Growth & Grace

Announcer 0:00
This is a KU NB studios original program.

Wesley Knight 0:04
The following program is underwritten by Crawford management group and Chris glow and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and Moore the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

Music 0:18
Even better than that was the last time, baby

Leaha Crawford 0:35
we back and we back and we back and we back.

Music 0:41
Angry,

Leaha Crawford 0:44
hey, hey, hey, hey, ow, good morning. Las Vegas. You are listening to growth and grace on K, U, N, V, 91.5, jazz and more. My name is Leah Crawford. I am your host for today, and today you got me, y'all I can tell you, as you might not know or know, I am a certified public accountant, and this month has been probably I really want to share it, because I think this is a story that could benefit you or benefit someone you know, my office is located 431, South Sixth Street and downtown Las Vegas, 89101, and there was a fire in the middle of the night on April 7. And if you know about taxes, you know that's one of the busiest times for us as accountants, especially those of us that prepare taxes fire, carport is burned up. Electricity is turned off, garage is charred. Water has to be turned off because there is a leak. It is April 8, and I have no idea what to do. First Reaction early in the morning was just to see it, and all I could do was sit there in awe to understand that someone had set fire to the garage, intention, unintentionally, but that action caused a whole, a whole lot of reaction to start, just to analyze, I have a business to run, clients to serve, and still have to give the same level of service to our clients. It took us about 48 hours to get back up and running just to figure out what to do and to go virtual. That's fine. Now we had to see if our systems really worked. And I'm doing this, still coming on the radio, still doing, you know, just some of the things that I could do. Because now I have to add in dealing with insurance agents, insurance adjusters, the landlord contractors, the city of Las Vegas just to make sure that we're doing everything properly in this process, I can tell you that when Don Marquez talks about insurance, listen, because you want to ensure that your policy limits and what is covered is actually what's going on in your life. And I'll say it again. You want to review your insurance annually. You want to review your insurance annually. You want to ensure that if there are any major changes, if maybe increase or decrease, understand the coverages you have and understand for your industry what is standard. So I am a business owner. I am an accountant. I am grateful that my landlord pressed me to have renter's insurance. When I signed my lease, that was one of the requirements, and he said, Leah, get renter's insurance. I'm young business owner. I don't know. I just okay. How much is it? Can you send me an agent? He sent me an agent. I have renter's insurance, okay? And because I listen to when Don Marquez talks, I, you know, talk to my agent. You know, it wasn't every year. It was every other year, if I had an increase in employees for workers comp, if something changed in the business, or if I just wanted to understand what the policy limits are. It was a 30 minute conversation that saved me a whole bunch of headache, a whole bunch of headache. I can only say whether you are a homeowner, whether you are I mean, whatever you have insurance on. You want to know what that policy covers. I can't stress it enough, so when Don Marquez is talking, listen, listen, because I did. I have been listening to him for a very long time and just, you know, curious. Okay, well, let me just call and see you know, air James, who is also on one of. Show is my insurance agent, Eric and I talk regularly, but every once in a while it's nope, Eric, let's go back and let's look at what I have on my house. Okay, so I purchased some new furniture. Okay? I put in a new kitchen, or I added a roof to my house. If I had to replace my house, does my insurance cover that cost? And if it doesn't, how do we ensure that my insurance covers that cost? Well, Leah might cost a little more, but it'll be less of a headache if I don't have it. Listen. My name is Leah Crawford. I am the owner of Crawford management group, and you are listening to growth and grace on jazz and Moore 91.5k, U, M, V, I can tell you that when I mean and if you if you're hearing me and there's something going on, and someone might say, well, I can't afford to pay an extra 100 or $200 a month. I can tell you this. You can't afford not to. You can't afford not to because when something happens, the last thing you want to worry about is, how am I going to pay for this if you have the insurance coverages? Because what I know is, if your insurance is covered, and if it's covered and it is a legitimate loss, legitimate loss, insurance companies have no problem paying you. They have no problem paying you. I hear all the horror stories about, you know, people moving around and doing different things, because insurance is high, and it's this, find out where you fit in, how you fit in, to make it work. Again, my name is Leah Crawford. I wanted to share that with you, because this has been and I'm say it was a blessing, because what it did for me with this loss is for me to see if something happened. Could I move my operation? Were the systems that we put in place in the office transferable? Were we able to have the same impact and effect if we weren't in this office location? You know, how do we communicate with clients? How do we communicate with others? Do we have a system? Just the systems that were in place, and it also pushed me to have better systems and to find other ways to still meet the needs of our clients. As you know, what we file more extensions than what we normally do, because we weren't able to get the returns done, but we were able to still communicate and keep the business operational, even though our location was uninhabitable. Take that lesson from me, especially if you are a small business owner, find out you got a brick and mortar location. What kind of insurance do you have? Do you have business interrupts, interruption insurance? What does that mean, if for some reason, you cannot do your business for some unforeseen circumstance, are you going to be reimbursed for the money that you lost? Do you have that type of insurance? Do you have insurance on your computer, on computer equipment, so if something happens to your computer equipment, are you able to get new computer equipment so that you can continue your operation? Do you have insurance on your just the desk and stuff that are in the office? That's something totally different. And in my policy, I also had insurance on other people's property, and I was blessed because I had a garage area that was a storage area for a lot of people around me. You know, when they when they went out of business, or they moved locations, because I had the storage area, and I've been downtown for so long. Leah, can you put this in your storage area, and I'll pick it up. Some of them picked it up. Some of them didn't. And and that storage area, because I have that insurance, I'm able to at least give them something for the stuff that was lost in this fire. Again, my name is Leah Crawford. I am the owner of Crawford management group, and you are listening to growth and grace, and over the years, part of getting through this process was the personal development, because the first thing that I said to my landlord was, we're going to find a blessing in this, even though I know it's going to be challenging, we have to have a lot of hard conversations. We got to figure out how to get the electricity cut back on. We have to deal with Nevada power. We have to deal with the City of Las Vegas. We have to make sure that we're coordinating and getting the professionals there while, while they have to come to an office that is inoperable, I still have to see clients and do everything. How can we get this done so that all of us are working together, and we can find out, you know, that we can get this office reopened, and I can say that everyone that we've talked to has been cooperative more than willing and able to help calling to make appointments. We were able to move our schedules around so one of me or one of my employees could be there in order to meet people, because we had to open the door knowing that we couldn't stay there because we have no electricity and we have no water. So it's like

Leaha Crawford 9:59
you.

Leaha Crawford 10:00
You know, just, I mean, our neighbors, you know, making sure, do you need water? Do you need to use the restroom? Just let us know you can come over here. You can do that, just seeing the love pour out. And even with some of the unhoused people coming by to say, Oh, I'm sorry that that happened to you. And, you know, wow. And for them telling us what really happened that evening. So what I can tell you is, through all of this, when I talk about growth and grace, I feel like I am blessed because I have grown to the part where I don't feel like the victim in this. I feel like this was an opportunity for me to see if everything that I have been working on everything that I've been working on over the past couple of decades was actually in place and it gave me a chance to improve. All right. My name is Leah Crawford. Like I said, I'm the owner of Crawford management group, and you are listening to growth and grace. So when I preach growth, and I talk about growing pains, and I talk about the things that you might experience, and having Grace while going through it, still being kind, saying please and thank you. You know I had a fire investigator basically badgering, because the first question is always asked, Did the tenant set the fire and to know that they're looking at me, that I possibly did this, and all I could say to them was, I was home asleep. These are the phone calls that came through. These are the home unhoused people that are outside of my building I have met over the past 16 years, a number of people I am always kind. I always ask, I don't, can't control what you do out here after dark, but while I am here during the day, please respect me and my business enough for you not to be out here. And I while we were while I told that to the investigator, and we went outside. Sure enough, one of the unhoused people came up and the same thing I said, she said, and she was like, she's always been kind to us. She's never, never been because I believe everybody's situation is different. And I feel like I am blessed to live the life that I live, while there are some other things that I want to accomplish and do, but I know that what I've accomplished so far, I am grateful for the path that I have taken and the lessons that I have learned, and when I walk just saying please and thank you, because I know it's hard out here. I know that some people, you know their view of it, what I look at it as I'm either growing or winning, growing or winning, and how to how do I encourage others that are going through something right now? Because what I always know is this too will pass. This too will pass. And people talk about having stories. You hear about all these people that have overcome something you can't have a testimony if you don't have a test, if you don't have a test, and this has tested every aspect of my being, because I'm involved in a bunch of different things, and I still have to show up how I did before, even though I was going and growing through this, and I did, you know, I had to go to a conference where I was chairing a committee, and had to show up and still perform at the same level that I had planned to, and it was a lot of praying, a lot of sitting, a lot of meditation, but always saying thank You. And can I learn this lesson so I don't have to repeat this lesson again? My name is Leah Crawford. I am the owner Crawford Management Group. We are virtual now, and I am happy, proud, not proud, but happy and gracious or grateful that I had the opportunity to go through this. And some people like, do you crazy? Why would you want to go through that? I'm glad I did, because now I understand, I empathize differently when people are going through things. Another thing I want to talk to you about is tax No. Everybody say tax season is over. Well, for me, it's not. And I pray that you filed your extensions, whether you are whether you're personal, whether you had a business, small business owner, if you're new in business, I pray you filed your extensions if you didn't file your returns. But what I can say if you if you didn't, you know, there's some type of relief if it's your first time, and if you did, now it's time to get that paperwork together and just sit in it, carve out some time. You know, what's the best what have I seen as best practices? Okay, you filed the extension. If you owed you paid a little bit of the balance. Now you have to or paid the balance. You. You might not have paid the balance, but now you have to get those returns together. You want to sit back and look at what you did last year. So when you look at 2025 you know, were you employed? Do you just have a w2 you know, did you start a business? So if you started a business, do you have your documentation of the business you started, whether it is a sole proprietorship, an LLC. Did you do an S election? Did you do a corporation? You know? What did you do last year? Just take time to reflect. Did you buy a house? You know, did you have a baby? Did you get married? Did you get divorced? You know what happened in your life? Because the tax return is nothing but a summary of what happened in your life? You know, some people, I just had the same job. Everything was consistent. Same job, lived in the same place, okay? Well, what place is that? You know, are you renting an apartment, or are you buying a house and start to get your documentation together and and then really reflecting, is your life where you want it

Leaha Crawford 15:59
to

Leaha Crawford 15:59
be. And I know, you know, I'll let you pause on that is your life today, where you want it to be, you know? And some people say, Well, you know, I'm doing amazing. I'm doing well. Some people, well, no, it's not okay. So what are the things that you can do in order to get to where you want to go to, you know? Because today, you know you'll never be today years old again. But how can you start doing things differently to get to where you want to be a year from now? And I'll share a little bit more. I had planned to start another business this tax season, and for some reason it didn't work. Didn't work, and I didn't get frustrated. But I was like, God, what are you showing me? What are you showing me? Well, I guess in the plan was this fire, and if I had grown that business, I would have had more people to relocate, and maybe my systems weren't as tight as I thought they were. So it was time for me to go back and re look at that so I can get ready for the next step on where no for where I believe I want to go. And it's like, you know, I know I can have it. I know I can do it, but okay, and I did. I had to clean up a few things in our processes so that I could grow right? So I can, I ask you, are you where you want to be? Are you where you want to be, and are you willing to do the work, to do the work to get to where you want to be? You know, just having a conversation with another friend of mine, like anything, it's an inside job, you know, where do you want to be? Have you mapped out the plan? Have you mapped out the plan? And with the plan, you know, then you have to dig into, you know, do you want to grow your business? Okay, so what does it take to grow your business? What does that look like? Do you have that vision of where you see yourself? Because if you have that vision of, if you can see it, if you can see it, you can be it. And I'm a firm believer now, people say, Oh, no, that's just talking if you can see it, you can believe it. Take it from a young woman, a woman that was in the city of Philadelphia, walking back and forth to school, figuring out, this is not how I want to live. I don't want to live in a row home. I don't want to live in a row home and and I want to be able to travel. I want to see different things. You know, I had no idea what I was asking for, and but what does it take? I want to go to college. How do I get there? I want to own a business. What does that look like? And I want to say, about five years ago, I pulled out a journal from 1992 what I am doing today. I wrote out in 1992 and said, Well, that's too long for it to manifest. I just did the work and sometimes went astray. I mean listening to other people and not sitting in what I knew I wanted. But when I read that journal, it was free me having any children. I was a college student at the time, and as I'm going through I'm checking off the boxes, because what I wrote in 1992 manifested and came to play. What I can tell you is, is that when you set your intention and you start to manifest, it really happens. Whatever it is, whatever it is if you whatever you say, Whatever you tell yourself, is true. My children tease me because when they call me, they call me Miss amazing. Because when they ask me how I'm doing, I say I am amazing. And they giggle, because times I don't say it, they're like, oh well, Where is Miss? Amazing? Miss amazing. Where are you? And I'm like, Okay, I'm here. I got you. And they're like, No, Mom, by you saying that all the time, it makes us feel different, because even when we're not feeling good, we know calling you, you're going to give us a different way to look at it. You're going to give us a different way to think about it. I give you another example. My son, we were getting dressed to go somewhere, and he had to put on a pair of slacks and a shirt, and what he said was, you know, today's children don't dress like that. So he's like, Mom, I don't you know, this is not me. This is not

Leaha Crawford 19:59
you.

Leaha Crawford 20:00
This is not how I dress, and my only response to him, but that's the man you're going to become. You know, we have to go through the processes. And he just looked at me. He was like, Mom, that was a good answer. And it is being around people that push you to be the best you that you can be. Again, my name is Leah Crawford. I am the owner of Crawford management group, and you are listening to growth and Grace here on jazz and more 91.5k umv, I want to say thank you. No thank you for Ashton, for Ashton Ridley, Dr Ashton Ridley, for giving me this platform in order to talk through, you know, and to give people a chance to talk about their business. Thank you. To Wes my engineer, who, every week before I come in here, we sit down and we just chop it up for 15 minutes. He doesn't know, but that's like the best 15 minutes of my day, because we get to, I mean, and he is so brilliant, and, I mean, even though he's behind the scenes, he's so brilliant and so well versed and so many things. Because we talk about everything from hip hop to pop to rock to social economic issues. And just, he just brings a different perspective. And I love it, because it broadens my perspective as I go out here and I talk to different people, you know, I am grateful for the fact that, you know, just living here in Las Vegas, I never share that. But, you know, in the Bible, it talks about people come to the desert to heal. I can say the person that arrived here in 2004 is not the person that I am here now in 2026 and healing looks different for everybody. And I thought, you know, you read one book, you're done. No. And it had me pounded in my head, no, Leah, it's always a journey. It's a journey, and you have to find the love and the journey. You have to find the grace and the journey, and you are going to grow exponentially in this journey. And I thought, Oh, they just talking. That's not true. It was more the truest statement I heard. Because when I think about the things that I've happened, the things that I've experienced just living here as a single woman, it is wow that I'm still sitting here today and able to say thank you to all of those people that I've come across, thank you for the lesson that I've learned, because I've become a better person in doing this, you know, in going through this, and it's like every time I you know, every year, I become even better because I continue, continue to do the work. And I would encourage you do the work. Do the work, and you have to figure out what that work is. You know, it's one of those things when you're going to a job and they don't give you a job description, you know, you got to figure it out. Got to figure it out. And when you find something, you know, because I had to start with if someone says something to me and made me angry, or I felt some kind of way about what they said. I had to realize that it wasn't about them, because my mother would tell me as I was younger, and I thought she was just me and slick out her mouth. You know, it's not what they call you, it's what you answer to. But if something makes me upset, then what am I answering to? What about what they said makes me feel some kind of way. People would tell me years you know you need to be a CPA. Okay, now I'm a CPA. Now what? Now? What's the next hurdle that you need me to jump through? Well, you need it, you know at one time, you know you needed to own your own business. Okay, not been a business owner now for 19 years. Now what's the next? What's the next hurdle? And most people know, they'll say most businesses fail in the first three to five years, 19 years in 19 this month, 19 years in here in Las Vegas. No, what's the next hurdle? Give it to me so I can figure out what I need to go through and grow through in order to get it now I'm not going to lie to you and say that there are not some sleepless nights, that there are not some tears that come with going through your journey, but that is part of the process. And let me tell you, when you had a good cry, when you know you hit something, when you can feel it coming from your feet, if you can feel the energy coming from your feet and surging through your body, you're breaking through some things. You're breaking through some things. And another thing I can tell you is, don't let the if people that you've known from your past, and they see you now and they try to hold you to that person that they knew in the past, don't get angry or upset, have grace and show them who you are now, and show them who you are now. And I'm not talking about what I heard, what I read in the book. I'm talking about personal experience, about what I have been through, what I have been through because people come up, you know, they know the old person, because I cussed a lot. Still do cuss. Cussed a lot. But more importantly, I understood how to give grace, how to get. To say the same thing a different way, but not just say it. Because if I come to you with a problem, I'm also coming to you with a solution, and after they have the new conversation with the person that I am becoming, they're like, Oh, you've changed. You're right, I have, but I have done the work. Well, that is going to end our show for today. I want to say you want to make sure that you are properly, properly insured if you have tax issues, or, you know, you just want to have a conversation about the tax stuff, because we're still operational. 702-382-5737, again, 702-382-5737, you are listening to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford, you have an amazing and blessed Saturday. Peace.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai