or you're doing this event over here and this, like, I like to build bridge gaps and build community and see people succeed. It melts my heart to see people having a good time at a party. It melts my heart to see that person get the job and now they're happy and, you know, they're able to live, you know, a regular life and pay their bills, you know,

Speaker 2 7:14
pay their pay their bills, right? Just pay just, just simple. I just need to work so I can pay me bills just to start. Okay,

Speaker 3 7:21
I'm a friend, I'm an ex UNLV cheerleader. We actually homecoming game next weekend. I'll be cherry, you know, in that game. And I'm a friend, I'm a daughter, you know, I'm a daddy's girl, you know. I'm a sister. You know, I'm you know, I'm a human.

Speaker 2 7:40
You are human. I'm human. You are human. Yes, and thank you. So when you so when you started this, and it sounds like you have a real passion for it, and you're compassionate about the people that you work with, have you found, were there any challenges? Because having a nonprofit can be challenging, very okay. You want to talk about something, just what you're comfortable with? Yeah,

Speaker 3 7:59
no, I'm comfortable. Well, I would like to say like that, I didn't come out until 2019 I started festival in 2018 and I didn't realize I was a part of community until being exposed myself to community. You know, I've never had a judgment bone in my body. Never realized if somebody was gay or straight. Of my friends, you know, they were just my friends. But then I realized, you know, I did have a lot of friends that were part of community, but that was never the context of our friendship, you know, of your sexuality preference and things. So I found myself now,

Unknown Speaker 8:31
what was that journey like? Oh,

Speaker 3 8:33
it was, it was a quick one. I didn't wait to come out too late, you know, I just decided that I wanted to be with somebody that loved me and I loved them back, you know, just another human it's been, you know, my relationships and stuff, just wanted to open myself up to what love could look like. But from there, it just I realized that all there was so many roadblocks with me just trying to produce the event as an ally, that I was getting roadblocks. Oh, well, I don't want to do this. And Nicole, I don't think that'll be good for my image. You know, when I'm talking to my friends and stuff and I'm like, this is a problem. Why is everything such a hard push? Because somebody's gay, you know? So it did become a passion, and it and I began to see all these little holes that were here. So began to bring programming to tackle those holes, so that, because I knew there was a need, because people were coming to me for things, right, and you just filled the gap, filled the gap. So the challenge with that when something is not, you know, flowing with, you know, a need, or different resources, or different organizations that focus on black and Latinx LGBT community. That means that there's no programming, there's no funding, there's no there's there's nobody. And I need these things, these things. So the challenge for me is I'm creating these programs and pitching to these organizations that have the funding for it, but then waiting to see, you know, if they feel like there's a need. Because I'm like, one of the only. Ones in the city that caters directly to this community.

Speaker 2 10:03
Okay, so have you thought about partnering with other community, I mean other centers here that actually focus on that, because we don't know early, early in my career, I worked in HIV, yeah, and I worked for a nonprofit here locally, that test that tested minorities and that was my passion, because someone early in my career, someone passed away from HIV, and I was able to get a salon, a hair salon, and bittersweet, but this person was very community oriented, just did a lot of different things, and we wanted to keep this along going. So I am very passionate, and I am an ally to the LGBTQ A community. No,

Speaker 3 10:50
you much. You very much. So are I've known you for years and seen the work you do. And thank you. You know when we met, I was an ally. So can I say who my partner is? Okay? So I'm slowly building partnerships that you know are meaningful, and one of them is you equals you love live where they focus on HIV testing and other resources outside of that medical to service the community, and they have been a huge help to provide opportunities for me to present my message, bring testing to my club events that you know, that were tapping into the community on a grassroot level.

Speaker 2 11:30
So let me ask you this, how important is it just because I know the HIV thing, it was huge in the 90s, early 2000s How important is it still to get tested? And how often should you get tested?

Speaker 3 11:44
It's you should get tested if you're sexually active period, you know, there, I know there's some different researches and things that are going on right now, but if you're sexually active, or if you're not, you should get tested. I say every, like three months. You should get tested every 90 days, you know. And there's all these free centers around the city that you can get tested for, and not just for HIV, but for hepatitis, herpes, syphilis, because you never know if something might develop later. So it's always good to do like that good health check, you know, it's super important right now, because our world, you know, is very active, you know, and very kind of, like, jaded to, you know, it can't happen to me, you know, type of mindset I feel like, you know, and it's very important that we get back to loving ourselves and being aware and being aware for our partners, you know, caring about the next person, Like, you know, and being tested so that if you are you you're not passing something over. There are prep pills in which, you know, to help, which Love Live focuses on, to keep the levels of HIV and HIV down so you can be sexually active. It is not a death sentence anymore. That's not a death sentence, and that's what we work to educate people that you can live with HIV and have a partner and them not worry about contracting. But for women, there's no FDA approved pill yet for like prep, that's you know, that's working. So

Speaker 2 13:18
let me ask you this, is that conversation still taboo in certain communities. The HIV conversation very

Speaker 3 13:24
much taboo in the black community, and that's my passion. And as much as a lot of times where, you know, let's talk about it. Talk about everybody looks at Nicole Williams as the party girl. Everybody looks at Nicole Williams as a turn up. No, I am not. I. But you do have the party. I do have the party. I am an event planner. I am a producer of festivals and events. That is where you can get to the people in certain communities that are out, that are that are active. They party because they party. So I bring the resources within that. There is a there is a there is a method to my madness. Okay, and it's very important that people get tested and making it easy for people to access. Nobody's going to sometimes want to get up and go to an HIV

Unknown Speaker 14:09
clinic,

Speaker 3 14:10
you know. So what we do as social influence foundation is we bring the clinic to you. That's really what we're doing with our events, you know. But a lot of times, the taboo for me is that people just see the party. But no, I have my volunteers, and they're asking people if they want to go get tested in the in the private room where nobody knows. And it's very, very secret and very safe that you're talking to probably one of my volunteers, and then they're taking you back to the room to get tested and ask them a few questions. Takes 10 minutes get poked, you know, and then you can go back to what you were doing, so nobody knows. The funny

Speaker 2 14:44
thing is that I remember early on, I would get tested every six months, and just because I was like, Well, let me just see. And then I was like, Well, I'm not that sexually active, so why am I? But like you said, didn't know how long the virus could live dormant. I wasn't sure research, you know, even though there's a lot of research about HIV now, but it, I mean, it was, it was crazy for a minute, yeah, yeah. And

Speaker 3 15:09
now it's just like, I just feel like health issues period these days, like we're not talking about it, we're talking about celebrities and what they're doing, you know. But you know, even suicide awareness is another big one for us. I have a award ceremony where I honor people in community, so uplifting those voices of people in in the arts and entertainment, that field at my Festival, where people get to vote globally for, you know, on a level, on who receives an LGBTQ community honors award. And I have a Legacy Award that is Whitney Moreland, stud, famous, who was very known, born and raised rapper here in Las Vegas, lesbian, and she decided to take her life last year in January. And I'm in I work with her family, and we bring awareness to people feeling lonely and not feeling like somebody's there. And we celebrate her name, and we keep it we keep it going by honoring somebody that's living in their purpose. That is what the Whitney Morland said, famous award. It's about because she did, you know, she's passionate about music and entertainment, until you know, she decided that, you know, she didn't want to be here anymore. But we celebrate people that that are living in their purpose.

Speaker 2 16:24
I love it. Got it? No, I get it. No. Okay, you're listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford. We have Nicole Williams on the show, and we are just talking about her nonprofit, her passion for the LGBTQ community, especially the black lesbian community, um, suicide, because suicide is on the radar, not only for, I guess, adults, but children too, yes. And Do you do any work with children that identify

Speaker 3 16:57
I am working to get to that point. But going back to resources and finding and building my foundation to where it's running itself, I don't like to do things, you know, halfway. So until I can get the stability going with what I'm working with with my programs, I will work with children. My resource fairs, though, are open for all ages. So we, with the City of Las Vegas and the Clark County Government Center, those teen jobs that they have available for summer and camps and things of that nature. They do offer those type of resources for them there. So my resource there is all ages, okay,

Speaker 2 17:34
is all is all ages for jobs too, for jobs too. Because when you talk about, I don't just the thought process for someone to even consider suicide. There's a lot going on that's a lot to unpack, and we're not we're not doctors, we're not therapists. But there's a lot to unpack when you have you worked with someone and basically stopped them from, yes, don't get involved. I'm emotional. I mean, yeah, and I know it's emotional, yeah, it's

Speaker 3 18:06
a common conversation in certain instances, you know. And for lack of situations to where might not be so detrimental that people feel like, well, if i This doesn't happen, I just don't want to be here anymore, you know. I mean, some of the things I've been through, I've had thoughts, so I'm just like, it's the stress and stuff, and it's just like, What am I doing? You know, the scammers and stuff. There's been some situations that I've had, by the grace of God, pride, happened, okay? You know, working with bad people that take advantage, you know, like, I really want to write a book and talk about some things. You know, I was scammed by a pastor that wanted to said they wanted to help me, and ended up actually taking majority of the money, of the back end money for my festival one year. And it was like a week two weeks before. And I'll just say that I did not want to live. I did not I didn't know how it was going to happen. I didn't know how. But this is a pastor, okay, that was supposed to be helping me get funding. And community showed up. And, you know, it, you know, provided, yeah, it does. God was, God was always there, even, you know, in the face of, you know, people imposterizing And whatever the word is. But you know, there's been situations, we call them showers. You should never know what's going on. I do work with a professional that's on a federal level. Her name is Bianca di McCall. She lives here. She has a nonprofit call region now and a show where it focuses on suicide awareness, and she's actually on the board for them, and she writes programs and speaks, and she's from community too to help talk about that and bring the awareness, because it was just suicide awareness month in September. Okay, so she did a lot of work in that, and she works with me, with my nonprofit as well.

Speaker 2 19:50
I knew there was a month, I wasn't sure what month, and I didn't research it beforehand, so I didn't want to say, but it is September. Yes, suicide awareness month. So you just, I guess, give tips for. Because just knowing people, when somebody is going through something, because a lot of times we're in silos, yeah, and we don't talk about the hard stuff. You know, no one people, a lot of people don't have friends to have the hard conversations with that can uplift them and work on their well being. So let me ask you this, Nicole, how do you take care of you?

Speaker 3 20:22
Well, I play softball. Do you? Yes, okay, I win the gay and lesbian League, and I've been playing for two years now. I won the team no mamas. Oh, I play every Sunday. So where do you play? We play at dock Romero park or at Sunset Park on Sundays. It's a whole league. It's really fun.

Speaker 2 20:42
Okay, so you, so you Okay, softball. So do you practice? So get out there. Just get

Speaker 3 20:46
out there. Drink a little bit, hit the ball. But we're actually really good. It's a nice download, you know, just, you know, people, women that like to play. I'm on a women's team, but it's open to everybody. I like spending time with my family. I like being in solitude. I am a Virgo, and I am really big into meditation. So I have friends and that, you know, will meditate, you know, sit in silence and just be with myself. You know,

Speaker 2 21:16
I need to let you know, because Tiffany, I wish Tiffany was here, because you would eat Tiffany. Tiffany is going to do a meditation on air. Ooh. Just want to do a meditation on air. And she well, Wes, and I think, and I want you want to know what quick pause in this I want to tell you guys I have the best engineer, Wesley Knight, has been with us, has been with me now for about two years. And when I tell you, when we come in the studio, Wes, has everything that I need in order to help make this show a success. And if I haven't said it before, I want to say it now. Wes, I love you, I appreciate you, and I look forward to every week coming in here and working with you. Now back to our regular program, Tiffany, and I wish tiff was I wish tiff was here so that tiff could talk to you, because I'm sure she would dig in from another perspective, and talking about your well being, talking about meditation, the importance of meditation and taking care of you. I love the softball thing. I love the meditation. Do you do it in the morning? Are you? Do you stop and do you do deep breathing with the meditation? Do you do any yoga Pilates?

Speaker 3 22:26
Okay, yeah. So I am not the yoga Pilates Ben dog, whatever position I am, a downward dog. She did not

Speaker 2 22:33
say the bend dog. She said the bend dog. Well, you wanna know what? That's one of my that's that. That's one of my Achilles heel. I've been working on downward dog for years.

Speaker 3 22:39
Yeah, right. No, I don't like working out, so I rather like

Speaker 2 22:45
and she looks good. Y'all, y'all have to see her because she got to be a size two,

Speaker 3 22:49
yeah, 424, but six, seven, okay, but I did a fitness boot camp. I used to be 200 pounds, and I took ownership to it. I took ownership. I was 200 pounds, 16 at Raw fitness, yes, yes. And let me tell you, medicine and stuff. It was birth control and I took and it just blew me up. And yeah, and I went to raw fitness, quick story, six weeks training, and didn't really lose inches. I mean, no weight, but I went from a 16 to a 1012, and now I'm a 125 their food program and the and the workout, four days a week, six in the morning, I did like like no other, and hated every moment of it. Hated it. But I vowed to myself, this is in 2017 that I would never allow myself to get that big again. And I and here I am. So, you know, this is more so of self commitment to myself, taking care of myself, watching what I eat, you know, and my body. Because I was 200 pounds and I'm five three, so I was a real worldly poli Okay, got it, but I was cute. I said I was still cute, thick, but like, I just I couldn't wear heels more than 20 minutes. So y'all know I was in pain, you know. So, because

Speaker 2 24:03
that's unhealthy, it was unhealthy. That's unhealthy more than anything. Now, let me ask you this, when you lost the weight, did you have flabbiness with losing the weight, or did it? Did you lose it gradually? No,

Speaker 3 24:12
I didn't have flabbiness. I mean, I'm five. Oh, I'm five two. So I've naturally, I've athlete, cheerleading, softball my whole life. So my body snapped back into my muscular build that I've been my I'm like, I'm literally the size I've been my whole life. Got it, you know? So for five years, I had a little spell, yeah,

Speaker 2 24:30
you do have a book, because that's even huge. People that that are struggling with, um, with weight loss, yeah, because I, that's one of my that's what I'm working on.

Speaker 3 24:38
I tried, I was trying to do everything. And back in the day, you know, it was a little expensive, you know, now it's like not so much, but I did. I went and did the my best friend Barbara, she went to raw fitness and swore by it. And so I did it, and I said, You know what, I'm not gonna cheat, I'm not gonna drink. I did everything they said to do. And it worked, right? Because someone

Speaker 2 24:57
told me, a very good friend of mine, he always. Tells me. He's like, You know what? You know you can't outwork out a bad diet. It's the food. He said, It's the food, absolutely, he said, It's the food, it's the food. And I was like, Huh? He was like, Leah, you can't work. You can't outwork a bad diet. You have to watch what. You

Speaker 3 25:15
have to watch in your portions and fight or learn your body, hmm. So that, like they were trying to tell me, I need to take in six small meals a day, I realized I can only do four. And I listened to my body. I didn't overeat because they said something. So you have to learn your body too as well, what it's going to respond to for that weight loss as well.

Speaker 2 25:34
Got it well being Yes, because in well, your body grace, you've got growth and grace, growth and grace. There we go. There we go. All right, so you are listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford, we are or no, we have the map. The Fabulous Nicole Williams here with us. We've covered a lot of topics, talking about her program, talking about the event and House of Vegas pride. Now, House of Vegas pride. We missed it this year because it was in August, correct? We want to bring you back on so that we can gear up and just get some people, you know, just exposed to what it's like.

Speaker 3 26:09
Absolutely, I, you know, House of Vegas pride, some of the programs that we've we've expanded on is music. Okay? So I have hovp global music. I have a record label now. I just announced it. We have a nominated for Grammy consideration in the studio. Yes, yes, a composition song that we did called uh, super twerk, composed by Charlie Mac, who is an ally and on my board, Charlie Mac out of Philadelphia. No, no. Not that Charlie say, I

Speaker 2 26:38
know Charlie Mac, but he's out of Philadelphia. No, no, not that one. Charlie Mac, okay, but we

Speaker 3 26:42
have expanded the music and arts side of entertainment with our festival. So we have some some amazing things coming up with that, creating change. We are getting ready to partner with them. It's a world renowned conference that's going to be here in Las Vegas in January 2025, community, and I'll make sure I get you information about

Speaker 2 27:04
that. Oh, you want to something even better, I would like for you to come on right before so that we can talk about it, because I'm sure you'll have a lot of juicy details about what's going on. Yeah, and we can lay it out for our listeners, so if they want to participate, they're able to participate, and just get the word out.

Unknown Speaker 27:18
Absolutely,

Speaker 2 27:19
we're on transistor. We're on Apple. Anything you can get your podcast. So absolutely can pass it around. You know, look here. Listen to this. This is where we want to be. Listen to this. This is where we want to be. So I love it. I

Speaker 3 27:32
would love that. We have so many programs and things going on. We have a we're getting ready to work with sex trafficking event, and next year 2025 we're planning with one, a new partner that's coming on board. You know, we do programming with the center, okay, you know. So we do work with everybody in town, you know, on different levels. We don't have our own building yet, not speaking into it, but we will have our resource center and somewhere for the things that, you know I envision on the needs and for our community so that is ongoing. You know, for what I see, and I think a lot of people just need a place, need assistance and help, especially with finding jobs, is a really big one. You know that financial stability is huge. Financial

Speaker 2 28:19
Stability is everything. Financial Stability is everything. Well, first of all, I want to thank you. Thank you for accepting the invitation. Thank you for allowing me to reconnect, and I am looking forward to participating in some of your conferences. I'm sure tiff will too when she comes back. And congratulations, because I see a long life with what you're doing and as you expand and grow. And I'm glad that we had a chance to talk to you. Well, guys, that is the end of our show. You've been listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford, the amazing Tiffany Lloyd is not in the studio with me, but she will be back next week, until next time. Peace and blessings, bye, bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai