Let’s say you have a business plan and you’re ready to make your cannabis business official. What are your next steps? How do you make it happen? Who do you talk to? Do you need to work with your local government?
In this episode, I’m interviewing Sarah Yoell, the manager of local government affairs for the Bay area for PG&E. Sarah shares her knowledge and advice on how to navigate the local government departments in order to start the paperwork for your cannabis business.
We chat about what the various departments do, but most importantly, Sarah shares how relationship-building with local government officials and their staff is vital to your business. While each city or county government can vary slightly, you’ll be able to use this advice and take actionable steps to get your business started.
Remember that you’re a constituent in your town and that means your voice and your vote matters, especially when it comes to your local government. Use it.
If you’re a DIY cannabis hustler who is just getting into the industry, make sure to subscribe to my podcast, High Class, where I help you move past the frustration, hurdles, and red tape of the cannabis industry.
In this episode, you’ll learn…
- [03:52] What constituents are (P.S. it’s you!) and the power they hold in local affairs
- [08:16] Sarah walks us through the process of fundraising for an elected official and how someone who may not have the resources can get their foot in the door
- [09:19] Sarah breaks down what the city manager/city administrator’s office does
- [16:34] Why you should check the city’s redevelopment plan to make sure it doesn’t conflict with your business plan
- [20:40] What you need to know about the business license and finance department
- [22:49] A quick rundown on the public safety department, and a story about how Sarah’s husband wrote Salwa’s safety plan
- [27:45] Sarah walks us through the higher ups of city government, like the mayor and the city council, and why you need to understand their positions
- [29:53] Sarah’s tips on how a small business going through the process can compete with larger competitors
If you’re new to the cannabis industry and want more insider, actionable tips on navigating local government, be sure to tune into this episode:
Links mentioned in this episode…
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About Sarah
Sarah Chavez-Yoell is the manager of local government affairs for the Bay area for PG&E. From an intern at Oakland City Hall to where she is now, Sarah has worked with developers, government officials, and private companies and has a wealth of experience on how to navigate your local government office in terms of legally starting and operating your business.
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Transcript for “How to Work with Your Local Government as a Cannabis Business Owner with Sarah Chavez-Yoell”
[00:00:37] Salwa Welcome to High Class. This podcast is for the DIY cannabis hustler who’s just getting into the industry and is trying to figure it all out. I’m your host, Salwa Ibrahim. Hi, and welcome to the High Class podcast.
[00:00:55] Salwa On today’s episode, I’m so excited to have a very long time friend of mine. Sarah, you’re on the show and Sarah and I have been friends for I don’t even want to age myself like between 15 and 18 years. It’s been a long time since Sarah and I have been working together, and she’s always held positions of leadership in every role that she’s taken on. She’s worked for developers, she’s worked for the city, she’s worked for PGD, and she has such a strong sense of government and the way government functions. And so in an effort to try to guide people into understanding how city government works and the importance of city government, I’m bringing Sarah on today to help us navigate the different departments, what they’re all about, why you need to know them and how they work. Welcome to the show, Sarah.
[00:01:53] Sarah Thanks for having me. I’m so excited to be here. It’s really great to see you.
[00:01:57] Salwa Yeah, I’m so excited to have you on. You’re like one of the top five people that I wanted to have on when I first launched. So, yeah, we did it, awesome. Do you want to give a little bit of a history about your background to the listeners?
[00:02:14] Sarah Yeah, so I actually started off, I always tell folks that I actually grew up in Oakland City Hall, so I started as an intern, like right out of high school with my mentor, literally the person who is the reason I am who I am today. Larry Reid, He was just elected to the city council and had come to my high school because there were some issues and I got to meet him through that. And then just he offered me an internship and I came to intern in his office and I never left. I just stayed there through like all of undergrad and half of grad school and just learned so much about how the city works. And then I had the opportunity to go into the private sector for a bit and learned a lot in the private sector, but was still really passionate about community. So then went into nonprofit, so left like a really decent private sector job with great benefits and great pay and actually didn’t get paid for a little while to take over a nonprofit that was floundering in East Oakland and was able to save that organization, learned a lot there, decided to go into consulting and lobbying after that and did that for a while, basically through the pandemic and then recently went back into the corporate world.
[00:03:28] Salwa Where are you now?
[00:03:30] Sarah I’m at PGD now, so I’m the manager of local government affairs for the Bay Area.
[00:03:35] Salwa Amazing. That’s my girl. All right. So take us back to those city hall days. Right when you were first starting out as an intern, what departments did you have to navigate and you had to become familiar with in your work?
[00:03:52] Sarah So I did a lot of constituent work for the council member. I was the only person in the office who spoke Spanish, and the folks know Oakland and East Oakland. It’s changed a lot and there’s a lot of Spanish speaking people.
[00:04:03] Salwa What does constituent mean?
[00:04:05] Sarah A constituent is a citizen. So you are a constituent in the area that you live, right? So any citizen who votes or works or has any business in any local jurisdiction like you are a constituent, you have power, you have the ability to call your local elected officials, to call the city, to ask for support. And a lot of people don’t do that. They don’t take advantage of that power that they have as a constituent in a local community. Constituents, people would call for support. A lot of times it was businesses or public safety issues. So you had to learn like who in the city to call. I always say that it’s not really the organization as much as it’s its people. So if you find the right person, then you can navigate through almost anything. In terms of business, I would say public works is really important. If you have an opportunity to go to local events and meet your local elected officials. So the city council members or county supervisors or the mayor go to those events and meet those people, build relationships, build relationships with their staff, their staffs are the gatekeepers, and they can help you navigate anything, right? So if you have a question and you don’t know, like, do I need to go to public works, Do I need to go to the special events director? Do I need to go to the police department? If you don’t know, call the staff person that you’ve built a relationship with and say, Hey, I have this question. I want to start a business. I’m looking at getting a permit. What issues are there? Can you help me? Who should I talk to?
[00:05:31] Salwa That’s amazing because it’s just like anything else. It’s all about sort of who you know, Right. So if you get a no, maybe you’re probably talking to the wrong person, right? So just kind of keep trying.
[00:05:45] Sarah Keep trying. Relationships are everything. I mean, especially in the work that I do. Right, Like. If you have the right relationship, The whole six degrees of separation thing is so true everywhere, I think, especially in business. So if you have the right relationship with the one person who happens to know, the person who has the answer to your question or who can like has a little bit of wiggle room or can nudge it in your direction. Don’t be shy to ask. Don’t be afraid to approach them and say, Hey, I have this idea. Like particularly if we’re talking about cannabis businesses, right in the beginning, folks were really afraid to engage and not understanding what was going on and everyone wanted to get in. So take advantage of that and just ask the question, don’t be afraid of no.
[00:06:34] Salwa Yeah, absolutely. And I think like what you were saying, too, and I’ve said this on the show before, is that showing up in person is like half the battle because it’s important for people to start associating your name with your face and your voice. And so when there’s times to take public comment, like get up, go to the line, even if you don’t have much to say, you could just be like, Hey, I’m sorry if I agree with this council member. Like, thank you so much for your leadership. Even stuff like that starts building a good reputation for yourself because ultimately your business partner is the city.
[00:07:11] Sarah Yeah, I mean, I would even take it a step further, right? I know people are afraid of public speaking, and if that’s not your thing, show up to the meeting early. Hang out in the hallway. Right. The term lobbying comes from folks hanging out in the lobby looking for either the chief of staff or the local, the local legislator or elected official and being like, hey, I’m so and so, you know, I mean, I’m your constituent and if you live in their area, make sure they know that you can vote for them, that you’re one of their voters and say, I just wanted to introduce myself and then next time find them again and then get to a point where you’re comfortable and you’re like, Hey, I’d love to schedule some time or I’d love to have coffee, I’d love to talk to you about this idea, or I’m looking at opening a business in your district. Economic development and businesses. Small businesses are the backbone of our society. Cannabis businesses. There’s a lot of small businesses, right? Like take ownership of what you bring to society. Like just say like, Hey, can I meet Can I meet with your staff person if they’re not available? This is how you’re going to build relationships and this is how you’re going to break through the bureaucracy of city government.
[00:08:14] Salwa I love that so much. Thank you. Walk me through sort of what it’s like to go through a fundraising process for an elected official and how somebody with who may not have resources can get in there and the benefit of that.
[00:08:29] Sarah Well, that’s a really good question. So folks think of fundraising and I think of getting in on elected officials. Don’t you get in early when they’re running for office? You don’t have to have a lot of money. Right? You can sign up to volunteer. You can give a lot of time. You can give like 50 bucks if that’s what you have. Right. And you can show up to an event and you can meet all the other people who are there. A lot of times staff comes from those elected officials campaigns. I would say that volunteering is so important. If you go out and spend a Saturday knocking on doors for someone who’s running for office, who ends up getting elected, like they’re going to remember that. And when they see you, you have that like you supported them before they were in office, right? Or you supported them when their seat was in jeopardy. So there’s lots of opportunities. I would say that you can do that. Don’t involve actually having to put money down.
[00:09:18] Salwa Beautiful. Okay. So let’s take it back to the different departments. So for me, when I first started my business, I think like the first department that I needed to be made aware of was the city administrator’s office. Can you kind of describe high level that office, that department, who it reports to and why it’s relevant?
[00:09:36] Sarah Yeah, So I would say city administrator and city manager’s office are interchangeable. So depending on the local jurisdiction that you like and the type of government they have, it’s either a city administrator or city manager. So sometimes that can confuse people. So no, it basically means the same thing. It’s that the chief executive for that local city and they cover different stuff in different areas, right? So I’ll use Oakland as an example. So in Oakland, the city administrator’s office has like those special events right under them. So cannabis permitting is under the city administrator’s office. In other cities or in the state, they may have a completely separate office run under a different department, but you still need to work with other departments, right? So you still have to work with permitting, you need to get permits. You have to work with outside agencies to get your business established, to get everything that you need there. The city administrator’s office is really important because they run everything. If you can find someone in the city administrator’s office and it doesn’t have to be the city administrator that you can build a relationship with, you can maneuver through anything in the city. Like I said earlier, they’re the chief executive for the city, so anything you need, they can help you maneuver it. And they actually run all of the departments you. So all of the department heads sit underneath their level of authority.
[00:10:58] Salwa Amazing. I did a solid. Okay, So that makes sense. Why? That was like the first department that I tried to make myself familiar with. Okay, so the next apartment that I would like to explore is, Well, you brought it up. Public works. What is public works and what do they do?
[00:11:13] Sarah Oh, public works does a lot in cities like Oakland. There’s some stuff that public works used to do that they don’t do anymore. So like Oakland in particular has like a Department of Transportation public works used to do that, which is deal with any public right away or streets or lighting. So if your business is going to affect traffic in any way or even while you’re under construction in Oakland in particular, you deal with the Department of Transportation and other cities, especially small ones, you would deal with public works, anything that’s going to affect anything in like city right away. If you have to dig when you’re creating a new facility, all that’s going to go through public works. Now, if you’re needing permits, if you’re planning your planning, the planning department. So those are two different departments, but they’re really important and you have to know both and what each one does. And also great to have relationships with the folks in there. I would say that planning might be a little bit more important in my opinion, because they’re holding onto your permits, right? You can work through stuff with public works, you can make adjustments. A lot of that stuff’s written down, so you know what to do. Planning and the permitting department. You can’t get started until you work through them first.
[00:12:31] Salwa That’s true. I’m just thinking of strategies for people when they’re applying for these business licenses and these are responding to the RFP is and just imagining like somebody who’s put in that work, meaning the people in the city administrator’s office being the people, public works and things like that. It’s amazing. Like, you know, you can always ask for a letter of recommendation. You can always ask for their sign off on your business or where your location is or things like that. Like they don’t necessarily have to endorse you, but they say like, Hey, you had this person checked in and we don’t see any issues. And just having that piece of paper or email or whatever that you could put into your application will definitely set you apart from the next person, especially if they’re from out of town.
[00:13:16] Sarah Yeah, being from in town is really important. Having those relationships, being able to get letters of support, city staff is really important, but also letters of support from the public, from your neighbors, Right? Like you can go through the process, right? Public Works is responsible for your planning and designing, construction and operating like how are they maintaining infrastructure. So making sure that your business isn’t going to have any negative effects on those important infrastructure components of the city or the county that you’re in. But you need support from everywhere. And so the elected officials we were talking about earlier, Right. Public perception is a lot. So if they have people calling them and saying like, oh, this business wants to come into our area, we think it’s going to be really great. I know that they’ve gone through the city process and they’ve gotten the right permits, but I hear there may still be some issues. As a neighbor, I want to say that I would love to have them in my community. So building relationships internal and building relationships external is really important because people are calling the city and they’re calling the local elected officials, whether bad or good, about stuff that’s going on in the community.
[00:14:24] Salwa Yeah, that’s key. Solid advice. Okay, so take us through planning and zoning. Like, what are they in charge of and why is it important?
[00:14:36] Sarah Well, you can’t do anything if you don’t have a plan and you don’t get your plan blessed by the city. So making sure that the building that you’re thinking of going in is actually zoned appropriately for the business type that you want. So sometimes there’s areas that are just residential, right? Sometimes there’s mixed use areas that can be some residential, some business, some industrial, but you don’t want to spend any money and go through process if you’re not zoned appropriately. So number one, make sure that the area that you want to go in is zoned for the business, that you want to have. Cities go through processes, and I mean, you’d have to know way in advance that you want a business where they rezone, right? So if there is an opportunity and there’s a rezoning public process, participate in that process. Another way to get exposure, another way to have some say and influence over what your community looks like in Oakland when cannabis was coming in a starting to be big. So what you probably remember, like when they did the Green Zones, right? And it was really important for folks to be involved in that conversation, people who actually knew what was needed. Right. And where things need to go. So just know first, don’t spend money. If you’re not the right zone and then just making sure that the plans, you know, that your plans are tight and intact so that they’re not bouncing back to you. Right.
[00:16:02] Salwa And this is when you say plan, this is like your construction plans.
[00:16:06] Sarah Your construction plan. Right. So like that, your windows are where they need to be, Right. That the floor plan is the way it needs to be, that your emergency exit routes are appropriate and meet the city standards. Different cities have different city standards. I just want to make sure that as you’re planning your building and your construction, that they’re in line with what’s required from the city and that they’re in compliance with what that area is actually zoned for.
[00:16:33] Salwa Beautiful. Okay. So at what point does the city’s redevelopment plan come into play? Right. Because it’s tricky when we’re doing all this stuff and we think there’s a green zone and we’re like, okay, this is my building. But if the city has another plan, for instance, I’m just making this up to like, put a railway through a certain area. It might mess up your business. Like, how does one go about checking with the overall city plan versus your business plan?
[00:17:02] Sarah So usually different areas like neighborhoods have names, right? So like downtown. So and then there’s usually like a downtown redevelopment plan that exists that you can look up and you can see like, do I fit with what they’re looking at doing downtown? Right? There’s like an uptown plan. So just make sure. I mean, this is why it’s important to go through the planning process, because they’ll also tell you in the planning process, like, hey, this isn’t going to mesh. It’s this we have like a redevelopment plan in this area. And we’re going to our plan is to eventually, like, tear this all down and make it all housing, right? You don’t want to have to go through that and you don’t want to risk also getting a business and putting all that money in it and then having the city later on tell you that they’re going to eminent domain you, which means they’re going to just take your property away because they can because it’s in the best interest of the city. I mean, the likelihood of that happening is minimum, but there’s always the possibility. Right. So just be educated, educate yourself, make sure that the folks that are helping you with your construction plans and your planning and building know what are the long term plans in that community? And those plans usually exist. And you can you can find them online, just Google whatever your neighborhood is. Right. And like redevelopment plan.
[00:18:20] Salwa Or to your earlier point, like start building that relationship, go pull a ticket, wait in line and try to speak with somebody.
[00:18:27] Sarah Yeah. Or watch the city council meetings. Right. I mean, I know that’s not the most fun thing to do, but all of that stuff is on those city council agendas. Even if you’re just reviewing the agendas or having someone review the agendas every so often so that you can catch things. Maybe if there are conversations about redevelopment plans in a certain area and it’s an area that you want to be in, like you might want to participate in those conversations. So know when the meeting is. All you have to do is do a quick search online and you can see all city council, county meetings, state meetings, all posted online. There’s a lot of rules around how far in advance they have to post them. Public has a right to participate, like take advantage of that.
[00:19:09] Salwa Totally. And it sounds like I mean, I think we’ve said this earlier, but I just to reiterate, this is a good step in the beginning, like don’t get too far in the RFP process or into your business plan and raising money if you don’t have your location sort of secured and blessed, whether it be formally or informally. So the last thing you want to do is tie up a piece of real estate, think you have a certain budget for it, start fundraising with that specific budget in mind, only to have that building disqualified. And now you have to move to either a more expensive building or needs of larger build out. And now you’re it’s all messed up. So definitely start with the planning department.
[00:19:56] Sarah Yeah. And I will say it can be frustrating because sometimes things move slowly and I’ve seen people do this where they’re like, Hey, I’m just going to go forward and start the work and it’ll be fine. And then it’s not fine and there’s lots of money lost because the city’s like, Nope, that’s not the way I want it. This floorplan is incorrect. Your emergency exits are incorrect or the fire department comes in and basically shuts you down because you decided to move forward with work because you don’t want to wait for the city. So I acknowledge sometimes it’s frustrating because things can go slowly, but in the long run it’s in your best interests to to work with the process. That being said, if the process doesn’t work, try to change the process, but don’t do stuff in advance that’s going to lose you money later on down the road.
[00:20:40] Salwa Okay. So next up, we have the business License and Finance Department. Can you give us a breakdown of that department?
[00:20:48] Sarah Every city county is different in terms of business licenses. What you pay, how often, what the requirements are as you’re deciding where you want to put your business. And cannabis is a highly regulated and highly taxed industry. Like, make sure you know what the local jurisdictions going to charge easy. Call the finance department, right? You can even go online and look at what the business tax rates are. But you cannot do business in a local jurisdiction legally without having a business license. And that will determine what you’re paying and what your profit is down the road. Right. Because if you go to a city that has a very high local business tax rate versus a city that that might have a lower tax rate that’s going to cut into your profits, you pay your taxes every year, right? I mean, there’s not a lot to the business, local business, tax and finance. It’s just one of those things that you have to do. But I think it’s really important to do your homework and look at compare that, like if you have the option to compare the local jurisdictions and see which one makes the most sense to go to.
[00:21:52] Salwa Yes. And so also another reason why sort of this department is important is because when you’re going through an RFP process, each section often gets broken apart and given to a specialist to review. So in this particular instance, if you have a pro forma, which you will likely need to submit a business plan and a pro forma, usually somebody in the finance department is reviewing it. So you’ve got like kind of a professional accountant looking at your pro forma. And so if you don’t take into account the proper tax structure, how often you’re paying it in your proposed pro forma, or if you are saying you’re going to be doing things in your business plan, but it’s not reflected in your financials, you’ll get dinged very quickly and lose points. So have a good sense of the finance department.
[00:22:44] Sarah Yeah, have a good finance person on your team so that stuff’s not being bounced back to you?
[00:22:49] Salwa Definitely. Public safety is the next department. Do you want to give a quick little rundown on the Public Safety department?
[00:22:56] Sarah So public safety, the police, police and fire really important. I mean, I feel like this part of your application when you’re responding to those are pieces so important. Fire is like a permitting thing, right? Part of your planning process, making sure that you’re in compliance, your exit routes, it’s safe for folks, your public safety plan, security guards, Right. Like how safe is your building? Is there good flow of traffic? You have to have a plan that’s written up and there’s folks who can do that or I think so as part of your packet, right. You have a safety plan that you offer to people. This part is really, really important. And if you can build relationships with someone and the police and fire and they can like give you some tips, right? They know like what’s allowed in their local jurisdiction. Again, relationships are important. Try to build those relationships so that you can find out beforehand before you’re investing what you need to do to make sure that your facility is in compliance with all the local rules.
[00:23:58] Salwa This is actually a great time for a little story. So when Sarah and I were working together, I was I was starting to explore the idea of like owning my own dispensary and all of the things. And I remember running into her, she’s like, Oh, how’s it going? I was like, Oh my gosh, it’s so much more difficult than I could ever imagine responding to this RFP. And this was a long time ago, and she was like, Oh, what were you stuck on? I was like, I’m stuck on the security aspect ever, like the public safety aspect. And she was like, Oh, well, my boyfriend can totally write that. Do you want to fill the listeners in on who your boyfriend at the time was?
[00:24:36] Sarah So yeah, so my boyfriend at the time now husband, name is Mike Yuill and he was a lieutenant at the Oakland Police were actually he had just retired, right? He was just retired, just retired from the Oakland Police Department. So had some free time on his hand and had been in law enforcement for over two decades.
[00:24:55] Salwa But was beautiful about it. Is that that particular time he was writing reports for OPD. So this was actually his line of work. So what better person to write my security plan than a recently retired lieutenant who was sort of doing work on the side for the department and was able to freelance for things like this? It was perfect, honestly. And then I used him for every application I did after that because there was nobody that was more qualified than him. But to Sarah’s earlier point about relationships and getting to know people and like using your network as much as you can, like something like that is important. So if you do meet somebody that’s in the fire department or the police department, you can ask them like, Hey, do you work with a consultant? Is there like a recently retired police chief or whatever, a lieutenant or somebody that like does this type of work and they’ll they’ll direct you because they’re friends, right? And like, they want to support each other.
[00:25:50] Sarah Yeah. And I would say that law enforcement worlds can be small. So like someone in the police department and someone on fire is 100% reviewing those applications. And they’re looking at the name of who wrote your security plan. Right. They’re checking to see if that person has legitimacy in their world and actually understands what needs to go into that plan to make sure that it is safe and there isn’t going to be risk to the public.
[00:26:19] Salwa Totally. And it’s interesting, too, because I think when you’re putting together the RFP, I don’t know if there’s necessarily I guess you can add it be like, oh, this was written by or consulted by, but an extra layer of of sort of bonus points, if you will, is having an independent letter from the person who wrote your plan saying like, Hey, I reviewed this and I agree with it and like it is stamped and approved by me and taking it even one step further, particularly when we’re talking about law enforcement and safety, because they have a lot of weight and a lot of say in who gets these licenses is if you have an advisory board seat, maybe ask somebody with a law enforcement background to sit on that board.
[00:27:05] Sarah Yeah, the public safety aspect with with the cannabis businesses is really large and I think they’re in community now and accepted as businesses more now. But particularly like when you were getting started, it was such a big deal. There were still concerns and community. And today, as we’re coming out of this pandemic, there’s there’s a lot of public safety issues. Right. And businesses, cannabis businesses are unfortunately being targeted, which makes it even more important that your safety plan is tight and that you’re implementing it per what you wrote down in your application, because it’s better for you and it’s better for your customers and the people in the neighborhoods that you’re in.
[00:27:45] Salwa Absolutely. Sarah, do you think you can walk us through like the higher ups of city government, like the mayor and the city council and how that works?
[00:27:54] Sarah Yeah, definitely. So depending on the city, so large cities always have mayor city council, smaller cities have like a mayor. That’s not really a mayor. They rotate through the council. Still important. It’s really important to have relationships or to be in communication with your local city council person because if you’re going to come into a community and they don’t know and the first time they hear about you is someone complaining, that’s not good for you. Right. So as we talked about earlier, showing up, if you can volunteer on their campaigns, a lot of them have community cleanups like show up, like be part of a community. Like if, you know, like I’m going to go into East Oakland, I’ve found a property I want to be in here. And you know that the local council member has like a community cleanup on Saturday, show up with a few of your friends. They vote on policy, right? So there’s policy already established around cannabis, but they still have say so if if they don’t want your business in their community, there is a way to stop that business from coming into their community. So they control the budget, the policy, the stuff that happens in the city, Right? So I would put the mayor and the council in those same aspects. So a place like Oakland and San Francisco where you have like a strong mayor, the mayor is in charge of the city manager and everyone under there, all the department heads again, build relationships. If you can’t build a relationship with the local elected official, find out whether chief of staff is right. Find out who they are. They have like a public safety director in their office, Find out who these people are, even their like, community person. I know what community events they’re doing and show up to those events. You have to have positive relationships with these folks, or at least not have negative ones. Make sure that people aren’t calling the council member and saying like, Oh, I know this business wants to come in and we absolutely don’t want it to come in. You don’t want that to happen.
[00:29:51] Salwa Yes. No, that’s that’s a no. No. You don’t want that. All right. Do you have any tips on individuals like small guys who are going through this process, who may have a lot of like sort of high level competitors, out-of-towners, well-funded big companies that they’re competing against? Like how can somebody who’s just a mom and pop shop, small business owner, compete against somebody like that?
[00:30:18] Sarah I feel like the theme of this has been relationships, right? Relationships matter. Show up. You have the upper hand, even though it may not seem like it because you’re from the community. And that matters. It matters to the council members. It matters to the mayor. It matters to your neighbors that you are from a community. You know what the community wants. So try to be active. I’ve seen people come in like not know anyone and then they like join the chamber and showed up to those events. Right. Or they join a nonprofit board of directors. You can do it and it doesn’t have to be boring you. Be something that you’re passionate about. There’s so many great organizations, nonprofits that are doing amazing work. Pick one that fits with your interests and then show up to their fundraiser, show up to their community clean up, show up to the food giveaway. Because I guarantee you, most of the time there’s going to be either a local elected official or someone associated with that local elected official there. And Salwa said this earlier, showing up is half the battle. And I am a product of that showing up is half the battle. I get a new job and show up in community. I’ve never worked in Contra Costa County, and I had to with my new job and I just started showing up to all the events. And then after a while, the local elected officials like, Hey Sarah, it’s so great to see you here, because I just kept coming and I made sure I’d go and say hello, like, Hi, I’m Sarah. This is what I do. Like, how can I help you? So don’t be shy to say hello. Although it may seem awkward in that moment and just show up.
[00:31:47] Salwa Awesome. Awesome. Awesome, Awesome. All right. Any other tips or tricks you want to leave our listeners with?
[00:31:53] Sarah If you can. If you have a team, try to make sure they’re from the community as well. Right. There’s nothing that gives you more legitimacy than actually hiring from the community. You know what you’re doing, right? Show up. Build those relationships. Just because someone has more money than you or they’re from out of town and they’re a big guy, they can’t take away from you that you are from community. You know what the community needs and you’ve done the work, do the homework, know, like work with all the departments. Go to planning first, make sure that you’re zoned appropriately. Build those relationships and don’t be afraid to show up and just say hello.
[00:32:33] Salwa Amazing. Thank you so much, Sarah, for joining us on this episode of High Class. Until next time, classmates keep on pursuing the high life. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the High Class podcast. If you want to support me on this journey, please like and subscribe. And if you have an extra minute, please leave a review. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Or you can connect with me on Instagram at highsalwa. And if you need additional resources, go to highsalwa.com. Peace.
