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Special guest Joe Dalia and Lester Lumbad, This week on Winning with Winans! · Winning With Winans!

• Speaker 2: Well, I guess it's another time for an episode of Winning with Winans. Let's go! And welcome to Winning with Winans Las Vegas, newest and coolest financial show. I'm your host Ken Winans. And for those of who don't know me yet, I have been a nationwide financial commentator for Radio and Forbes Magazine for the last 25 years. Yes, I'm an old guy. I got a cowboy hat, but I got a lot of gray. Founded, and listen, I founded a top ranked investment management firm in 1992. Today, Winans Investments is the only Morningstar top ranked investment manager based in Las Vegas. And by the way, I looked at the year and results. not to make fun of our friends up north in Reno, but we are number one on the list as far as Nevada is concerned. So listen, for the next hour, we're going to be covering a wider range of important topics. We have two real exciting guests that we're, and you know, part of what we do in the show is we're trying to connect the dots. As many of you know, I'm a news junkie. I read a lot of different publications. There's a lot of good and bad information out there, but I believe that podcasts like Winning with Winans is here to give you the straight scoop of what's really going on. So let's go ahead and jump right into guest number one. Folks, I gotta tell you, he's one of my favorite people. We always laugh. I wanna introduce you to, if you don't know him by now, you're gonna get to know him real well, assembly person Joe Dalia. Joe, how are you today, my friend? You are. Thank you, Well, you and I always laugh, buddy. You we always do. It's it's always fun to get together. So listen. Speaker 1: even better now that I'm here with you. Speaker 2: You know, we always joke about this, but I'm a Republican, you're a Democrat, according to our parties, we should be dueling and fighting and hating each other, and you and I are buddies. Speaker 1: proud of us. Yeah, I am too. Look at us beating the odds. Speaker 2: Well, like marriage? No, I'm just kidding. Bad joke, bad joke. But it is Vegas. mean, come on. But you know what? I think it's so important. And we're going to talk about you in a bit here, but how we met. So you and I first met at the DC Fly-In last year with our friends. I remember we were at that beautiful hotel down the street from the White House. And you know, one thing I'm very proud of is that people in Nevada connect politically. I mean, we have everybody from all walks of life, everybody coming together. and then when we got back there you and i've decided lunch together one day and and we did we just started talking about stuff and i looked at you and you looked at me where lunch i think some mexican food of a rumor right and remember i said i said joe i i'm how are we different Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah. Right at that point of intersection, right at the heart of the Venn diagram. Speaker 2: Yeah, mean, literally, finance is bipartisan or purple or whatever you want to call it. mean, I mean, you have money, it's economic supply and demand. You you have to, know, your citizens need to have a good way of life. You want to represent everybody, which you're big about family. But let's talk about now, because I find it interesting. You're from the East Coast originally. Okay. You went to school. Talk about where you went to school and your background a little bit. Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah, so I went to Boston University. My family was originally from Brighton and you know, I lived there just long enough to get nostalgic about the snow and all the things about Boston sports. And so when you're 18 years old and you have to start shoveling cars out of snow, very different experience than when you're building a snowman. Speaker 2: ⁓ yeah, I've been there too, Paul. Speaker 1: So that drove me back and I really wanted to study economics and Boston University did one of the top programs in the country. So that really drew me back to it, but had a great experience there. And then I ended up, apparently that wasn't cold enough. ⁓ So for law school was the university of Michigan law school. And I was there for the first recorded cold day. And I believe a hundred years where they said there's no snow on the ground. There's no precipitation, but it is simply too cold for human beings to walk to campus today. So they sent us an email. It was a little passive aggressive. It was like, some of you chumps had your parents email us about how cold it is outside. What's a few lost fingers, but fine, classes cancel. So. Speaker 2: So now you joke when people dish on Vegas about our weather, about the heat, and you say, you know what, excuse me, our winters, our springs, our falls, I don't see any snowflakes. Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I'll take that deal. You can hide inside with the air conditioning. It's fine. Speaker 2: Well, we're going to talk a bit about how we get disrespected in Nevada and in Vegas because I know that ticks you off too. does. Some of these crazy articles are coming out. All right, so interesting. So you started a career in law. worked for some big guns in Silicon Valley. That's right. Now, did you actually live in California and work in California? Speaker 1: I did. So I took an interest in venture capital law and entrepreneurship during law school. I was the chief financial officer of a company going into law school. And so that kind of stoked my interest. Also being an econ guy before that, I went in knowing that I wanted to be in the entrepreneurship space and you know, kind of the key to everything is the investment side, right? Cause that's what makes, that's the engine that drives innovation. And so I knew there was a guy named Craig Douchy who literally wrote the book on venture capital law. And he worked at a firm, ⁓ Cooley LLP in Palo Alto. And so I was going through the interview process. kind of narrowed down, like these are the firms that work with startups and venture capital firms and Cooley Craig Douchy was still working there when I was, when I was looking at what firm to go to. And it came down to them and Wilson Sincini kind of the other legendary venture capital and startup firm. And that was like one of the toughest decisions I've had to make in my life. I imagined it was the nerdy version. of some of these athletes that have to decide like, ⁓ am I going to go to Michigan or Ohio state? For me, it was, do I go to this nerdy law firm or this nerdy law firm where I'm going to do a bunch of transactional law? And, I ended up picking Cooley because I had the opportunity to work under Craig Douchy. And so I joined not just the firm, but his group, the venture capital group, which was the top in the country at the time. And, ⁓ got some really great experience in Palo Alto for a couple of years there. ⁓ My wife was working right down the street of Covington while I was a coolie. And then I ended up joining her a couple of years later at Covington. for a brief period of time, we were working together, ⁓ still working in the venture capital in technology space. ⁓ by that point, my practice had evolved to also include some intellectual property work. ⁓ and then we had our first daughter and that kind of, that kind of took us in the direction of like, where, where do we want to be long-term? And that's how we ended up going from California back home is because we realized. The Palo Alto lifestyle was not right for kids. I mean, just seeing kind of the, there were some great educational offerings, but you had kids who were having like nervous breakdowns at Palo Alto high because they don't get into Stanford. Stanford's like a hundred feet away. So they had to live in the shadow of this, this school. And, and we just, realized we wanted to be part of our kids' lives. We wanted to really build a community for them and out here, back home was the right place for that. Speaker 2: It's funny because we were in the Bay Area at the same time. It's funny because I get asked all the time about living in the Bay Area. It's changed since COVID. That was one reason I moved out of California. A lot of the things I used to love about it changed. But what you just said was it is a skewed reality, whether it's money, prestige. You're right. If you don't go to certain schools, they just... And I've always said this about Nevada that I love. They don't ask, where'd you go to school? They ask, did you go to school? Yeah, you know, it's not even, it's blue and white collar, a lot of military. Yeah, mean, imagine asking that in California. They'd go, what are you talking about? All right, so now you're out here. Yes. Okay, now you, at some point decided, okay, I'm gonna get into politics. Right. So what made that happen? Speaker 1: Yeah. So I mean, it was kind of part and parcel of the same decision, right? Like we moved back here because we wanted to build something for our kids. And I got back here and it was like a time capsule. Like I was back in my childhood district and I had three kids at this point. We had two COVID babies, twins, Sloan and Audrey. Um, and I kind of took a look around and I was like, well, the issues that existed in 2009 when I graduated high school, they're all still here. We have an economically diversified education is underfunded. there are all these problems in the community that we just haven't solved. And we haven't really taken the effort to make a meaningful impact on solving them either. And so that was frustrating for me. And I just saw, I saw an opportunity in the assembly to actively build a better future for these kids, right? And because I think I got to a point of a loss of confidence where I was like, I can't stand by and just hope it all turns out well. I want to be, I have the skillset. I have the knowledge to make a difference in this community. And if I get elected to this district, I can make big things happen and we ended up doing that. Speaker 2: Well, and just, mean, you and I agreed we're going to give the listeners a civics lesson about Nevada politics. You didn't exactly do this for the pay either, pal. I mean, this is a part-time job. This is not full-time. legislature, we're more like Texas in that. We're not. We're California's a full-time assembly, Senate, massive bureaucracy. We're the opposite of that, correct? Speaker 1: Correct. And I think the recorded salaries, this is all public record. This is all on our contribution and expense reports or actually I think it's our financial disclosures. ⁓ you can see exactly how little we make. It's, about $12,000 if memory serves every other year. So, every other year. ⁓ yeah, but they distribute it all during, during the legislative session. Speaker 2: 12,000 every other year. You're making 6,000 a year. Speaker 1: Uh, it's a pretty tough, know, you, you, you really got to do it because you care about the community. Right. Um, and that's, that's kind of, knew the sacrifice, right. Uh, both times I actually two of the last three cycles, I have left a very high paying private sector job to run for office. Uh, the first summer in 2022, I quit my law firm job to, to run for state assembly. And this cycle, I quit, uh, I was in house counsel at Metta and their privacy division. I realized that was going to be incompatible with a statewide run for office. And I made the decision that this was important enough to make that career leap. so you have to do it because you care and you have to do it for the right reasons. Speaker 2: You know, we often hear as veterans say, people say, thank you for your service. I would dare say I'd apply it this way to you. Thank you for your service. Hey, Joe, we have to take a quick break. We're gonna be, hey, we'll be right back with Winning with Winans. Once you're from our sponsors and we'll be back with assembly person, Joe Dalia. Hi, this is Ken Winans, host of Winning with Winans. And before I started the Morningstar top ranked and money management firm, Winans Investments, I worked on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange with commodity traders. And yes, I actually know what those crazy hand signs mean that you see on television. I am sure you've heard all about the eye-popping advances in gold and oil prices. But did you know that physical commodities like cattle, soybeans, and copper have had powerful rallies far outpacing the stock market so far in the last 12 months? If this is news to you, you are not alone. Sadly, most wealth managers are employees of large financial institutions and are limited on the investment choices they can offer their clients, including commodities. Wyden's Commodities is one of the only registered commodity trading advisors based in Southern Nevada, founded in 2021, 100 % independent and veteran owned. While commodities trading is not for everyone, it is a time-tested way to enhance your returns during uncertain times. Call us to find out more about how commodities can fit into your current portfolio. Give Wyndon's a try, you will not regret it. Win with Wyndon's Commodities. And welcome back to Winning with Wyndon's Las Vegas News and Coolest Financial Show. Yes, I'm the finance guy with the cowboy hat, and yes, I ride, I shoot, I hunt, I do all that stuff. As my guests can tell you, Assemblyperson Joe Dalia, Joe, I'm just so excited to have you on the show, buddy. But hey, you and I were both at Legislative Session last year. And for those of in the audience of mine that know this, it's every other year. It's what makes us different than Arizona or California or I think even Utah. We're part time, right? I mean, we basically let people be people and move on and do your own thing. But at the session, okay, what were you the proudest of last year? What did you, like things you really wanted to get done last year? Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I, so I went in with this mindset. I wanted to kind of solve some problems that other people weren't going to solve. And I had some unique background. Like there weren't a lot of, uh, you know, former corporate attorneys that were in the estate assembly. Right. So I had this experience knowing that Delaware had this chokehold on a revenue source for business filings. Right. And this is as blue of a status it can get. And they had $4 billion, about $4 billion in revenue tied to companies just by default filing their paperwork there, right? Like you Google, where should I start my business? Right? And as a few years ago, the internet would have told you, you got to file in Delaware LLC or C corp. And the reason for that is because they're Delaware court of chance for you. got the best business court in the nation. And, know, because of that, you had everybody just automatically forming their companies in Delaware, right? And you had venture capital firms saying that like, as an expectation for your company to be investable. We need to know you're sophisticated enough to know that you need to be in Delaware. And, you know, thankfully a few years back, kind of the legal wind started to shift. ⁓ and so those of us that were in the nerdy know, we're aware of this. And I went in and on the campaign trail, I kept talking about these things we needed to do in government, right? We needed to fix that. Our education was underfunded. Healthcare is underfunded. Infrastructure is underfunded. Public safety is underfunded. Right. And there's just not a lot of money to go around and we can't just always reflexively raise taxes. It's especially a state that is proud of its low tax environment. Speaker 2: Which, real quick on the taxes, people need to know this because I learned something from you. It's in our Constitution, right? Yes. We cannot have an income tax. Speaker 1: Correct, correct. The voters would have to have a big say in changing that. So people would have to raise their own taxes. I'm going to go out on a limb and say they're probably not going to do that. Speaker 2: No, really? Altruism's not going to play. Speaker 1: think that'd be a big ask right now. think especially given the current landscape, people might be a hard no on that. But so we needed to find a way to fund government, right? And no one wants to fund government. It's the most boring thing to do. So I had this background knowledge. I had this goal that no one else was going to pursue. And I just went after it with Assembly Joint Resolution 8 to establish a statewide business court with appointed judges who have background in business law. Because that's the big thing with these cases is when it's a billion dollar company fighting another billion dollar company, they want to make sure that the referee knows the law. They don't want to be teaching the judge the law on the fly as litigation's playing out. Like, these are the proxy rules. ⁓ this is how we deal with these advanced corporate law actions. It's a lot easier if you're in front of somebody who knows the drill, has done it for years, and has been both a practitioner and a judge, hopefully. this piece of legislation was designed to do that and the results were immediate. We got to see, ⁓ Andreessen Horowitz announced, I think this never happens, but like a month, month and a half right after session, they put out a press release that they're moving to Nevada and they pointed to my two bills as the reason why they were doing it. Speaker 2: And these are major players from the Bay Area in the Ventura-Kapa community and they're huge. Speaker 1: in the country. Yeah, and we brought them here at no cost to the taxpayer. And that has been part of a movement to bring so far, I mean, we'd have to check the numbers at the Secretary of State's office, but we're talking about millions so far in net new revenue to fund these government services. We are underfunded across the board, having that money available, especially given the uncertain economic times, we don't know what kind of session we're bracing for in 2027. Every now and again, you go in, and everyone's got high hopes about, we're gonna fund this program, we're gonna have this new thing roll out. And then you get in front of the budget and you say, ⁓ it looks like we're in a ramen noodles situation, looks like we're gonna have a cut session. And if we have to cut things, having revenue-based legislation that's viable, right, that's outside the box, that doesn't just rely on, we'll raise these three taxes again that we always go back to. Speaker 2: Small thinking. I'm sorry, Joe, I didn't jump in here. And I was shocked when I went there as a non-paid lobbyist and hearing this breakout in the pie about how the budget is. they had, and I'm really kind of surprised to see, 0.8 % spent on economic development. I asked the person, I said, are you off, is your decimal point off on that? It's not 8%, it's 0.8? They go, yeah. I said, How do you bring in new business? How do you promote the Nevada Vegas story? And I want to say this very quick to the audience. know, one thing that I think is bipartisan, I mean, it's anybody you talk to, Democrat, Republican, Independent, we all know the economy needs to not only grow, but diversify. Because I am tired of every article coming out about Las Vegas. ⁓ there's nobody on the strip anymore. They're running out of water. I mean, I mean, I don't know why these people wish their ill will on us. I know who it is. It's mainly the economic developed people of other states. That's my opinion, not Joe's, but they're dishing us. Dishonest, excuse me, Darrell, thank you, dis. But anyway, the point being, financial services is our path. And I think that once, when you come to that next rung in the ladder, we're gonna talk about where you're running for now. We have a chance to really transform the state's economy to be a powerhouse. I really believe, I know you do too. believe that, it's just huge. Alright, let's talk about what you're doing now. You're running for treasurer. Now, was this a position you really wanted to go for or did it just kind of happen? Speaker 1: That's right. Itch. kind of happened. So I was, I got to the end of the legislative session and you really feel that part time when you hit day one 21, right? So again, it's 120 day session day one 21 is the day after it's all, all the party streamers are taken down. Everything's dead quiet. And you get that feeling that you get after you finished final exams or something, right? You're still running, but the treadmill stopped and I wanted to do all these things. had all these ideas. Speaker 2: you're like. Speaker 1: And I had to face the reality that it was going be two years before I could do anything about it. And this office is kind of defanged after session ends. So you're elected for a two year term, but after the 120 days, like a constituent reaches out to you and says, Hey, I got this urgent need. The only fix is by statute. got to, you got to tell them like, you know, mechanically we theoretically get a special special for this, but like the probability of that based on the number of stakeholders you have to get buy-in from is so low. that we're probably going to be waiting two years. And so with this office, I saw an opportunity to make a real difference in people's lives 365 days a year, and then still have a significant influence in legislature. Cause this office comes with five bills as a freshman legislator, I had six. So it's almost a lateral move in terms of the ability to move bills that make a difference in this state. Speaker 2: Well, I'm jumping real quick. Most people don't realize that a treasurer, I mean, it's a corporate finance job. That's the thing we find funny is one of your opponents was a commodity trader in Chicago. think he and I probably crossed paths when I was back there. And that's a great background, but investment and corporate finance are different animals. And so when you look at the differences between you and your opponents right now, where would you say number one key difference? What would you say? Speaker 1: think the number one thing is I am the only candidate that has had any kind of legislative experience or elected experience. So I think a lot of folks have viewed this job differently. This is an interesting race because everyone running has some relevant experience, right? But no candidate is going to have the experience in all the different areas that this office brings to bear. And some of the unique things about this office are very legislative heavy. So the two flagship programs that really make a difference in folks lives are the State Infrastructure Bank And the money scholarship, both of those are facing solvency issues that can only be addressed at the state legislature. So we have millions and unfunded projects in front of the state infrastructure bank applications. We can't fulfill right now the one-year scholarship that was built to fail. And it was, was built without a long-term funding solution was built on tobacco settlement money. And we knew there was a time horizon on it was, and it's been kind of kicked down the road, like, ⁓ someone, someone will eventually do something about it. ⁓ so the task in front of our treasurer next January is going to be getting in front, getting ready to get in front of the legislature and ask them for money to fix state infrastructure bank. So it's going to be bonding capacity and then the Monium scholarship. You're going to have to bring a funding solution to them because you can't just ask them like, Hey, can you fix this? I'm going to have to craft a policy, bring it to them and ask them to implement it. And then I'm going to have to work that bill through the legislative session. So. You're going to need somebody who's not learning the legislative process on the fly so that we have someone in place who can actually make a difference in this office. And that's just to fix the holes in the foundation. I want to build on top of it too. And that is where the five bills come into play, right? There are so much potential. There's no materiality limitation. In some contexts, you'll see like you're allowed to bring bills, but it's got to relate to the agency, right? The treasurer's office, you get five bills and they're unfettered. So if I have an idea in housing, infrastructure, whatever the case may be, I can bring in front of the legislature. And as long as I can, with a straight face, make the case and I can fund it, whatever the program may be, I can get the rights to administer a new program. I can get the rights to invest dollars in a new way. Whatever we want to bring in front of the legislature, you're going to need someone who has that experience to get it done. Speaker 2: Well, we've just got a few more seconds left here, but I just want to, the other thing I would say, you're also revenue focused. Yes. Those new companies, those new industries, the mining opportunities we have in this state. mean, all of them, a balance of everything. But I mean, we talk about money to fix the schools. Well, you know what? Focus on the revenues. Let's not focus on this other stuff. Joe, if people want to get a hold of you, where should they go, especially your campaign? Speaker 1: JoeDali.com is a good place to land. It's a great place to learn more about me. My email is joe at joedali.com. Zero points for creativity, but very easy to remember. Speaker 2: And it's D-A-L-I-A, just so you know. Everybody, Joe, thank you for coming on the show, buddy. And we'll have you back again. Hey, post-election, the celebratory party. Listen, we'll be right back with Winning with Wine-Ins with our next guest. We'll be right back after you hear from our sponsors. This is Ken Wine-Ins, host of Winning with Wine-Ins. In 1992, I left my successful career with Merrill Lynch and started Wine-Ins Investments with just seven clients. Everyone thought I was nuts, even my own dad. Well, that gamble did in fact pay off. Today, Winans Investments is the only Morningstar top-ranked investment manager based in Southern Nevada. If you are a CFP professional looking for investment management to provide your clients with performance, SubAdvisory can be a better choice than ETFs. Winans Investments has five strategies with various asset allocations approved on Schwab's extensive sub-advisory programs. It's easy to think that all investment managers and financial products are the same. That is not true. Give Winans a try. You and your clients won't regret it. Win with Winans Investments. And welcome back to Winning with Winans Las Vegas news and coolest financial show. I am your host, Ken Winans. And guess what? We're gonna have a bonus section with our guest, assembly person, Joe Daly. Okay, first thing. but you're not a lot of people yourself in assemblyman anymore that correct sb Speaker 1: We're allowed to call us, they call us assembly member as part of the formal process, but many folks still go by assembly. I use it interchangeably. I've not not yet. There's still time. Speaker 2: Remember You don't get in trouble. Oh, there's still time. We don't want to go the front page of the paper. Dahlia has been a tit, okay. So listen, we have some questions from the audience. You okay taking a few questions? Nothing crazy here. Okay, I promise you that. Okay, we covered some of it in our previous segments, Joe, but let's just go over it again. What led you to pursue a role as Nevada State Treasurer, a desire for that role? Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, was for me, it was about impact, right? Like I felt like I made a lot of difference for folks as a state legislator, but it was for 120 days every other year, right? And for the level of sacrifice that goes into this office, you know, on the family side, time commitment professionally, you have to give up a lot to do this. And so if you're gonna make, if you're gonna make that sacrifice, you want to make the maximum impact on the backend. And with this office, I saw an opportunity to make it. make a difference in people's lives every single day, 365 days a year for the duration of the term. And then also still maintain that legislative presence because of the office is five BDRs, which again, that's almost a lateral move for my, my six that I had as a freshmen. So to maintain that same, mean, it's essentially you're trading in my ability to vote on bills, which only came up in, I think a handful of bills at most where they were decided by one or two votes. So you lose your opportunity to participate in those circumstances, what you gain is every single day you can make a difference in people's lives. Speaker 2: Well, I'll throw something in this because we've had talks about my goals and things I'd like to try to do for Nevada and other people as well. It is tough because when you take on the role as an elected official in an important state, I mean, we go back, this is a swing state. This matters. This state actually, I mean, I'm probably getting in trouble for saying that we matter and other states don't. Speaker 1: We are the We Matter state. Speaker 2: But it is a lot to ask somebody who, like in my case, where I have companies. If I was to run for a part-time position, how's that going to tie me up on what I can and cannot do in business? You know, the rules, the regulations, the time commitment. I mean, and I think about with you, I mean, you had a legal practice that you had to walk away, very, I dare say, lucrative legal practice. So you have a financial consideration there too. You know, it's a lot to ask. Speaker 1: It is, and I mean a lot of folks that do this, have to be in it for the right reasons because if your goals are fame and fortune, you're in the wrong business running for the legislature. Speaker 2: Well, let me show that. you run into people that you just say they're in this just to put it on their resume? They're not really here to do anything. Speaker 1: I haven't met anyone that, I don't think so. I mean, I think most people are trying to genuinely help and, you I think we have disagreements about what that looks like. ⁓ And so I'm sure there are some people just statistically, right? There's a draw, right? I mean, like you get invited to everything because you're an elected official. So if you want to be at ribbon cuttings, if you want to go to all the galas, if you get elected, that does happen, right? You'll get on all those lists. ⁓ That holds no currency to me, right? So for like that's just another thing I got to go do on a Thursday night and so I I mean there probably are some folks that are in it for the wrong reasons but to the To the for the majority of people that I saw at the legislature I saw a lot of people trying to do the right thing. Maybe we just had some disagreements about how we get there Speaker 2: Well, and that brings up a point too. mean, just the whole matter of fundraising is a pain. It's a lot of work. You're always worrying about, look, we have this, who's doing what, where, and why, where's the money coming from? Is somebody is going to come back to me wanting favors down the road? There's a lot of agendas there you have to worry about. question number two. What financial challenges do you believe Nevada is currently facing? Which is a good question. Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing is our lack of economic diversification, but also our unemployment level and our underemployment level. So that's a statistic we don't talk about a ton, but there are a lot of people right now that on paper, yeah, they got a job, right? But do they have a job that is allowing them to pay for childcare, healthcare, all the things that go into operating a household? Most people don't. I know a lot of people right now are working two, three gigs just to try to make ends meet. And you can tell with the amount of consumer debt we're seeing, you can tell with, ⁓ you know, payday loan usage, like all these statistics that kind of show how far into the red are families right now. You got a lot of people who are overextended and eventually that bill comes due. And when that day comes, we're not going to be in good shape. So we're going to have to make some pretty aggressive economic development and diversification efforts here. Now we don't. We cannot keep, we've kicked it down the road for like 20 years. That was fine. We milked all of the time on the clock. Now it's now we're at the two minute warning in the fourth quarter and we got to start playing a fast to make up for the lost time. Speaker 2: And there's going to be some tough decisions. mean, there's only, you can only slice the pie up so many ways. Let me add to that, because I think this is important, that number one, think, again, proving the diversity point. If you were to look at the unemployment, it's in tourism, it's in lodging, it's not service jobs in the Vegas Valley, it's not ⁓ the other areas that we want to diversify into. And then one of the cans that... You and I both know, we talk about it all the time, those people from California, they're coming. They're going to continue to come. And I think the flood's going to get larger. So where are we going to put them? So if we don't diversify the economy, we're going to be in much worse shape. I agree with Joe. See, right there, this is common sense. You have to do it. And you and I both agree, financial services, hey, high paid jobs, You and I are going to go out to California and say, hey, come on over. Speaker 1: That's right. Speaker 2: Come on over. We'll take you. Come on over. All right. Let's talk about this. Okay. What do most people misunderstand how state level finances actually work? Speaker 1: I mean, think there's this office in particular. I've heard it characterized in like 16 different ways by 16 different people. I think like every single candidate running for treasurer right now has some thesis about what this office is, right? And for me, I've had to explain to folks the importance of the legislative piece, right? Like most people don't know that everything that's gonna happen that's mission critical for an executive office to move forward. is gonna happen in Carson City through the legislative process. so educating folks on how big of a role there is to play in legislature, that the state's biggest financial programs through the treasurer's office, again, the State Infrastructure Bank and the Millennium Scholarship are tied 100 % to the legislature. To fix those two, you're gonna have to go in front of the assembly and the Senate and get them on board with bonding capacity and a long-term funding solution for the Millennium Scholarship. And, you know, I think that has been part of the challenge of this, right? Educating folks on what the office is and then on what version of experience is most relevant for this office has been, has been a pretty big undertaking. But, you know, the good news is it requires you to know your stuff, to educate someone else, right? You can't teach someone else you know. So ⁓ it has in a positive way forced me to become an expert on this office in ways that I'm now really proud of. Speaker 2: Well, Joe, I'll one other part. mean, a lot of times I think, you know, Nevada's a big state. The needs of the North are not necessarily the same as the needs of the South, or maybe we even say East and West. You go to Northeastern part of Nevada, you know, they still have road issues up there. know, down in our area, you know, we're a victim of our success. So it goes on and on and on in a lot of ways about, you're the treasure for the entire state. So the cattle guys are going to be coming at you, the miners are going be coming at you, the gaming people are going to, you you're going to be like a Gumby doll, you're going be torn in a bunch of different directions for those of you remember Gumby. Speaker 1: And that's where it's so important. Like these statewide offices, you really have to keep the statewide thing in mind, right? Because I'm not just gonna represent Henderson, right? I'm not just gonna represent Reno. I'm gonna represent Elko and Winamucca and all these places in between that ⁓ can be kind of an afterthought when you're living in a bubble. And you're gonna have to tailor solutions that are right for all of those different groups. And one of the exciting things about the state infrastructure bank, if I can say banking is exciting, ⁓ there's an opportunity to make investments throughout the state to tailor to those needs. Right? So this has been used to, ⁓ to build a fire station. It's been used to build affordable housing. It's one of our most diverse vehicles to tailor investment solutions to what a community needs. And so it's a really effective way to use our bonding capacity to, to, to build up our communities throughout the state and. you know, keep in mind that we're not, we're not a two city, two county state. We are, we are many different people ⁓ in many different communities. And, and as a statewide officer, it's my obligation, my duty to do right by each of them. Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. And regardless of party affiliation or anything, it doesn't matter. think many times we lose sight of that. We are really a purple state in the purest sense of the word we're purple. All right, let's see here, Joe. How do you plan to approach fiscal responsibility and accountability in this role? That's a good question, actually. Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think that where you see treasurers getting in trouble across the country is when they try to get cute with the investment portfolio, right? Yes. And we have ⁓ constitutional limitations and statutory limitations. Thankfully, like our state was paranoid about this. And so we've we've made the kind of restrictions that makes it hard to get too cute, right? You'd have to go affirmatively go in front of legislature and ask for some loosening to do some experimental things. I don't plan on doing that. We have some really good investment professionals that are working in that office, civil servants who are working in anonymity that are just doing the right things for our state. I plan to work with them, leverage their experience, bring my perspective to the table and stay conservative, right? The best way to make money for the state is to not lose money for the state. And the things you might do with a private investment portfolio, that's fine. You can do that in the private sector, but these are taxpayer dollars. These are our state funds that we have to safeguard. at the highest levels, we can't get Q with it. Speaker 2: Well, we talked about cryptocurrency before the show started. And you know, look, I'm a certified cryptocurrency trader. Yeah, I've studied this stuff. It's not suitable for public investment. And I find it funny this is even coming up in discussions. Right. Because I mean, I joked with you about making a Nevada crypto coin. You know what? But you said, no, can't make our own money. Speaker 1: That's the interesting part of that kind of institutional paranoia I was talking about. like our, our constitution, is not entirely clear if we are constitutionally able to invest in cryptocurrency. So at that point you're talking about to start down the road of doing that, it might be a six year process just to start. so we, you know, and we're seeing some States wade into those waters. I don't think we've had enough time to see if those are going to pay off for those folks right now. everybody who invests in those understands that they are volatile assets and the, the, the amount you have in value might vary very aggressively day to day. And so is that an appropriate vehicle for state funds? It gives me pause, right? I, I don't, for me as someone who understands the weight of this role and the consequences of getting it wrong. Speaker 2: I totally agree. Speaker 1: ⁓ I think we have to be very, very careful about wading into any of those waters. And again, there's the legal component as well. Speaker 2: You know, it's funny, I don't know if you caught some of the articles, but like, guess Wyoming is stockpiling gold. mean, they've got like a quarter billion dollars worth of gold that the treasurer, and so that, so here's the point that gets kind of funny. Here we are, the silver state. We're the fourth largest producer on planet earth. If people are serious about, I mean, I would just raise to anybody, well, look, if you want to talk about crypto, why don't we talk about other commodities? If you're going to, if you're going to open up that Pandora's box. then you're going to a lot of different areas. And again, I think it's a cautionary tale. All right, let's see here. What lessons from your background have prepared you for this position? ⁓ Hour long presentation. Speaker 1: So I have, I'll try to distill it. mean, I've built a good combination of experiences that I think are all going to be useful for this role, right? I've got this amassed. Yeah. Again, I'm an economics graduate. I was a former CFO. started my legal career representing a sovereign wealth funds, private equity funds, and other financial institutions, Silicon Valley. So I'm familiar with finance. I'm familiar with law and now I've got legislative experience. So I've got this, this nice blend of things I can bring to the table. ⁓ I mean, for me, I think all of those are going to end up being useful. But again, the legislative piece is so important. If an executive officer cannot work well with Carson city and doesn't respect how much of the process is going to play out during that 120 day session, you are in for a tough night. Speaker 2: Well, there's that. And I've been told by many people, you have to have patience. Yeah. I mean, you might say, I want that bill so bad, it's going take you two years to get it done. I mean, people say, what do mean two years? I could do that tomorrow. Yeah. Again, if you're not used to that, or I would also say too, I mean, you have to be bipartisan. Yes. I mean, there might be somebody you don't particularly like, somebody who you can't work with on any other issue but one issue. Yeah, and you have to be able to do it and to put that aside and people, a of people can't do that. Speaker 1: Yeah. And I think, I think a lot of folks forget that everything in politics is math, right? Votes that you get from the electorate, that's math, right? You win because you get 50 % plus one. And the same thing holds true with legislation. You're getting, you're going to get your bill over the line if you have 50 % plus one, or, know, if it's a two thirds bill because there's a financial component, right? But in any case, like if you have no relationships across the aisle, then you have to know going in, My pool is my party, right? So I'm have to get to my win number from this small denominator. And if it's a divisive issue, if you have some personality conflicts, whatever the case may be, it gets a lot harder to do that math. I think that every legislator should try to work across the aisle because I think it, again, I do think it comes back to math. So if you've got a really good idea, it shouldn't die because you didn't take the time to make friends across the aisle. It shouldn't die because You didn't do that and you have some personality conflicts with three other people. So you came up just short. The best policy should make it through because that's what Nevadans are counting on. And it's incumbent upon us to like put all that stuff aside, find the ways we can work together, fight where we have to, but work together where we can. Speaker 2: And compromise, we're meaningful compromise. Well, I'll tell you, so we talked about it before the show, but Carson City being an unusual capital, you know, for many of might not know, there's like six cigar bars right around the Capitol building. So what happens after legislative session, I don't know if Joe ever partook in this, but people head over to the cigar bars, they usually start out on two up at the ends of the room, and then later in the evening, people get together and go haggle about stuff. So it actually, hey, It sounds 1800ish, but it is that and there's a hitching post outside which cracks me up. You know that, right? Look right outside the Capitol, there's a hitching post. All right, listen, we got one more question. And then I know we want to talk about your family very quickly. What opportunities, well, this is such a big one, what opportunities do you see for Nevada as we look forward? I mean, that's a two hour show in itself. Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, think we are at an inflection point. We're going to have to decide what kind of state we want to be. Most of our economic diversification efforts have been drilling down on tourism, right? And so if we want to move beyond that as our identity, now is the time. AJR 8 has opened the door for us to go in the direction of becoming a hub for innovation, investment, technology, financial services. ⁓ investing in our homegrown talent. Right? So the availability of capital is going to be critical to this because we don't want companies graduating out of Nevada. Like we, like we see sometimes where the $2 million company can find investors here, but once they become the $2 billion company Silicon Valley, they gotta go to Boston, whatever the case may be. We need to make sure the capital is here so that they don't life cycle out of the state and bring all those jobs and innovation out of the state. ⁓ and I think that. Speaker 2: They gotta go somewhere else. Speaker 1: That is the hard work we're gonna have to do on the economic development side. And I think this office is a prime opportunity for us to participate in shaping that future because what I want for my kids is the opportunity to have great schools, a great college experience, and then a job in any sector they could possibly want. Without leaving the state. And then the ability to retire here. I want it to be possible. I mean, if they wanna leave, they wanna leave. But I see this through the eyes of my kids, is am I giving them a chance at every node in their lives to stay here without compromising? And if we can get to a point where my kids can live an entire life here without at any point compromising on some goal of theirs, I did my job. Speaker 2: I'll add to that if you don't mind. I was at UNLV last night. They had in the business school, had an investment challenge. many of them are born and raised in Nevada. It's actually funny, a lot them wanted to go to school in UNLV because they want to get out of the snow in Reno. they said, we're going to come down here. But the point is, Joe, I got to tell you, it was top notch. mean, you and I both have advanced degrees. We went to good schools. The quality of the presentation I saw from these young people, and they want to work in financial services. And when I told them, I was one of the judges, guess what? You're not gonna have to leave. I'm gonna try to get those companies to come here. And when they hear that you're fully licensed, because we're doing that whole licensing program right now, UNLV, first in the country to do this, Series 65 licenses, that they'll be able to stay. And then I'll add to that too. ⁓ I think your family and the sacrifices you're making, the quality of the community here, That is qualitative. can't necessarily measure that. But we come together, which I want to bring up briefly. ⁓ I think certainly the situation with the Charlie Kirk shooting, which was tragic, the threats that happened up, and I guess it was where those ⁓ local elected officials were harassed and assaulted. ⁓ Is there a concern amongst the legislation here? Because we are an open carry gun state. mean, do you get security if you don't mind me asking? protected. Speaker 1: Yeah, we there's legislative police and there's some security that's in place for elected officials and it heightens if we think there's an active threat. Yeah, I mean, it's but it's an ambient part of life as an elected official is you have to just accept that part of the deal with trying to do this and trying to make the world a better place is that some people are gonna hate you to their core for trying to do this. Speaker 2: Good, I'm glad to hear that. Speaker 1: And it doesn't particularly matter who you are, what you've done. They will find something to hate. I, I've, stand by everything I've done and everything I will do, but that's just part of the risk I've had to assume is that, know, there's probably some people out there that want to hurt me. And my responsibility is to make sure my family's safe. ⁓ If something happens to me, something happens to me, but I want to make sure they're safe. I just don't let it do, I don't let it get in the way. Speaker 2: Well, you we all have these threats and I bring up too, it's lost on people but when someone runs for office like what Joe's done, it's a family decision. I mean, it affects your entire family. And thank you for doing it, Joe. Thank you for your service, Joe. Thank you. No, mean it, seriously. I'm a vet, I get thanked all the time. I mean, look what you've done with your life. Okay, I'm not gonna let you off the show until we've gone over what's on our thing here, our official. Okay, so. Okay. You're probably not surprised our official reptile is the desert tortoise. You probably knew that. Okay. What's our flower? Speaker 1: Yes. the sage brush. I did know that. I did know that. Speaker 2: Did you know that before? Okay, what about the St. Fish? Speaker 1: the state fish, I gotta say the, the Lahontan cutthroat trout. would not, I did not know that. This is educational. Speaker 2: Did you know that one? Okay. How about the state insect? Speaker 1: Okay, we're going to make you the official fish and wildlife guy for the treasure. Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no. No, well, I got a hunting license. It might be a trolley. It's called the vivid dancer damsel fly. Okay. Okay. I want to, you can imagine the lobbying efforts that went into this stuff. Speaker 1: I would love to know the history on each of these. Speaker 2: Okay, alright, the state animal, this one we probably know. It was on our medallion ⁓ Speaker 1: state. The desert bighorn sheep. Yeah, that one makes sense. Speaker 2: By the way, they're, you can hunt them. You know that, right? Yeah. So yeah, they're actually, they're overpopulated now. I'm going to get in all kinds of trouble for bringing them. Okay. Now we have two state trees. We have a pinion pie, according to this thing, which I bought and I bought it Carson city, this pinion pine. And then what's over on your side. Okay. All right. Then all right now. All right. The state bird. I didn't know that either. Speaker 1: Aizadnani. bristle cone. Mountain Bluebird. Is it cut off? ⁓ it's just. Speaker 2: Yeah, we had to cover this. But the rattlesnake's not on there and you know all that stuff. All right Joe, listen buddy, I thank you for your time and thank you for your candor too. think you know people, you know like I said, think elected officials they're public servants. We have to remember that and we all hear all the negatives and all the stuff and that's the great thing about podcasts. So will you come back? All right buddy. Speaker 1: I'll absolutely come. Speaker 2: Hey man, thank you for your time. Thank All right, everybody. We'll be back for our next guest in the next segment of Winning with Winans. Wait till hear from our sponsors. Take care. This is Ken Winans, host of Winning with Winans. I want to take a moment of your time to discuss the right way to select an investment advisor. I know it can be confusing and easy to think all investment advisors are the same. Simply not true. Sadly, most wealth managers are employees of large financial institution. that are actually limited in the choices they can offer their clients. Today, & Investments is the only Morningstar top-ranked investment manager based in Southern Nevada. Founded in 1992, 100 % independent and veteran-owned, Wine &'s offers a wide array of investment choices coupled with complimentary financial planning, not to mention outstanding customer service. Give Wine &'s a try, you won't regret it. Win with Wine &'s Investments. And welcome back to Winning with Winans. And I hope you enjoyed our last episode with Assemblyman Joe Dalia, which, by the way, we had a whole nother segment and went on for about 25 minutes where we talked about a lot of other issues. You can find that on our podcast. So go to winningwithwinans.com to find that. But as you notice, I have a different hat on. And for those of you who are veterans, you probably recognize it as a hat for the first armored cab of the army. But remember, we're in Nevada. which means Calvary. So we have a guest on the show that is tied to veterans and military and all kinds of good stuff. Lester Lombard is a good buddy of mine and Lester, welcome to the show. And we're going to talk about your intro in a moment. you asked a question because you like my intro with me wearing my, as military people, my sidearm. You were curious about it, right? You want to know what it was? Yeah, it was. I was curious about that. Okay. All right. It's a heavy beast here, buddy. It is, I have it here for those of you are curious. It is unloaded of course, gun safety. It is an 1847 Colt black powder pistol. So Lester, if you want to take a look at that heavy beast, can you imagine the Calvary officers that had to carry that thing around? This is a heavy one. Beautiful, beautiful pistol. Imagine them. I mean, I can't even imagine that. The weaponry of that day, crazy stuff. anyway, so there you all know now, you know what I have on the intro here. So Lester, I want to again welcome you to Winning with Winans. Listen, a little bit about your background, because you and I met, and actually, I think I might have told you, you and the group were critical on me deciding to move to Las Vegas, kind of like the last straw. And it was going to one of the wonderful events at the Southern Nevada Veterans Chamber of Commerce, which we'll talk in a moment about the change. But we have a lot of fun events, know, veterans in business and all that. But more important than that, You're a vet, you have a long, your family, multiple years of service to this country, your wife. You are truly a military veteran family. And yet you're carrying it forward with what you're doing after your military career. So what, you were in the Navy, right? No, I was in the Air Force. You were in the Air Force. I'm sorry about that. Yeah, both myself and my wife, were both in the Air Force. My dad is retired Navy. Okay, that's what it was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, ⁓ And your wife is in what branch? ⁓ She was also in the Air Force. She was in the Air Force too? Both of us were. At separate times, I joined the Air Force when, shortly after we met at a young age and then, you know, I left service several years later and she had ended up joining the Air Force for the purpose of ⁓ applying and attending medical school. Yeah, that's right. She was able to get an opportunity to pursue medical school and the career path that she wanted to pursue. in medicine and it was, it was, that was afforded to her by military service. So that worked. of those tremendous win-wins. And of course, you know, we have, well, and you know, many, most of you can probably know, you know, we often don't think about it, but the Las Vegas Valley is very much a military town. have two major air force bases here, not to mention area 51 where it seems to always capture the attention. Yeah. You know, and, let's talk a bit about that. It is kind of funny that here we have this tremendous veterans population in the Vegas Valley and Nevada in general. What made you decide to get involved with the veterans area? really very quickly on that, I mean, you were at one point where the civilian representative for the army for veterans affairs in what, all of Nevada? For Southern Nevada, was one them. Yeah, my counterpart was ⁓ up in Reno, retired. United States Marine Corps Colonel, I believe, and amazing person. But yeah, I was one of two in the state. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So, and that was great because it was great to be associated with the secretary of the army at that time, honorable Christine Wormuth. She was who swore me in at the Pentagon. But as an Air Force veteran, to be able to represent the heritage of the army in our community and be able to help share that story and help to grow engagement in our community, I was really grateful to have that opportunity. It's amazing. I was at one of the parties you had celebrating your thing. remember. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Yeah, that's good time. There's no such thing as a bad military party. We better stop there. Kids are watching. So Lester, getting into, so you and your family moved from California. How long ago did you move to Vegas? So we actually moved here from the United Kingdom. So we moved here from England. Okay. were originally both myself and my wife were both originally from California. I grew up mainly in San Diego because my dad, spent the majority of his Navy career in San Diego, but he ended up retiring in San Francisco and at treasure Island when it was still open. And my wife, her dad also served in the Navy, ended up retiring as a reservist over in Alameda, also in the Bay area. So both of our families live up that way now, but, ⁓ but we haven't lived in California for a long time. What, ended up happening was, ⁓ my, my wife, As I mentioned a few seconds ago, when you asked, you know, about her medical school pathway and ended up completing her residency over at Fort Belvoir in Northern Virginia in the Washington DC area. After, after that period of time passed, was, was about a seven year period, which then extended into a seven year service commitment. So was basically you go to med school and X number of years of residency and whatever number of years that adds up to that's the number of years that you owe back in service. so that was what. what she had, so those seven years of service that ended up being three years in Tokyo, three years in England, and then the seventh year ended up being here in Las Vegas, which is what brought us here. So really see the world. The commercials tell the truth. You might not like what part of the world you're going to see, depending on. It's a bad joke. know so many people who've, and, know, obviously I'm a vet as well, members of our staff here are vets, but Lester, what made you decide? I mean, now you have a business career. You have a family and yet you started this really great effort with Veterans Chamber of Commerce. What made you decide to do this? So really, ⁓ you know, when we came here, especially because of our family situation, when we came here to Las Vegas, I needed to have a high level of flexibility with what I was doing because, you know, we have four children. At the time, they were very young. ⁓ The need for flexibility kind of made me lean toward looking at entrepreneurship and at different ways that I could use my ideas to become involved in turning those ideas into businesses, basically. ⁓ But when it came time for me to look for resources to support those ideas and some of that business development, I had some difficulties trying to find whatever available resources there were in our community. There were, there were some great resources that I was able to connect to, but then as far as, know, I'm a big believer in the value of relationships, you know, and, and I just couldn't really see how I was going to be able to navigate the community by just starting from scratch in that way. Right. So then I started to look, look for something that resembled a veteran's chamber of commerce. They didn't really have much luck finding anything that I could connect with. So. Because of that, I was like, okay, well, why don't we just create one? You know, like, that's literally how that came about. You know, was like, why not me? You know, kind of thing, you so. And it grew. How many, 400 members I think now? We're right around 275, 300. Okay. Yeah. But it was definitely very well received, still is, you know, in the community. You know, when it came to engagement and community involvement and just how people saw ⁓ how it was filling a gap, you know, that, that was, that was there. didn't realize how well received it was going to be until these relationships started to get, started to become, you know, more and more ⁓ relevant than the community. And, ⁓ people just really gravitated toward what was happening. And a lot of people were telling me that, you know, they've, they've kind of wished that something like that had came about sooner, but it just took somebody to take the time to do it. So I was, I was grateful to be, you know, involved in helping to put that together and helping it to grow. You know, we're about four and a half years in now and you know, it's really been, in my opinion, I'm very thankful for this, but it's been an important part of bringing a lot of different organizations together and helping to promote more collaboration and cohesiveness in the community. And I would say people. You know, it seems sad. mean, you know, the... camaraderie that you brought back with your organization. I I've met a lot of friends from it, and you want to do business with people who you know. Yeah, exactly. And veterans were a special group, and one of the things we're going to talk about is the veterans' transition into business life. As you said, you did not find a lot of resources. It's kind of sad in a way. We hear often about VA issues, but thankfully UNLV is... Our friend Ross is doing a great job there on helping vets with their education, getting out there in the real world. We're trying to work together on with many of them want to go into financial services. We're trying to maybe do a licensing program for them. That's beautiful. But Lester, I have to say too, and I think again, what makes Vegas so special, ⁓ I get asked all the time about the differences I've seen between here and other parts of the country and most notably California. There's so many vets here. and so many vets who go to church, know, that they're, you know, and nobody is from here. So you can't say who did what to whom or no, no, none of that matters. It's a true community here. And the veterans are revered. I mean, they really are. I people here love their vets and the vets love the community. So they just find it all over. And I think that's special and groups like yours do it. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. I, yeah, I totally agree. You know, like the, veteran community here in, Nevada in general, but definitely here in Southern Nevada, it's a significant part of our population, you know, and I feel like it's a significant part of our local culture also. Like you mentioned, we have two active military installations, Manila Air Force Base, Cree Air Force Base, all within about 35, 40 minutes of any direction in town. But aside from that, all branches of the military are very well represented here in our region. You know, we have obviously a ton of Air Force veterans people who decided to stay here in this area but great Marine Corps representation US Army ⁓ Navy is getting there, you know, like we don't have as many Navy vets and Don't forget space force. They're there, you know, they're active. That's right. You know, we can't forget them and of course the Coast Guard. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you run into those guys every now and then right? And by the way, one thing that Lester and, you know, being a good leader that you are with this group, one thing you said very clearly, because we've opened it up to other parts of public safety. And you said, look, if you were a dog tag, we're not going to get into how many ribbons you had and where you served. We're not going to get into that. If you are a vet and you serve the country, you're welcome. And I love that about your group because some of these groups can become kind of a pecking order. It's almost like you fall back into rank and, you know, years of service and hash marks and. No, There's something for everybody, feel like. you know, when you open it up in that way to not only veterans, but also veteran supporters, veteran family members, people who just want to be involved in the veteran community in a genuine way, you know, then it's great to be able to be involved in creating that ecosystem or that environment where people can come and connect with the resources that resonate with them. And if they were somebody who didn't, you know, necessarily see heavy combat maybe, then, you know, like maybe it's just other resources that they're looking for that can help them with employment or starting a business. But then if it was someone who experienced a lot of maybe combat related trauma, there's going to be those resources plus other resources that can help them in other areas too. And it's just a matter of making the community aware that those resources are there. We're definitely not about trying to reinvent anything that's already there, you know, because there's no. There's no point in spending time doing that when there's already an abundance of resources. It's just a matter of promoting the, you know, the partnerships that can already be created. Lester, I just committed an unforgivable sin. I went over my clock. So listen, we're going to be right back with our guest, Lester Lindblad, and we'll be back with Winning with Winans in just one moment. Thank you. This is Ken Winans, host of Winning with Winans. And before I started the Morningstar top-ranked investment management firm, Winans Investments, I worked on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange with commodity traders. And yes, I actually know what all those crazy hand signs mean. 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I am your host, Ken Winans and Lester Lombard, who's my friend. I mean, he's been one of the, actually, since I've been coming to Vegas, he was one of my oldest Vegas friends. So Lester, again, welcome to Winning with Winans. And we've been talking about the veterans. The very unique veterans community that's going on in Southern, certainly in Southern Nevada, all of them that I would say is very patriotic, but you're trying to spread the word. So let's talk about where our organization is going, which by the way, I'm a member of this organization. Lester's actually asked me to help with, you know, some of the political things that go on in Carson city. I don't know. I might get us in trouble with Northern Nevada. You never know, but I'll try to keep us out of out of a fiefdom, but Lester, we made a change in the organization and It's called, the new name is the Veterans Community and Founders Exchange. Okay. What's the change? Really, aside from the name and the visual branding of the organization, there really is no real significant change. We want to make sure that the model that we've created here in Las Vegas, here in Southern Nevada, that we're able to ⁓ take that model and copy and paste it into other communities and other cities. that have a prominent veteran presence, you know, and ⁓ the limitation that, that, ⁓ that I knew it was going to be a limitation from the beginning was in the name branding of what we've started with, which is the Southern Nevada Veterans Chamber of Commerce. That name is obviously specific to Southern Nevada. So then we wanted to be able to, ⁓ just make that adjustment to where, ⁓ you know, we can change the name up in a way that we can take the same model, like I've mentioned, and then bring that to other places like. say San Diego or ⁓ San Antonio or Hawaii or other places where we know that there is a strong ⁓ veteran community presence, but it's just a matter of helping to be a part of bringing those available resources together. So is it safe to say that we're gone from being a state type organization to more of a region type organization? Yeah. Would that be a good way of... ⁓ Yeah, eventually, eventually the goal would be able to expand into a national full national nationally scaled organization to where, know, whether it's, um, you know, I mean, like Jacksonville, Florida as as a great veteran community, um, New Jersey, Washington, obviously, you know, so places like that. And then obviously, you know, places around Texas, there's so many different areas. didn't know this while Lester is going to be like McDonald's. We're going to franchise out. Yeah. So the next couple of years, we're to see a lot of these. kind of things happening. That's the goal. Yeah, that is Do you have any concerns? I mean, I'm just gonna raise these issues. know there's, you know, I always say state lines matter. Yeah. And there's a reason we all left California. Correct. Do you have any concerns about getting into some of these very weird social kind of issues? Because I mean, I hate to say it, but veterans, in my opinion, I mean, here we have license plates. I mean, we probably have it on our driver's license. Yeah. You just don't see it there. And I don't feel there's the same... fondness for vets. I wrong in saying that or? Well, you know, I mean, I really can't speak for any other community, but then I know that, ⁓ you know, the difference, I guess, would be that the difference in approach would be that we would want to focus on the community itself and bringing members of that community together and different organizations in that community together rather than necessarily engaging with, you know, the politics of that region. And whether that support is there or not, hopefully we can find the right support and the right advocacy. if not, the first step is always going to be to bring the community together. then when you can do that, that creates a lot of value for a lot of partnerships that can be formed in that community anyway, when you're able to bring certain populations together. And the veteran community is ⁓ such an important part of any community. It's an important part of that community's voice that when you can... accomplish that first step, then a lot of other positive things can happen too. Well, I like to think too, you know, there's been a pronounced shift in the military. Certainly, you know, we've gone from the Department of Defense to Department of War, but also since too, there's a big change in how we treat our vets. mean, there's more focus on the VA now than there had been in quite a while, which we needed it. You know, obviously we have some very large VA centers here. I mean, I heard even the veteran cemeteries, they're going to do a makeover on those. Cause they need to expand them. So I'm just glad to see that it seems like veterans issues just with a little bit that I read and hear from you and other folks. Yeah. You know, and I feel like, ⁓ the more prominent that voice can become in the different communities where, you know, cause veterans are everywhere in the country, obviously. So the, ⁓ the more prominent that we can make our voice as a community, the more likely that will be heard, you know, for some of those issues that exist, whether it's with, ⁓ the veteran affairs ⁓ services that are available to us or any other issues that, you know, like that, that can be improved upon, you know, then it's always a positive thing to be able to bring the community together and voice those things together. And that's really what we're focused on again, like just promoting that, that on that unity, that ⁓ collaboration throughout the community and trying to eliminate feelings of competition, you know, because there's not really any need for that. That doesn't really. And as far as community building, don't really feel like that, that helps anybody. You have competing entities that are looking for attention in different ways. know, that. No, there's no point. if there's a fairly competitive group of people, you don't want to start that up with veterans. That's not a good use of energy, you know. You know, Lester, I don't know if you know this, but I've been doing some work with folks at Nellis. There's a very serious interest in trying to have an aerospace museum or an aerospace center. I would call it STEM based. But it's good to see that Nellis, I mean, it always blows me when I talk to people and say, there's a major air force base. It's the home of the Thunderbirds. And they go, what? That's right. Yeah. You see those runways when you're landing at Reed airport, they're off on the, that's. But people don't know that. it's good to see that the bases are trying to get more involved with the community too. Yeah. I mean, that's definitely a huge positive thing. know, like one thing that I've been involved in over the years, which I've really been thankful for has been the kind of the nomination or nomination board process for our youth who are applying for military service academies. And a lot of those academic pathways with the service academies are STEM based. So to be able to build that relationship with the local military installations and highlight those STEM pathways when kids are still in school, then they can maybe use some of those experiences to say, hey, maybe that's what I want to pursue in life. But they have to see it first. And Las Vegas is so much more than hospitality and gaming. Thank you. There's so much more to our community than that. So it's always a positive thing to ⁓ be able to highlight what's available here. I'm glad you brought it up because, obviously I'm a very big believer that as we expand our economics of just not the Vegas Valley, but in Nevada in general, financial services. I mean, I'm glad you, as you said, I'm tired of people saying, it's just tourism. every, this is a, this is a bipartisan, nonpartisan issue. We need to grow the economy in different places. And vets are well suited. mean, especially vets wanting to start businesses. It is well suited for them coming here. As you said, it's a great place to raise children. It's a great place to start a business. ⁓ you know, it's a very open, welcoming, nonjudgmental community. Come here and do your thing. You know, it is wonderful from that standpoint. And, and then, you know, I had to say too, I'm probably, I believe we're going to have a lot of veterans based businesses moving here from California. hopefully so. You know, I mean, there's a lot of. a lot of benefits, lot of advantages of, of developing business here in Nevada and starting a business here in Nevada. And, ⁓ and, and again, because the community is so receptive to veterans in general, then, then the support is going to, you know, it'll be there. So, ⁓ so, you know, efforts like, like ours with the VCFX, like you mentioned that the name change and a lot of other groups that we promote collaboration with, you know, like that, that can really help get the word around about. businesses that are available and you know ideas that could be turned into businesses and you know all those different things. Absolutely. Lester, we're almost out of time. So if people want to get a hold of you or find out more, especially vets out there who want to join our group, how should they get a hold of you? What's the best way? Yeah, so really I would say the best way is to come attend one of our events. You know, we have a pretty regular know, cycle of events that you're able to attend, you know, and you can get all of that information on our website, on our web calendar. That website address is going to be vcfx.org. ⁓ And you can also email me if you like. I'm happy to engage with any direct questions and provide more direct information at ⁓ my first initial L last name Lumbad at vcfx.vet. And again, happy to answer any questions there. And we're also open to anybody from law enforcement, public safety. We'd love to hear from them as well. Yeah. Yeah. We're kind of an all open group. There's, there's a ton of veterans that come from those, those sectors as it is. then again, you know, it's, it takes a whole community to support the veteran community. You can't just be, you know, our veterans and their family members that live here. Absolutely. And it's just a great group. It's a nonjudgmental. It's just, like I said, it's a lot of fun and we have fun and we do a lot of great things together. Lester, my friend, thank you for coming on Winning with Winans. It's been great having you and we'll have you back. Yeah, thanks having me. Yeah, it'll be a lot of fun to have some things. So listen, we're just about ready to wrap up. If by chance you missed any of this podcast, please go to winningwithwinans.com because like we said, it was an expanded podcast with more content. Listen, I just wrote a new Forbes article. Please go to Forbes.com. You read all about that. It does deal with things that were surrounding tax issues. Many of you, even though taxes are over, you're planning for next year. Hey, I just wrote some books like behind me here. If you'd like to get ahold of one of those copies, go to amazon.com. And I just want to thank our audience. Look, you have a lot of choices of who to listen to. Please email me on winningwithwindings.com. If you would like to be a guest or a sponsor, we'd love to hear from you. Anyway, we'll see you next week for another episode. And I won't be wearing my calvary hat next time, but only, but you know what, let's start when we're on Veterans Day. There you go. There, Veterans Day. Anyway, you all have a good week. We'll take care now. Boy, that time went fast. I hope you had as much fun as I did during this segment of Winning with Winans. Make sure and tune in next week for another round of guests and interesting topics. And if you missed this, make sure and check us out on Spotify, YouTube, or go to our website, winningwithwinans.com, where there's a lot more information for you to follow. So good luck this next week. Look forward to seeing you then. Take care.