Rita On The Road

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Transcription of interview with Rita Pardue on November 6, 2011. and host of Retirement and Income Radio and owner-CEO of Retirement Solutions. He'll offer tips for successful retirement. Part 2, we'll hear from Monique Scott, KUNV membership manager, as she explains the business model of public radio and how KUNV and public radio are important. And Part 3, we'll speak to Austrian-born Karl Bowman, who has a new book out entitled Digging Deep Into Auspicious Coincidences. And now, Part 1. 91.5 Jazz and More, this is Rita On The Road. We're in the studio with our special guest, John Stevenson. Welcome, John.

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Thanks, Rita.

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I met John a while back and attended one of his workshops, Tips for Successful Retirement. So John, let's start off and give a website because I know people are going to want to get in touch with you because being able to provide for your family, yourself into retirement, it may not be top of mind for some, but it's gonna hit you someday. You know, that's right.

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And a lot of us don't think about it until we're older, but I work with retirees all over town. I would say official titles, well, I'm the owner CEO of Stevenson Retirement Solutions, but I am the host of Retirement and Income Radio here in town. We air every Sunday. If you want to get in touch with me, feel free to go to my website. It's johnstevenson.com and that's a John with an H and then a Stevenson with a V and an SON. So happy to help and answer questions because people do call me on a regular basis because you're right a lot of

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people don't think about retirement until later and when you're younger you never think you're going to retire. Right, so when do you start planning? The best answer is as early as possible. Exactly, that's what I felt as well. My My first career was as a touring musician. I didn't think about taxes and retirement. I was too busy perfecting my music and writing and touring. And then, boom, it hit me, probably in my 30s. So in my family, when my sons were late teens, early 20s, I encouraged them to open up Roth IRA to get started on it. And it was like one of those roll the eyeballs, oh mom. But now that they're in mid 30s and one has a wife and daughter and a new little one on the way, I'm thanked. He's very grateful for your advice. Exactly that they started this. John, how should people approach planning for their retirement?

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So, perfect world and you know everyone's different.

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We all come from different backgrounds. You know, maybe you might have been taught money principles growing up, maybe not. You know, a lot of us were not taught that, especially in high school. You're taught to get an education. You're taught to earn money, but we're not necessarily taught how to invest it, how to save it.

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Exactly, and I'm actually, this is an aside, sidebar, I was in junior achievement when I was in high school and actually I do some volunteer work for them and I love how they break it down so simply, you earn money, you can spend some money, you can save some money and donate some money. Those are the four main things and that's what we teach to small children in elementary school. So folks, we're breaking it down for you no matter what stage of your life and career where you are now. John has valuable information and I'm going to give out this website again because I know folks are going to want to connect with you. JohnStevenson.com and his company is Stevenson Retirement Solutions. It brings me to the next point, John, that I can relate to this personally. Oops, I didn't see that coming. What do you do if you didn't have a plan? And that hit me in my 40s. I want to leave our listeners with feeling hopeful because that happens in life. You know, whether it's death of a spouse or a business failing or whatever it is, life happens. So how do we recover from that, John, to get back up on our feet?

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You know, when you're in your 40s or even 50s, I've helped people in their 60s that didn't have anything. And it's pretty common. More often than not, people just, they failed the plan and they, you know, for whatever reason, a lot of times we're paying for college, for our kids, maybe we had a financial setback, a divorce. I mean, divorce really sets people back. And really, as far as there's always a time and a place for everything, but if you've waited too long to invest, maybe you're 10 years away from retirement, or maybe you're sooner, it might mean obviously going back to work, maybe saving more, but usually when we get older, we get more street smart. We're able to, maybe we're better at money, we're better at businesses, maybe we want to start a new business. You know, Colonel Sanders didn't have anything. He went broke and became a millionaire, I believe in his 60s or 70s. Oh my goodness, I didn't realize. And so that's, there's always hope. Like I meet with clients all the time and they're in their 60s and 70s and they're like, I love my work. I love what I do. I don't have very much. All that you have at that point maybe is Social Security, maybe a small pension, but there are opportunities all over the place. We have people going right back into working or sometimes they'll go out of corporate America and maybe they'll purchase a business. A lot of times a business, if you purchase it and it's running itself, that can in and of itself be a retirement for you. Really at that point, you might not need very much. You could buy a million-dollar business that's generating $300,000 a year in income and you might only have to put $100,000 down. And so you do that, that'll generate enough for the interest payments and paying off that loan in 10 years on that business and still pay you a salary of $100,000.

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Oh, there you go. Well, you mentioned about Social Security, and that could be a program all unto itself. So I know we're not going to go into in-depth about it, but could you touch on that? Because I know there's a lot of concern. We took, everyone took big hits in the stock market and like I said at the beginning of this interview we're not getting doom and gloom, we are getting hope. So what can we say hopeful about Social Security?

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Are you saying like Social Security as a program itself, like will it be around?

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Well I can't predict it but you are the expert so what are your thoughts about it that you can express in a way that we're not going to have our listeners go, ah.

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You know, Social Security, you're right, it's a concern for a lot of people. And a lot of people call into my show and they're asking that very question, is will it be here? And of course my answer is, well, I don't know, but I know that the largest voting block is all of you, all of the baby boomers, they're the ones voting. And so do I see it going away? No, I see probably in the next few years, the government will probably come out with some type of bailout program. And of course, they change the algorithms all the time. I mean, they'll raise the full retirement age. They've done it a number of times. They can do it again. They raise taxes. And, you know, they have to do that because the working class, you know, that are retiring right now, they paid into this program for so long, they expect it to be there.

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Exactly. So that kind of ties in what we initially said, you know, have hope folks. You know, we, you know, the stock market fluctuates, you know, we don't bail on it. We, you know, I just tell my financial planner, let her roll, you know. And also I'm a woman of faith and I feel like I haven't come this far in my life and career that I will be abandoned. So I just I think my faith and my hope carries me on through. So once again, let's give out because I know you host workshops and private consultations and that sort of thing. So how can people get in touch with you, John? The easiest way is just go to my website, johnstevenson.com. Well, John, thank you so much. Anything else you'd like to add before our time escapes us? You know, as far as giving hope, there's always hope, especially when you feel like you're at the end of your rope and you feel like you've done everything you're supposed to do, maybe everything your financial planner has told you to do, and yet you're still not at a place where you need to be. There's always hope, there's always strategies that you can use to make a better retirement. And that's what I like to go over with people because a lot of strategies are out there

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that people just don't know about.

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Perfect, thank you, John Stevenson, and his website is johnstevenson.com.

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Thank you.

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Thanks, Rita.

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Part 2, we'll hear from Monique Scott, KUNV Membership Manager. 91.5 Jazz and More, this is Rita On The Road, and this is a very special segment because I have the opportunity right now to speak with one of my colleagues, Monique Scott, who is our KUNV membership manager. Welcome, Monique.

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Hey, Rita. Thank you for having me.

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Well, I thought it was important that you come on board and explain what the business model is of public radio. Because we're not like every other station that you might hear on the radio dial. We have a specific way that we run things here. I thought if you could kind of break it down for our listeners, what is membership radio all about?

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Well, first and foremost, Rita, it's listener-supported radio station. What that means is that we survive through the support, the financial support specifically of our listeners. And, you know, you don't find that on commercial radio stations, commercial radio stations depend on advertisers were on our station, you don't hear advertisers, you hear our supporters, even in the sense of businesses, the businesses donate to the station, and we say thank you with underwriting spots. And then twice a year, we have membership drives where our listeners will donate money in any amount from, you know, say $5 all the way up to $5,000 or more. So that's how our business model runs.

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Well, while you're mentioning that, I know you work so hard for those two times a year for a spring membership drive and a fall membership drive. But folks, you can do this anytime. anytime and we're going to share with you the website KUNV.org. I know that there's a page there that explains everything in more depth than what we're speaking about right now today, but you could do this anytime, right Monique?

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This is correct. As you mentioned, twice a year we do it big. When we're on air we we interrupt programming, we interrupt those songs that people love, and we're asking for people to support and we have a certain goal that we're trying to reach. But throughout the year, we also have sustaining members that donate, let's say, $10 a month. You know how you have a subscription to something, a podcast. Well, we have sustaining members that will donate a certain amount every month. We have some that'll do $10. We even have members that do

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$500 a month. And the cool thing about being a sustaining member, I think it would also be a cost savings, not only on your time because you don't have to keep thinking about it, you know, each year, it just automatically renews. And then that also would be a savings for the station not having to send out billing and that sort of thing. So something for our listeners to consider becoming sustaining members. Well, while we're on the topic, why should people support public radio, and specifically KUNV?

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Wow, specifically KUNV because we support the students here at UNLV and RETA. We support students that are in college throughout the state of Nevada. So you don't have to go to UNLV to come and be trained by our professionals in the areas of broadcasting and broadcast journalism.

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I didn't realize that. Well, you probably have heard my story, my personal testimony. 42 years ago, I found UNLV. I was a singer in one of the big production shows here on the Strip, and I came over to take just a couple of classes and lo and behold KUNV was here and it launched an entirely second career for me. So I am extremely fond of this radio station because if it hadn't been for the supportive professors and the people working here at the station I probably would have an entirely different life story I'd be sharing. So I love this station. Folks, let me give this website again, KUNV.org. Not only are you supporting the students and what their future might be, but if you're a big jazz lover, what a legacy you could leave for the music that you love and becoming a member. And gosh, I guess there's all different types of donations that people can make.

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Run them down.

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Tell us about them, Monique.

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So besides the monthly sustaining, you can donate a one-time gift, large or small. You can donate gifts of property.

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Oh, yeah, yeah.

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You can leave us in your estate. You can donate by way of your employer matching. So there's a lot of employers out there that will match your donation. So we have a page on our website that you can go to and find out if your employer actually matches. If you're a faculty here at UNLV, you can have it come directly out of your paycheck. That way you don't miss it at all.

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That is fantastic. Folks, there's so many ways that you can keep this radio station alive and well. KUNV.org. Monique, as our time is kind of getting away from us, is there anything else that you'd like to share? You know, that what makes this so

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special for you as well? Yeah, what also makes it special is the businesses, the community businesses that we're able to support. Many businesses could not afford to be advertised on commercial radio stations, but they can come here and we can get the word out for them about their businesses at a much more affordable rate.

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That's correct. So becoming a public radio supporter and through the underwriting process. Awesome. Well, I think you've kind of summarized in an easy way to remember what the business model is of public radio. Thank you so much. That was Monique Scott, our KUNV membership manager, and educating us about the business of public radio. Thank you.

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Thank you for having me, Rita.

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Part 3, this is a story about a man who never gave up. He was turned down time after time pursuing his dance career and now a conversation with author, dancer, musician Carl Bauman from Austria. 91.5 Jazz and more, this is Rita on the Road in the studio with our special guest Carl Bauman. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Carl, not only is Carl an author, and you have such a colorful career, we're going to be speaking about your book called Digging Deep into Auspicious Coincidences. And I have to tell you, Carl, you hooked me in. Chapter one. I was on the edge of my seat. I could not put this book down. So before we get rolling, let's tell everyone, tell our listeners, how can they get a hold of a copy of your book?

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So it's actually quite easy to get if you go either on Amazon or Barnes and Nobles will have to print copy. Amazon, of course, has it in both. And then you have also Kobo and other sellers.

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We'll mention that again throughout the interview, but let's get rolling into this, because even the title, Digging Deep into Auspicious Coincidences, I feel, for my life, it has been a series of coincidences. So you're first. Share your coincidence that got you rolling, thinking about this and your life journey.

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Well, it really, I just want to explain the word auspicious coincidence versus a coincidence because the life, there's certain coincidences, they are so life-changing and bring us to a new path that is absolutely, it seems like it's predestined in a way. If you listen to it, it actually happens and you go there. There was several steps besides starting out as an engineering school, then had a calling. I wanted to be on stage, but I was not sure which and how. And I thought, okay, I'll study music. So I became enrolled in a class of guitar studies in Austria and Salzburg. But during that time, I was studying musicology, and all of a sudden they had courses in reconstructing historical dances, and they also talk about the ballet and the history of dances. Like, that's really interesting. That's something I want to do. And so I started reconstructing those stances, eventually went taking my first dance classes, and I was like, I don't know, this is what I need to do. I had no choice in a way. I enrolled right away in a dance school, a three-year program. But then there was this really auspicious coincidence where I met, during the time I was already, I finished my dance education and I went to different places in Europe. I went to Belgium, to France, to Germany, auditioned in so many places and I was not accepted in any dance companies or any schools. I was too short or my legs, something wasn't right anyway. So I took this workshop with this American dancer. Her name was Jenny Coogan. She was a Juilliard alumni and we ended up doing a concert together and she said how about I write your recommendation for Julliard and it was like yeah interesting I don't know that school never heard of it in Europe but just let me try. Soon I got a letter from Julliard and they invited me to audition. There was you know coming from the small town in Salzburg and ended up at Julliard and it was accepted.

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And then more things kept unfolding and I am so excited to share with our listeners, you know, humble beginnings. But I'm going to share with everyone that Carl has actually been in five different Cirque du Soleil shows. You've done film. You actually are an educator in theater here in Las Vegas. I mean, it's just like everything just came together and blossomed into a wonderful dance career. And I also would like to share how you and I connected this past year. We both were cast in Hallmark Channel's Enchant Show and Carl was the lead elf, Eddie, and I was Mrs. Claus and we did the opener just about every night for the Enchant show. And I was so impressed with you, Carl, especially when I was doing the reading story time with the children and how you were able to just jump right in there and so playful and an acrobat, actually, you know, the way doing handstands and making the children laugh. You are amazing. Oh, let's give out once again, how people can get your book Digging Deep into Auspicious Coincidences.

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So you can find it on Amazon. And you can also find it on Barnes and Noble, also at Kobo, and many others that I but those are the most important one to look at Amazon and Barnes and Nobles.

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Well, I'm going to jump into the book, if I may, because as I was reading Chapter 1, you had me hooked in. I had no idea that you had been part of the stage crew for the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival and that was, oh my goodness, what happened that day on October 1st, the shooting from Mandalay Bay. How horrendous that experience must have been for you. Share with our listeners how that impacted your life.

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Well, I was one of the lucky ones there because it was backstage, working with a band and musician, just helping with loading in the gear at that point. And I just heard some shots and I saw fireworks and so on, like the usual story what people think and and then I thought there's a shooting going on back there and but this is and I don't know how to explain this but there was an inner voice telling me you have to leave and that was before before everything I mean we already heard the shots I just decided to

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leave in the you know go outside and well it saved your life it saved my life it saved your life and those that might have gone along seeing you moving in that direction, so it saved other lives. So what a memory to have to carry with you, but I'm glad that you're expressing yourself through writing to heal from that experience. And if I may, jumping on to chapter two, you talk about life as a spiritual journey. So I think there's probably a connection there with, I noticed there were some Buddhist references in your book. So explain to us how that ties in with these auspicious coincidences in your life and your study of Buddhism.

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Oh, you know, this is, it's an interesting story because I was brought up, you know, Lutheran. I got my undergrad in a Catholic school and then I got my grad in a Buddhist oriented school. So it has nuggets in every religion, in every direction. And I was doing my master's study in theater actually. I was attending to elderly and I worked with people with Parkinson's and mainly with dementia. And one of the people was one of the founders of the university with Parkinson's and anyway, they had sort of a blessing of the house. And that word auspicious coincidence came up and said, let's bless everybody with auspicious coincidence to have a beautiful, wonderful, healthy and happy life. Yes, I like that.

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I do too. As we were sharing and I am, I didn't know all of these aspects of you working with you in Enchant, but now reading your book, I feel my life too has been a series of if I hadn't been in the right place at the right time, I wouldn't even be here at KUNV. I was at KUNV 40 years ago. And because coming back because of the pandemic, here I am, I've come full circle. And that sort of seems like what your life has done as well. So like the first part of your book, part one, is reviewing how this all played out together but then I also want to touch on part two because you are an educator and in part two you're offering about dance and movement and that's what I guess you're doing as a teacher here in Clark County. That's wonderful.

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There's one aspect, one is the life story but there's the other aspect, what is my stage experience? Who are the people that inspired me, the people I worked with? So I talk about the different directors, like Franco Dragone, who passed last December, November, and one of the choreographers, I worked with Moses Pendleton, who was one of the founders of Pilobolus, and then later with Momix Dance Companies, I worked with him. And so all these people, they are just immensely inspiring to my career, but also in terms of teaching, because they're also great teachers. And so it's almost like I can take their inspiration and then teach what they taught me.

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Oh, beautiful. Well, we are talking to Carl Bowman, who has a book out called Digging Deep into Auspicious Coincidences. Carl, I just see we're going to have to have you back as a guest again to delve in deeper, but I thank you that especially part two, you're paying it forward to help other dancers and educators digging deep into auspicious coincidences. You can find it on Amazon, as well as Barnes and Noble locations. Carl, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you to our guests, John Stevenson, owner and CEO of Stevenson Retirement Solutions, Monique Scott, KUNV membership manager, and Carl Bowman, dancer, musician, and author of Digging Deep into Auspicious Coincidences. And thanks to Wes Knight, our studio engineer. If you missed any portion of this episode, you can listen to the archived audio at kunv.org on the podcast page. Information to become a KUNV member can be found on the website membership page. Thank you for listening to Rita on the Road. I'm Rita Pardue at 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More. I'm Rita Pardue at 91.5 KUNV Jazz and More.

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Transcribed with Cockatoo