Machine transcript of a phone recording of Spotify playback (the original audio files are no longer available). Lightly corrected; speaker labels and a few names are best-effort, and anything marked [unclear] or [unverified] needs a listen. Timestamps are from the start of the episode. In fast back-and-forth, short replies are sometimes folded into the other speaker's paragraph.
[0:00] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Welcome to Home with Alexis Michaud, interesting stories and conversations with the people that make up the fabric of our community. In every episode, we will give a shout out to a local business, provide some home tips, and have an interesting conversation with someone who makes our community a better place to call home. Today's local business shout out goes to Bongiovi Law Firm. Bongiovi Law Firm is a full service corporate or business law firm. As an attorney myself, I have hired Gina Bongiovi to work on some of my matters and I refer her with ease. If you have a small, medium, or even large size business, reach out to Bongiovi Law Firm today. You will not be disappointed. Gina Bongiovi is a local through and through. She's a well-known attorney, graduate of UNLV for her undergrad as well as law school. She serves on many boards and committees with the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce as well as UNLV. Her honesty and directness is a breath of fresh air. I've been lucky to call her a friend for years, and as an attorney, she's top notch. Today we have on the show Gina Bongiovi, a Las Vegas native, founder and managing partner of Bongiovi Law Firm, representing businesses from incorporation to sale. Gina, welcome to the show.
[1:24] GINA BONGIOVI: Thank you.
[1:25] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I am so excited to have you on the show. I think I feel like every episode I say full disclosure, but I have known you a long time. It's been well over 10 years, because I don't even know if I had any kids yet when I met you.
[1:38] GINA BONGIOVI: I think that's probably right, actually.
[1:40] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay. 10 years. And I know it goes fast. And I asked all my guests to fill out this pre-interview form and ask some, just a variety of questions. And I was laughing so hard when I read yours. And you had said, hey, I did this really, really fast. Where's the save feature? Which is great. We'll be upgrading that form.
[2:03] GINA BONGIOVI: Thank you.
[2:04] ALEXIS MICHAUD: And I thought, why aren't you a writer? I know you write as a lawyer. But anyway, so like I said to you when we sat down, there's so many things I want to talk to you about today. A lot of people in town know you. I almost want to say you're kind of a Vegas personality. You're very out in the community. Yeah, in a very positive way.
[2:21] GINA BONGIOVI: I guess I could have a good or positive way.
[2:24] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah, in a very positive way. You know, you're involved in UNLV, you're with the Chamber of Commerce, you have this law firm that you have built from day one out of law school. It's also interesting. Before we get there, I'd like to ask everybody, what did you want to be when you grew up?
[2:40] GINA BONGIOVI: Certainly not a lawyer.
[2:40] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah, who does, man?
[2:40] GINA BONGIOVI: I mean, it's really kind of, I know very few people who are lawyers who always wanted to be lawyers. Me too. Which is weird. Yes. Because it's a big, we won't go down that rabbit hole, but we both know it's a big lift. But, you know, I don't know that I ever had, this is what I want to be, I think I went through every little girl's, I want to be a ballerina, and then I want to be a veterinarian and then I want to be a marine biologist, which was very popular as teenagers. And then I was really kind of, you know, I changed my major two times in college.
[3:18] ALEXIS MICHAUD: What were they?
[3:18] GINA BONGIOVI: I started off as a finance major because I was really good in math and I thought finance was college math. And then I went into finance 301 and I was basically the one in the back of the room in the fetal position. Definitely. So And then I switched to real estate finance, which was even a worse version of finance than kind of wealth management, which is where most finance majors end up. And then I took a class from my introduction or my sort of core marketing class was taught by Myron Martin, who now runs the Smith Center. But at the time he was running the performing arts center at UNLV. And I just sort of the clouds opened and the angels sang and I was like, this is where I need to be.
[4:01] ALEXIS MICHAUD: In marketing?
[4:02] GINA BONGIOVI: So I ended up being in marketing. Started a marketing company, which is what led me to being a lawyer. So it's a very circuitous route.
[4:09] ALEXIS MICHAUD: It is. So let's talk about that for a second because I had no idea. In the over a decade that I've known you, we've talked about work, we talked about friends, we talked about family, talk about everything. I had no idea.
[4:19] GINA BONGIOVI: We do a lot of venting.
[4:20] ALEXIS MICHAUD: We do a lot of venting.
[4:21] GINA BONGIOVI: It's therapy.
[4:22] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes, it is.
[4:23] GINA BONGIOVI: It's like, yeah, we have this group that we meet with like once a quarter that you so kindly like rope us all together and it's awesome. From all over the city, we would not, we would not get together otherwise if it
[4:33] ALEXIS MICHAUD: So and you say you start a marketing company that evolves into a modeling agency and eventually sell it so what
[4:45] GINA BONGIOVI: What what yeah, so I Try to figure out how far back to go in the story. So I grew up here in Vegas. Like you said, yes I went to [Bishop] Gorman, huh? Which I always say apologetically because people, so I went to [Bishop] Gorman when it was not this outrageously fancy campus and It was just a Catholic school on Maryland Parkway, you know pretty yeah low-key And so I say that Only to give context for the fact that all of the attorneys I knew as parents of my friends. Yes either had their own practices Bob Massey [spelling unverified], may he rest in peace being one of them or they were named partners Yeah, and aside from having this You know double arms length distance between me and any other lawyer that kind of the skewed version I had of it So I was two years into so getting it I won't get into why I ended up in law school in the first place But once I was in law school one of the professor said here's what your life is gonna be like as a new lawyer I always thought I was going to go through law school and then I will be have a business owner have my own gig
[5:49] ALEXIS MICHAUD: That's all you saw.
[5:49] GINA BONGIOVI: That was all I saw. That was all my upbringing kind of directed me toward. And then halfway through the degree, here's what it's gonna be like.
[5:54] ALEXIS MICHAUD: What class was this?
[5:59] GINA BONGIOVI: I think it was contracts or common. I mean, I really blocked it out. Like really profound, like horrible day. It was profound. Like the, you know, Tucker, who was it Bugs Bunny? He used to say I took a wrong toin at Albuquerque. I very much took a wrong turn because I thought that I went to Career Services and at the time Career Services was no help. You can't hang a shingle right out of school. It's malpractice to do so. I went around and asked some people, but I didn't, I didn't ask the right people because I didn't know where to find them. And B, I just didn't have the cojones to ignore the naysayers.
[6:38] ALEXIS MICHAUD: What did he tell you? Was it he? That practicing law was going to be like in the beginning?
[6:44] GINA BONGIOVI: Kind of like suits, but not funny. Yeah. It was, you know, 17 or 18 hour days. Right. It was grinding it out, getting your hours cut by your senior partner, having a senior partner that actually doesn't know your name, doesn't really care about you. You're basically the fungible, one of the firms actually called their associates fungible billing units or something like that. And you have no client interaction, you know, just the kind of the grind which was not and you have absolutely no autonomy.
[7:15] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right. So that sounds pretty true. I would vouch for that because I did the thing that scared, you know, that you were like, I don't want to do this and I didn't know any better. And I went into a larger law firm for Nevada. That was my first job. Yeah. I'm still friends with all those people. But the lifestyle, I was like, this is dreadful.
[7:33] GINA BONGIOVI: Well, and it's, it kind of depends on what your drivers are. So when I talk to people who are, whether they're starting law firms or even considering going to law school or whether they're thinking about starting a business, what is your driver?
[7:44] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes.
[7:45] GINA BONGIOVI: Is money. You know, having your own firm is not necessarily the way to go. Having your own business is not the way to go. We talk about entrepreneurs being the only people who work, you know, we work 80 hours a week to avoid working 40.
[7:54] ALEXIS MICHAUD: That is so funny.
[7:54] GINA BONGIOVI: And it's true because we will hustle. It's so much. It's a, there's a different quality to the hustle when it's yours.
[8:04] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes, there is.
[8:04] GINA BONGIOVI: Than when it's somebody else's.
[8:09] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right.
[8:09] GINA BONGIOVI: You know, and you know that more than anybody.
[8:09] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Well, I've learned it now.
[8:09] GINA BONGIOVI: And learned it recently.
[8:13] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah, I learned it recently. It's definitely a learning curve.
[8:13] GINA BONGIOVI: But I, you know, again, I found myself in the back of the room in the fetal position going, I have committed two years of my life. And now, do I quit, you know, and have I have a law degree that I'm paying for that I never earned? Right. And thankfully, that was about the time UNLV started pairing a an MBA with a law degree, a dental degree and a hotel degree. And my undergraduate degree was in of marketing. So I ran back to Beam Hall on campus and basically grabbed Lisa, the registrar by the shoulders and I said, get me into this program. What do I need to do? I need to take another entrance exam. That's all I want to do. Right. Another entrance exam. So I did, I walked into the GMAT. I looked at the application. I said, I need to get a 550. Watch into the GMAT. The GMAT is about like the bar. You get the results right there. Okay. Submitted, submit came back 550. I was like, I'm not trying to break any records. I just want in. Totally.
[9:10] ALEXIS MICHAUD: That's so funny.
[9:10] GINA BONGIOVI: I'd been studying for like 72 hours. It was all analogies. It was awful and esoteric. And so got into the MBA program. And then I had an opportunity to start. Well, we did a marketing plan. We had the choice between one of two businesses for our kind of capstone marketing course. Yes. And one business just I think was doomed to failure because in the presentation their marketing person gave to the class. Here's our concept for this and here's how you help us market it. She changed the foundational fundamental concept of it was a skin care med spa. It was being started by a dermatologist that was leaving a big skin and cancer clinic here on what I gathered was bad terms between the lines. He was going to be offering plastic surgery procedures. Well, I happen to know. You can't offer plastic, you can't provide plastic surgery when you're a dermatologist. So I asked that question and then five minutes later she changed it to a fully, you know, male focused on, you know, services for men and then she focused it completely different. I go, she can't even focus enough for a 10 minute presentation. I'm not gonna spend a semester on this. What's option two?
[10:23] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right. Option two.
[10:26] GINA BONGIOVI: So it was Las Vegas monorail. And this was about 2005 when they were getting terrible press. Yeah. Trains were bursting into flames. Yep. Parts were falling on a Paradise Road. Yes. But I was working trade shows to help put myself through college. And they have a station in the parking lot. And they still had, in the days of COMDEX, if you remember COMDEX, people would.
[10:48] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah. Well, COMDEX was before CES, right?
[10:51] GINA BONGIOVI: There was COMDEX and kind of CES were two, and then COMDEX eventually got absorbed into CES.
[10:55] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I used to work COMDEX for a technology company when I was like 17, 18, 19.
[10:59] GINA BONGIOVI: Yes, because it was good money.
[11:01] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Great.
[11:02] GINA BONGIOVI: As a kid?
[11:03] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Totally.
[11:04] GINA BONGIOVI: Yeah, and it was fun.
[11:05] ALEXIS MICHAUD: And it was fun.
[11:06] GINA BONGIOVI: And you got to see all that cutting edge technology before anybody else got to see it.
[11:08] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes. Super exciting.
[11:10] GINA BONGIOVI: But I would walk out to my car and I'm looking at these businessmen and women and professionals, very intelligent people standing in a cab line for two and a half hours. There's a station in the parking lot.
[11:21] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right.
[11:22] GINA BONGIOVI: It's right there. So I built a marketing plan around raising awareness among convention attendees of the Monorail and executed that plan. Well, the Monorail executives came to the presentation. They offered me a job and I thought, aha, this is my opportunity to start my own thing. So I said, I'm gonna start my own company. I will be a vendor of yours.
[11:39] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Are you in school?
[11:39] GINA BONGIOVI: I'm still in school.
[11:39] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[11:39] GINA BONGIOVI: So I'm sorry, I did a JD MBA and I did it part-time. So at this point in time, I'm like three and a half years into a total five-year program.
[11:50] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Starting a business, and then you're also working like some other job to make money at the same time. So you're pretty busy.
[11:57] GINA BONGIOVI: Well busy. Okay. Okay. I'll just get you ready for the rest of your life.
[12:01] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right.
[12:05] GINA BONGIOVI: And then... Oh, so I started my own company and then I started getting all the companies that I had worked trade shows for. Said, ooh, we want you to book, you know, the talent for the booth or whatever. And I I had signed non-competes. So I asked an attorney who grew up here who had been practicing for 30 years, here's my situation, I need a referral to an attorney. He sent me to an attorney that was the equivalent of going to like a podiatrist with a toothache. The wrong attorney who was very much-
[12:39] ALEXIS MICHAUD: You knew that. Most people aren't gonna recognize that by the way.
[12:43] GINA BONGIOVI: Well, I didn't know it until later.
[12:45] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Oh, I said new business owners won't know it. Sophisticated people, they've been around. Okay, so you didn't know it till later. Okay.
[12:50] GINA BONGIOVI: Despite, you know, I was midway through or more than midway through a law degree.
[12:54] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[12:55] GINA BONGIOVI: But I went in and the thing that turned me off about that particular attorney whose name I will obviously not say, is that he said, well, if you want to get in trouble, go ahead and violate it. And I said, well, I know that, but I have all of these opportunities, how enforceable is this? This is really like a strategic breach of this. Yeah, give me facts. Give me facts. I can research this to death in my law library. How do judges take non-competes are kind of like iffy these days. And he just repeated himself, You want to go ahead and get in trouble, go ahead and violate it. I thought, you know, I knew that that's why I'm sitting here. And I looked around his office. He had like the Grecian formula and the hair and the fancy cufflinks and enough granite to cover probably the entire country of South America. And I was like, you know, so I walked out. I was angry.
[13:36] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah.
[13:37] GINA BONGIOVI: A little raging around. I walked out to my car and I started calling people I knew who had small businesses. And who did you have where to get your legal advice from?
[13:44] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes.
[13:45] GINA BONGIOVI: Oh, my cousin's a paralegal in Florida.
[13:46] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Oh, geez.
[13:47] GINA BONGIOVI: You know, attorney that handled my divorce. It didn't really seem to be anybody... It was like the go-to. Focusing. Yeah. And even the people who did have dedicated business lawyers on retainer, they were so expensive they would never call them. So they weren't getting the benefit of the advice anyway. Yeah. And I went, well, here's a niche. This is the mother of... Beat me over the head. Right. So I started the law firm in July of 08, which would have been about three years after the marketing company and
[14:16] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Serving small businesses, which in a way, like, were just collapsing upon themselves.
[14:16] GINA BONGIOVI: Well, a lot of people were starting businesses out of necessity because they were getting laid off positions. It was a weight. It was Vegas. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It was like very smart community heart, you know, serving a very depressed demographic. Yes. With my theory is nowhere to go from there, but up.
[14:38] ALEXIS MICHAUD: It's true. Way to be positive.
[14:38] GINA BONGIOVI: Try to be positive. And we We still do it today. We still focus. We don't dabble in anything else. We don't also do family law, also do personal injury. We just work with business owners. And some of our clients have grown from small mom and pop businesses to middle market.
[14:58] ALEXIS MICHAUD: That has to feel really good.
[15:00] GINA BONGIOVI: It's really cool.
[15:01] ALEXIS MICHAUD: To watch them.
[15:02] GINA BONGIOVI: Yeah.
[15:03] ALEXIS MICHAUD: So what's your favorite thing about representing these businesses?
[15:10] GINA BONGIOVI: They're all so inspired. Everybody has a passion for what they're doing. And And it can be something that is so obscure you wouldn't think anybody could really find passion in it.
[15:22] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes.
[15:23] GINA BONGIOVI: But they really do, you know, whether it's, you know, I don't know, refurbishing the interior of private aircraft or running a juice bar or there's passion and dedication that is just really it's really cool to be a part of it and to be a factor in helping them be successful.
[15:48] ALEXIS MICHAUD: What do you think the common thread is in the ones that are successful? However it's being defined.
[15:54] GINA BONGIOVI: I think the ones that are successful don't buy their own BS. Okay, they don't get caught up in their own, you know, marketing and things like that, but they really do in trust. And I'm not just saying this because I'm one of the advisors, but yeah, the people who know that they should be doing what they are, what they do best and delegate the rest. Don't do your own hair. Don't do your own, you know, bookkeeping. Don't do your own, don't wing your legal stuff. Don't you know, think you know what the insurance policy should say, like all of that kind of stuff.
[16:26] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes.
[16:27] GINA BONGIOVI: And it seems to be the people who call us after the fact when they've tried to go it alone.
[16:33] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah.
[16:34] GINA BONGIOVI: That because I mean, it doesn't take, I mean, you know, it doesn't take much to just completely torpedo a business with a lawsuit. And it doesn't take much to just do it right from the beginning.
[16:42] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Correct.
[16:43] GINA BONGIOVI: If you start off that way and are humble enough to go, I need somebody else's help and understand, I don't want to know how to do this. I want somebody else to know how to do it. But a lot of people don't do that. I call it the Wizard of Oz phenomenon.
[16:56] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[16:57] GINA BONGIOVI: So basically, you know, I'll run into people and I like to think that I have a more approachable and less threatening way to kind of conquer this. But basically the Wizard of Oz phenomenon is business owners who want you to believe that they're the great and powerful Oz This big hologram with all this smoke effects and then the little dog pulls the curtain back And there's this old man like furiously at the controls. Yes They don't want anybody to know that it's really just a person who's doing their best and looking like a duck on the water with the you know Right traveling as fast as possible because they they don't want to admit that they don't know
[17:34] ALEXIS MICHAUD: So silly. Like I'm not a dentist. I'm not a heart doctor. I'm not a brain surgeon I go to all these different people for my heart and brain are fine by the way But you know for things that I need and I'm grateful I call you I am a lawyer of 18 years tax corporate everything and now people ask me questions and I say I don't know I don't know anymore and I refer them to you. I have a small business. I'm starting to use a new friend of mine starting a technology I refer them to you and so like I am not in the game.
[18:03] GINA BONGIOVI: But there are a lot of people who are just so uncomfortable with admitting they're not the smartest person in the room. And I think maybe it might be we might have the benefit because I know through law school they would well you're the top 1% of all the smartest people in the room. They kept saying that over and over again. I was like please stop saying that because there are people who are taking it to heart who are A, numb nuts or B, just not good people. You know they were the ones that were stuffed into too many lockers as a kid and so they went into law school to try to exact revenge on their bullies. And for the rest of us, I'm like, I don't feel, you know, I got sworn in. I didn't feel any smarter the next day when I got sworn in. Suddenly I can practice law. Right. So I was very aware of and increasingly even with the more I learn and the more I practice, I am even more aware of all of the information that I will never understand.
[18:50] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Absolutely. The more experience you gain, The deeper you go, the broader you get. T skills is what we call them at IBM. The more you keep your mouth shut about anything else because you just don't know. There can be the one fact that you were so certain of something and then this fact is presented to you and you're like, whoa, that changes everything. So just go to the people that specialize, you know, not specialize in quotes, right? So what is the hardest thing you think the business owners face? These small business owners?
[19:27] GINA BONGIOVI: It's everything they don't know. Okay. I just had a meeting yesterday with the Las Vegas representative for the Nevada Employers Association. Okay. And HR, for example, is a nightmare. It is a constant moving target. It is so picky. And even the people who claim, like I have one client, I have one client and they've blown through 10 HR specialists, generalist, people who hold themselves out, have certifications, who are giving them terrible advice.
[19:56] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Like they bring them in?
[19:58] GINA BONGIOVI: They bring them in, hire them as employees, and they say, well, one of our employees wants to take FMLA for a stuffy nose. And our HR specialist, generalist, whatever says that it's okay. Like that's not a thing. Also you're not even subject to FMLA because you don't have enough employees. In the same geographic area and has this employee work the number of hours. I'm not even a labor and employment lawyer.
[20:20] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right, but there's some basics here.
[20:22] GINA BONGIOVI: But there are some basics here. But I really feel like it's what there is so much out there. There's so much that you can't predict.
[20:30] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yep.
[20:32] GINA BONGIOVI: Even what you can plan for. There's a whole universe of things that I think that's the hardest thing. The business owners face is just what they don't know. And you quite honestly don't have I mean as a business owner, you know, you don't have time to work to do everything. You want to do on the business and in the business, that whole tired cliché. I have so many things I want to do on the business. I need a good month of not actually having to work.
[20:54] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I know, which is not feasible.
[20:54] GINA BONGIOVI: I know.
[20:54] ALEXIS MICHAUD: And you had written, like, what your idea is. I actually don't want to talk about it because it's such a good idea. I've wanted you to do it for a long time. I think it's an enormous market that I like. I don't want it to go public. I just want you to figure out how to get it done because I think it It could be huge. I know it could be huge because people ask me about it. Something's very similar to what you're talking about. And so I'm like, you've built this credibility, that's based business, like, go do this, sister. And then you might have more time because you're gonna have more money.
[21:29] GINA BONGIOVI: Yeah, and then you have more clients and it's just this hamster wheel, so however.
[21:33] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Well, and that's true. And I do, you know, and it's the other thing. It was funny, so I went to yoga this morning and I cried in Savasana before. Okay! Very frequently. You know, it's just one of those things at the end of class of release or whatever, but I'm in boat pose, which is basically where you're sitting on like the bones of your high knee. Okay. And you have your knees vertical to the floor in the air. It's like an ab burnout. Yes! And the there she's playing Under Pressure by Queen. I love that song. Love that song. Yes! And the teacher is walking around and she's talking about how, how much pressure do you put yourself under? How many things do you do for other people? How many did so I have never cried in boat pose unless it's through pain. And so it's looking at you know, trying to figure out that balance and overextending. It's the same thing that your clients are facing.
[22:18] GINA BONGIOVI: Absolutely.
[22:18] ALEXIS MICHAUD: So I told, I get it. I get it. Right. Where you started the business in 2008. So you're 11 years into this. You went out, you hung a shingle. Nobody does that anymore.
[22:31] GINA BONGIOVI: I think people used to do that back in the day. Like my father-in-law's passed away. He was an attorney. He started practicing law in the 60s. I think during the Kennedy administration, he went to work for HUD in D.C. And then eventually, once he maxed out on the government pay scale, which was quick, then he hopped to the other side of that transaction. So from working for HUD to representing lenders and HUD secured financing. But when I became a lawyer and he was like, you should go out on your own. You should go out on your own. You're not going to want to be in a law firm like that's awful. I've never woken up to an alarm clock a day in my life like somebody else is going to own you and those weren't his words, but that's basically what he was saying. And then my husband's uncle is an attorney and he worked very briefly for someone else has an incredibly successful large like very well known law firm in San Jose. They were all just kind of laughing about like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And then at the end of every year, how much money did you bring in? How much many did you get paid?" and they would just laugh at me. Like, they own you. Oh, as far as what you build versus what you were actually paid for.
[23:35] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes, and in the beginning, let's get real. I'm not... Actually, my first year as an attorney, I think I brought in 60 or 70 thousand dollars, and this was a very long time ago. That's not bad. Because my... The partner I worked for, God bless him, he might have been a little challenging to work for, but he pushed me in all the right directions. He made me self-sufficient really quickly. So I guess... I guess my point is, you've got some cojones. Maybe you were scared in the beginning, but like, nobody would describe you as timid, shy, scared of anything.
[24:03] GINA BONGIOVI: Well, not now.
[24:03] ALEXIS MICHAUD: No.
[24:03] GINA BONGIOVI: I had some, so I didn't, so in, you know, in the interest of accuracy, I didn't actually end up hanging my shingle right out of school. Okay. That was my plan. Okay. And then I was going to Career Services, all these different people, hey, is there a way to do this? Don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. It's too risky. It's malpractice. It's blah, blah, blah. Go find a mentor. Go find somewhere that has a...
[24:25] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Is there a mentor shop, by the way?
[24:27] GINA BONGIOVI: No. No, not at all.
[24:29] ALEXIS MICHAUD: So ridiculous.
[24:30] GINA BONGIOVI: The only firms that I am aware of that have a formal mentorship program are the firms that you have to be on like law review and you have to be a straight A student and the whole thing. And I, I mean, it was the biggest blessing, but I went from being a straight A student from kindergarten through college to law school.
[24:48] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes.
[24:49] GINA BONGIOVI: Humbled my, but...
[24:51] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right?
[24:52] GINA BONGIOVI: Yeah. But it was a gift I would have made myself insane in trying to do all those things. And plus I was going part time at night. So we kind of were at a little bit of a disadvantage anyway.
[25:02] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right, right, right. The law school was humbling for me too. Yeah, I remember like the first assignment in the class or the second assignment and I got myself like a C minus and I was like flipping out and it was the opportunity to get in there and to like learn how to do this the right way. And I didn't go in thinking I knew how to do it, but I thought, I do have a brain. And I'm relatively intelligent, and I'm a really hard worker. I will learn this. And then... Check, check, check. They bring it, and I'm like, what the heck? And never mind. I'm paying for this. I'm already like 15 grand into a $30,000 year. So it was humbling. It turned around. But there is a distilling, refining process that you go through.
[25:49] GINA BONGIOVI: Well, and it's funny because I got, so I married my college sweetheart.
[25:56] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[25:57] GINA BONGIOVI: We bought a house. We went on our honeymoon and we started law school all within the span of one month. And the class that taught you how to study and how to take law school exams, which was, I think it was called CASE, Center for Academic Success and Excellence or something like that, was an elective.
[26:17] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Oh, dear.
[26:18] GINA BONGIOVI: So as a newlywed, he and I were in law school together.
[26:20] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah.
[26:21] GINA BONGIOVI: So as a newlywed, going to school at the same time, like driving together, or I'm coming from work or whatever, I'm like, are we staying for another hour and a half for a class that we don't actually technically need?
[26:30] ALEXIS MICHAUD: No way.
[26:31] GINA BONGIOVI: Heck no.
[26:32] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right.
[26:33] GINA BONGIOVI: So we never took that class, and we almost [unclear] law school as a result.
[26:37] ALEXIS MICHAUD: There was no class like that at my school that I'm aware of.
[26:39] GINA BONGIOVI: Yeah, it was definitely, there was a completely different way of doing, I took my contracts exam. So I'm a business, I was a business major.
[26:46] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right.
[26:47] GINA BONGIOVI: This thinker. Yes. No, I'm think like a lawyer. Right. Right. For better or worse. But I went into my contracts exam and I've always been a fast test taker. Okay. I go into contracts and I'm like in and out like a bank robbery. I'm like, yes, there was a duty. Yes, there was a breach. Here's this. Like there was a contract. There's meeting of the minds. Dun dun dun. Type type type. I'm also a fast typist. I was like, yeah, I get done with the exam. Everybody else is still furiously typing. And I was like, I wonder what everybody Let's just be I'm just you know doing my whole faster than normal things like close my computer or left
[27:19] ALEXIS MICHAUD: How'd that work out for you? Not well?
[27:21] GINA BONGIOVI: Yeah, right because you have to roll around on the facts like a pig and slop and if the you know, it's a bra that is in Retrograde and you know mercury is this and you know, it falls on a Wednesday you this is how the facts would turn out And if I was like this I already got time for that
[27:37] ALEXIS MICHAUD: But you would have to do what you have to do.
[27:40] GINA BONGIOVI: You absolutely do.
[27:42] Break: home tip (buying a new-build home)
[28:17] Back to the interview
[28:17] ALEXIS MICHAUD: It is. It's, um, oh my gosh. I, yes I remember I don't even know if this is relevant when I bring it up. She said type type type. Like computers were like bringing computers to class were new when I was in law school. I think I'm a teeny older than you. I graduated in 2002 from law school. I was well I would have graduated well no I should have graduated into in 2004. Okay I took a year off in between but um I remember the bar exam the the year I took the bar exam was the first year they allowed computers. So it was just whole like whoa how are we gonna do this and putting the software on your computer to make make sure everything else is frozen. Oh my gosh. I don't remember but I I practiced the entire all those like all the practice tests that you take and practice it on computer so I would outline for 45 minutes and then I went to fast type or two so then I would type for 15 right because like preparation preparation preparation and then go and then after the first section of that test I think it was like three or four hours. I really don't remember anymore and then you get lunch I'm totally blocked it out so I come back from lunch and You check your computer and check it out and they're like your computer crashed And we don't really know what to do with you and we don't even know if we can retrieve your information I already had a job I just started sweating and my eyes rolled up with tears
[29:47] GINA BONGIOVI: Oh my gosh, you did, you are totally like
[29:49] ALEXIS MICHAUD: And so I'm like, okay, right?
[29:52] GINA BONGIOVI: I would have just walked I would have gone out we took our bar exam at Texas Station I would have walked out of the ballroom and to the bar and said I want a job
[30:06] ALEXIS MICHAUD: So There was a net there was a kid there and I'm just blinking on his name I'll just tell you like I'll never forget his face and whenever I hear his name. I think he's a lobbyist now I'm always like nicest guy ever he wasn't it was like he had an extra computer And he said that's how absurd this whole profession makes you and insane is I'm gonna bring a backup computer Computer to this test he has a backup computer here You can use it and I'm like really and then like the proctors or whatever were like no She can't use your computer so I was like okay. I'll just go right there like you're gonna have to go to a different room And to get on in there so now you have to flip-flop it so now I have to go 15 minutes outlining 45 minutes writing And you know what? It all ended out great. I passed that test, but you like the process of it all and whenever I like see him when we were getting sworn in, his, I said to him like, I just have to thank you again for, you know, he's like, I'm so glad you're here. Like that you passed the test and you're getting sworn in. And his mom was like, are you the girl? And I'm like, yeah. And she's like, I told him, what were you thinking? I'm like, well, I think you raised a good boy man because he offered us over both here. So it's so don't worry about it. Anyways, um, yeah, I had a lot of fun. Yeah, I think the profession makes you, it can't make you crazy, but I, so this was interesting. I asked you, what would you, like, what advice would you give to somebody who wants to go to law school? And you, like, didn't hesitate. Don't do it. And, and the next sentence, remember what you wrote? I'd never heard it, and I loved it. It was about juice.
[31:37] GINA BONGIOVI: The juice is not worth the squeeze.
[31:39] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah.
[31:40] GINA BONGIOVI: Yeah. It's, I mean, not, I mean, please don't get me wrong. I absolutely love what I do. Like I said, we work with also because it's mine and I get to make it with it What I wanted to be so I get to work with the clients I want to work with if you're a jerk, I don't work with you, right? I have the autonomy to say that having said that The student loans are and I went to a but I'm gonna call it a bargain basement It was bargain basement and price only now were ranked went to UNLV because it was brand new when you went there I'm thinking new. Yeah, but now we've you know made all these strides my partner that I work with, he has like its physician level debt and his law school just lost their accreditation. So there's really no gauge as to quality but quality doesn't necessarily correlate to the price. That's true. And then you're laboring under the student loans. It's just not...
[32:29] ALEXIS MICHAUD: It's the same with a lot of professions, right?
[32:29] GINA BONGIOVI: It's true. My dad was a dentist. He wouldn't recommend anybody go to dental school unless it's paid for somehow. Yeah, and I reconnected recently with my best friend from, she was the first girl I met in kindergarten when we started here. And she and her,
[32:47] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Oh, you went to Day School the whole time and then Gorman?
[32:52] GINA BONGIOVI: Okay, I went to Day School briefly.
[32:52] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[32:52] GINA BONGIOVI: Yeah. And she and her husband are now both emergency medicine physicians and they're like, I mean they make a good living, but also their schedules are not their own. Yeah. They They have tremendous student loan debt. They also make a decent salary, but what they see every day...
[33:10] ALEXIS MICHAUD: It's not what they probably thought. And then you get on this train. You can't get off. You are so busy. You're so tired. You worked so hard. You're very invested. I think you're emotionally rotten. You're just fried. And you're like, if I don't just put 100% of my energy into my clients, that's not going to go well. So that's where your energy goes. You get really...
[33:34] GINA BONGIOVI: I see it all the time. Lawyers, the doctors, certain executives. I mean, it's just not, you know, they, they apply you with these sort of glossy brochures and you have this guarantee of this hundred thousand dollar salary or now it's, you know, adjusted for inflation, hundred fifty two hundred thousand dollar salary when you get out. Right. So I made, so when I got out of, so I had a couple of jobs before I actually hung out my shingle, which was kind of funny, but I think I, my starting salary was sixty five thousand. So I was talking with somebody, that was twelve years ago.
[34:02] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes. That's the starting salary today. And I'm thinking of the amount of debt. Like $65,000 and no debt, you can actually probably have a very fine life.
[34:09] GINA BONGIOVI: It's the debt.
[34:14] ALEXIS MICHAUD: It's the debt. I know. I know it.
[34:14] GINA BONGIOVI: And you don't get any love for it because I think historically, if you looked at somebody who had a high debt to income ratio, but they were a physician, you're like, oh, it's probably a student loan debt. They don't have, yes, you know, toys and boats and things like that. They might, but they also have the earning power to be able to, you know, service whatever debt it is. That's not so anymore. And I was seeing, especially when I first started, I was seeing a lot of attorneys, it was all hitting the press where they were suing their law schools for false advertising. They got out, they couldn't find jobs, they, Career Services was not there, and they were, somebody tried to sell their Harvard law degree on Craigslist.
[34:54] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Oh, geez.
[34:55] GINA BONGIOVI: Oh, geez. Which was, you know, obviously just a...
[34:59] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right.
[35:00] GINA BONGIOVI: Statement, right? Make your own statement more than anything. But it's really, yeah, it's really not what it's cracked up to be unless you do it on your own. And I don't just don't think a lot of people want to. And that's fine because there are people who like, I remember when I first started my practice and I was married and he was with the police department and he, so I'd sit there sort of at the end of the day and he'd come home from work and he'd be like, why are you so stressed out? I'm like, I don't know how going to make this work and I don't know where we're going to get clients and how we're going to make money and how we're going to do all these kinds of things. And he's like, why don't you just go work for somebody? And I looked at him as if he had told me, you know, something completely outrageous. Yeah. And I was like, that sounds awful. And then I realized that was the moment and the first moment, which is really tragic that it was, it took me until I was like, whatever, to 28 to figure this out, that some people are to prefer the security of like I go in, I punch a clock, I come home, I leave work at work. And there's definitely a benefit to that because I really, I mentioned the bartender thing because I have a friend who's a bartender and I'm like, I just look at her with such envy because she like works out all the time. She's my age, she's in amazing shape. But she's not stressing out about the gin and tonic she made six weeks ago. Yeah, she's not losing sleep over that stuff. She doesn't bring work home. She doesn't, it doesn't crawl into her brain and keep her up at night.
[36:21] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right. But every business owner, regardless of being a lawyer or not, if you own your own business, then that's what you're describing. But like you said, happy to work the 80 hours to not have to work the 40.
[36:33] GINA BONGIOVI: Now, by the way, there's no lawyer that I know that works 40 hours, not even close. They're working, I don't know, at least 60, 70, 80 for somebody else. But this is the thing with all of that said, I wouldn't trade that education for anything.
[36:53] ALEXIS MICHAUD: That's true.
[36:54] GINA BONGIOVI: So that was the second part of my answer to that question.
[36:57] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[36:58] GINA BONGIOVI: Was that if you want it, if you're going to law school because you're trying to recreate, depending on your age era, Matlock, yes, Ally McBeal, right, or suits, you know, it is not, it's not that. Right. Very few people get to do that. And even the people who do get to do that don't get to do it on a regular basis.
[37:15] ALEXIS MICHAUD: That's right. You're not Harvey whatever that Daily handsome gentleman from suits was I never watched with a name like Harvey. Okay anyway
[37:24] GINA BONGIOVI: So he's like he wakes up in the morning He drives his you know, Aston Martin to work in this giant building and then he goes to court and he's like perfectly tailored suits like that's not reality but Having said that a law degree is probably the most versatile degree you can get for sure and it does teach you It's a little like basic training because it breaks down your brain.
[37:49] ALEXIS MICHAUD: It does.
[37:50] GINA BONGIOVI: The way you used to think and it completely changes it.
[37:52] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes.
[37:53] GINA BONGIOVI: And the way I realized that most demonstratively was I would be sitting there. I'm like trying to decompress watching some TV. Every time a commercial came on, I would pause it and read the fine print at the bottom. I was obsessed with the fine print and the disclaimers on every commercial.
[38:11] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right?
[38:12] GINA BONGIOVI: I was like, what has happened to me?
[38:15] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Now has it leveled out a little bit this far into your career? You're not still doing that.
[38:19] GINA BONGIOVI: I think it's more out of habit. Well, now they started to pepper those fine prints. They've started to pepper jokes into the fine print. So it's now a little bit entertaining.
[38:28] ALEXIS MICHAUD: You're really reading that.
[38:29] GINA BONGIOVI: I'm like, just now if you take that, the side effect will be death.
[38:32] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I'm going to just sum up.
[38:34] GINA BONGIOVI: Right?
[38:35] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Just fast forward it.
[38:36] GINA BONGIOVI: Yeah. Just to sum up.
[38:38] ALEXIS MICHAUD: One of the questions I asked you was, what do you want to see more of in the world? And you said critical thinking. And I guess I'm so far away from law school, it's just the way that I think now, that when I recognize, especially when I had staff, and I would see someone and work with someone who could think critically, that's what brings tears to my eyes, is you are processing vast amounts of information quickly and distilling it down to what the true issues are even though there might be an outlier that could become very bad the Probability of that happening is low You would have to like keep your side eye on that one and then knowing where to go with the information and making like an objective opinion like I Don't mean to sound cold, but there is no heart in this This is just an analysis of facts in an objective way and then coming up with the plan of action and then Putting the steps together and getting it done and analyzing all the other issues that are coming at you at the same time I am not related to this and being able to prioritize what has to get done when. That is a really rare skill.
[39:44] GINA BONGIOVI: Well, I know it's even a more complex version of it than kind of what I was thinking of.
[39:51] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay.
[39:52] GINA BONGIOVI: Which is essentially, I mean, you look at social media. You look at, and I don't know if I'm going to polarize your audience, but I'll edit it out.
[40:02] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah.
[40:03] GINA BONGIOVI: I was having a conversation with a nurse who's a new client. She's starting a new business. Got a really great idea. I'm really excited for her. Interestingly, her husband's an attorney, but he's not a business attorney. So he knows, don't talk to me, talk to a business attorney. Yeah. But she is creating educational materials around vaccinations. And if we trace that back to its genesis, right? It was essentially a porn star that announced that her child developed autism as a result of vaccinations. Fast forward, I don't even know how many years and we have a measles outbreak in Clark County. Right. And I asked my physician friends, I'm like, is this really a thing? Is this really a thing? What is it? It's absolutely a thing. It's incredibly dangerous. We have people have worked the greatest minds of our time and before our time have worked to eradicate these diseases that devastate populations. Populations.
[41:03] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah, but it's that, where you look at something that somebody posts on social media. That's I made a sarcastic comment on Facebook. I said, well, you know, you pay less in taxes if you've ridden a horse and I right exactly. But I'm like, but I've you could put that out there and it will go viral and then everybody will be like, well, I have to go ride a horse, which is a funny weird example. But it's just like one thing doesn't have anything to do with another. And for the person that said that about vaccinations, they have every right to speak your mind. Please do. But then when it comes to your own children and your family, like really start to think through and talk to experts and then ask them why people are pushing back against vaccinations and where do they think and just get more information.
[41:51] GINA BONGIOVI: And look at the motivations of the people who are disseminating the information. So by way of example, I have one friend who is so far left that the middle is in the you can't see it anymore. You can't even see it. I have another friend that's so far right. Yeah, I cannot have these two friends in the same room. I look at they are getting their information from the sources that spin the way. Yeah, they want to hear it. Yes. And So when I'm talking to my friend who has Fox News on, right around the clock, right? Have you ever turned on CNN? Oh, no, well, they would never and the person could see oh god, I would never right and so there's no there's a and especially bias. There's a bias. Yeah, there's not a there doesn't seem to be an effort whether it's somebody who's taking a political stance or somebody who's taking really any stance to look from the speaker's point of view, right? To really measure your words and be careful with what you're saying, especially with the reach that we have these days with social media, which we didn't have before. I mean, you could send a letter that it gets to two or three people, right? And then particularly as the listener, there doesn't seem to be any sort of pause to understand first of all, and where I always go to and I don't know if I'm just skeptical. If I always skeptical if it's like hereditary or whatever, but what is the agenda? Yeah. Of the person who's speaking. Right. What are they trying to accomplish? Right. I
[43:29] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Think that's just con... I always look for context. Where are you coming from? What... Like what... Where... How are you educated? What's your background? What do you like want to accomplish? And I don't mean this mean, because it helps me understand what it is you're saying, because we don't always speak the same vernacular. In fact, most people don't.
[43:47] GINA BONGIOVI: Right. That's a whole other podcast.
[43:47] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Whole other podcast. And I love like, you know, I'm touching my phone right now. The bias that comes through when I Google something, it's just reinforcing the things that I've googled before and it's just constantly. I love having friends with drastically different opinions. The ones that don't take anything personally and I don't spar with them. I want to know why do you have that opinion? What are you Where are you coming from? Because it just...
[44:17] GINA BONGIOVI: And what information are you basing that...
[44:18] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yes! And they're all intelligent.
[44:20] GINA BONGIOVI: Particularly if it's an intractable position. Because you have these things that come out and they just completely flip everything on its head. And then you have people that are just still so entrenched in their position that they won't acknowledge.
[44:33] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Everything is black and white. Black and white is a little hard for me. People that are really loud and have an opinion, but then they'll say, Alexis, why don't you agree with me? Well, this, this, this, this, but you have different facts, not as in like you hand pick your facts. And so I just, I don't know, I think it's, it is, it's an entirely different podcast, but...
[44:55] GINA BONGIOVI: Now, it's very destructive and the black and white in not only taking a position, it's also polarizing people. So it's not a, what you just said, where I have somebody who's, well, you think this way, and I think this way, or I may disagree with you for these different reasons. It's the, well, you're either with me or you're against me. It's very binary for that Where the world is going yes, you know your red or your blue or your donkey or your an elephant or your you know It's just it's very discouraging because there isn't room for Dialogue right which is how like societies move forward in
[45:36] ALEXIS MICHAUD: But I know I know I know it's okay. I always I just kind of also think my husband's a history teacher I I I listen to what he what he teaches and and there's always a pendulum. It's always swinging. So I'm much more an observer and with my mouth shot watching like we're swinging really far and then what's going to be the thing that causes it to swing back and we will and then there'll be decades of kind of headed towards the middle. We're going to swing the other way and don't get too upset about it. Like make the difference that you can make and keep on moving.
[46:08] GINA BONGIOVI: Yeah.
[46:09] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay, so Gina, as a native, you could have gone anywhere. You could have left, but you didn't. You chose to stay in Las Vegas. So tell us what you love about Las Vegas right now and what your hopes are for the city, say in the next five to 10 years.
[46:25] GINA BONGIOVI: Gosh, there's so much I love about Las Vegas, first of all, the people. And we get a bad reputation for being transient and things like that and people are distrustful. We're distrustful because of the people treated like a transient city. So there's a little bit of a wall and I was actually, we're expanding our practice to Reno. So I was speaking with somebody in Reno. As she said, my impression of Vegas is that people are kind of pretentious and standoffish and very aloof. And I don't necessarily see the pretension, although I can see if you're looking at like Reno downtown or Reno strip versus our strip. Right, right, right. But the people, the aloof or the the, um, inaccessibility that people present. I said, I think it's a, it's more of a defense mechanism because of the people who are just passing through trying to make a buck and things like that. But if you have one conversation with somebody, yeah, those walls come down. That's right. And so I'd say first, the people second, the location. I mean, it's hard to be, I didn't know it was like, I grew up here. I didn't know other grocery stores did not have slot machines? No. I did not know gas stations closed. I was driving home from California and went in Victorville and I'm like, so note that I'm driving home for Victorville. So I'm old enough to drive. Yeah. And I pulled into Victorville gas station at like nine o'clock at night and it was closed. And this was kind of before.
[47:46] ALEXIS MICHAUD: It's good for those people. They get to go home. They have work-life balance.
[47:52] GINA BONGIOVI: Yes. That elusive work-life balance. But we, you know, every entertainer comes through here eventually. Right? We have golf and shopping and food and nature and the ocean is four hours away and skiing is either 45 minutes away or two hours away depending on where you go. I mean, there is so much that the city has to offer and it's the, it's a little bit of that Wizard of Oz phenomenon too where it looks like because all of the pictures are the strip. But there's so much more. You know, my cousins who were in Michigan, I think they, up until maybe they started coming here themselves and maybe not even then, truly believe that I was a showgirl that lived in a hotel. Still, in the 80s, I kind of got it, but now I'm like, really?
[48:44] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I think, you know, if you come here and you're in that...
[48:47] GINA BONGIOVI: If that's your little world.
[48:49] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Las Vegas Boulevard.
[48:50] GINA BONGIOVI: Yeah. And you go from, you know, the airport to that and then back to the airport, it's really hard too. Conceive of there being churches and elementary schools and hospitals and people who don't ever go to Las Vegas Boulevard. Which I love. There's lots of fun stuff down there.
[49:05] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Okay, fascinating. So where do you want that, you know, you've been here your whole life. You're helping small businesses, which I love. The whole point of this podcast is people that make Las Vegas a better place to call home. You do that by just existing, but then you're helping all these businesses. That said, you're like a very integral part into where the city evolves. But what are your hopes and dreams for our city? Or even if you don't have the hopes and dreams about it, where do you see it going in five or ten years?
[49:31] GINA BONGIOVI: I think we have some really amazing leaders today that may not have, you know, that have evolved and kind of see the bigger picture of how we need to collaborate and how we need to rely on each other and not be islands, really in any way whether they're just in their own department or they're just in this thing. There's a lot of the downtown startup community and trying to pull together even the government agencies which pulling together any sort of government anything is very difficult. A great example is the Regional Transportation Commission. So Tina Quigley is one of the most amazing human beings ever.
[50:16] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I've been hearing that.
[50:18] GINA BONGIOVI: Phenomenal. But we have so if anybody wonders why Audi is testing their technology that talks with the traffic signals that like lives in their dashboard and why we have autonomous vehicles downtown and why all these things happen it's because we have a regional transportation commission we have one office that regulates all of these things they can coordinate it all. If you were gonna try to do that in LA you go three blocks you're in a different jurisdiction. Right. There would be no way to effectively coordinate all that. Yeah. And if you talk to Tina, she's trying to work with these other different agencies just to make this a better, like this is a really cool place and it has come so far in not that long, not that long. I really focus on that. You go back East and you look at those cities, you go abroad and you look at those cities and then you come home and we are new with fairing out and we have just, we can do so much and we've done so much. Yeah. We just need to, I feel like we need to clear out the cobwebs. We We need to clear out the bureaucracy. We need to clear out this whole, I'm gonna do everything on my own and I'm gonna be an isolationist and I'm gonna take my toys and leave kind of mentality. And everybody come together. There's lots of ways to collaborate. There's lots of what really kind of opened my eyes to all of that. I always obviously had a deep love in my heart for this city, which is why I never left to go to school or never left to move anywhere. But it was the leadership Las Vegas program with the chamber. So because I thought I knew like I was gonna walk in there I was like, I know all this stuff. This is just a box I'm going to check. And then you just, it's a deep dive into all of these different aspects of the city that you, and you're talking to the movers and the shakers. And you hear from, you know, the horse's mouth. Here are challenges. Here's what we're going to do. Here's where we want to go. And here's how you can help. Which is really like the crux of all of that. And then they kind of deploy all these people who into the community who are kind of like minded. And so I think momentum is becoming more of a juggernaut than it ever has been. Mm-hmm. And it's really exciting to see, especially being part of that and having relationships with people who are in, you know, leadership roles who are really trying to do cool things and reaching out to the community to involve other people.
[52:24] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Right. You've been talking about Leadership Las Vegas for quite a while.
[52:24] GINA BONGIOVI: I know. I love it. I love it.
[52:24] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I don't think there's anybody I know that hasn't really enjoyed that program. If they do it, they enjoy it. Yeah. It becomes a part of them.
[52:36] GINA BONGIOVI: It really is. I mean, it's yeah, I was just thinking I have dinner with three or four people tonight. We're going to the festival on Saturday with a whole different group of people. I mean, it's just, and they're good people, you know?
[52:51] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yep. The city is full of them.
[52:53] GINA BONGIOVI: It is full of them. And it's just a matter of, you know, going through life, having some integrity and you meet, you know, you just attract those kind of people.
[53:03] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Yeah. And you also see what you're looking for.
[53:05] GINA BONGIOVI: To sum up, don't be a jerk.
[53:05] ALEXIS MICHAUD: To sum up. In conclusion. Gina, this city is so lucky to have you. And I really mean that. And so, and for anybody that is starting a business in the middle of a business, wants out of their business, they should reach out to you. So it's easy to spell. But how do they find you?
[53:22] GINA BONGIOVI: Bongiovi Law Firm. It's not easy. Change my name to Smith or something. So it's BongioviLaw.com, which is B-O-N-G-I-O-V, like Victor I, L-A-W.com. We used to show up on the first page of Google if you Google small business attorney. I'm LawyerGina on Twitter [handle unverified]. I think there's...
[53:47] ALEXIS MICHAUD: You're very easy to find. You're out there for sure.
[53:51] GINA BONGIOVI: Which is funny you say that. So I met this very handsome gentleman and he... I didn't given my number or anything we weren't really, it wasn't really that thing. And he found me on Facebook and he sent me a direct message and he said, I'm not a stalker, but I'm like, you know how you, signal your stalkers, you start off with a message. And I'm like, oh my stalker, but. And he said, he googled Gina, lawyer, Las Vegas, and I showed up, which is how he found me.
[54:16] ALEXIS MICHAUD: I think that's impressive.
[54:18] GINA BONGIOVI: That's impressive.
[54:19] ALEXIS MICHAUD: Gina, thank you for taking the time.
[54:20] GINA BONGIOVI: Thank you so much. This is fun.
[54:22] ALEXIS MICHAUD: That's fun. What I love about Gina is how honest direct she is. She's a skillful attorney with a lot of experience. She gets right to the point and always has your best interests in mind and at heart. She is absolutely another amazing individual who makes Las Vegas a wonderful place to call home.
